I got alarmed by this news!!!

Check-out the news here:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=a1tNArNUlcUU

Market share of Olympus SLRs in Japan dropped by almost 50% from 4.8% in June to 2.8% in July... and look where Sony is... :-(
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http://chrisalcalamd.multiply.com

No need to worry, The final pics speaks imo..
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from darkness to HIS everlasting light...

No alarm necessary, IMO.

I read that also but was not alarmed. Actually, I expected that Sony would jump up quite a bit with the release of the "Alpha" and the typical Sony marketing.

Those numbers, as I recall, are 30 day numbers which, in the overall picture, have little real world relevance.
I always go back to the adage that, "Figures lie and liars figure."
Worry not, your camera is still able to make great images.
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Regards,
(afka Wile E. Coyote)
Bill
PSAA
Equipment in profile.
Eschew obfuscation.
The frumious Bandersnatch

It's really not the photographic ability that worries me, it's the thought that Oly might, in one way or another, gets into big financial losses that they miight decide to stop E-system prooduction, LOL! I know, I know, no need to worry, it not bound to happen. Cheers!
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http://chrisalcalamd.multiply.com

go "belly-up," which is doubtful, I'd like to think that the little company, Matsushita Electrical Corp., might continue the fourthirds tradition for the foreseeable future.

Either way, I'm very pleased with my "new" cameras, the 4 month old E-1 and the 6 month old E-300 combined with all of the other Olympus "stuff" I own.
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Regards,
(afka Wile E. Coyote)
Bill
PSAA
Equipment in profile.
Eschew obfuscation.
The frumious Bandersnatch

It's Market share by UNIT SALES by MONTH, not current market share!

Of course Olympus is dropping off because their models have been out for a while, and most who wanted one have already bought one.

To me I look at that and I see it's great that Olympus is still making sales. Sony is the new thing in the showroom and of course the Sony sheep are going after it (or at least pre-ordering it at the time the survey was done)...whether they will stick with Sony only time will tell (but if they are sheep they may stick with Sony no matter what).

Bill,

How much of Oly is controled or owned by Matsushita?

Would be interesting imfo!

have a great day

StanJR

Thanks for the economic analysis, I'm poor at it, math & economics are not my thing, LOL!
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http://chrisalcalamd.multiply.com

I forgot about Matsushita. Hurrah, 4/3's still alive!

Bill_Turner said:

go "belly-up," which is doubtful, I'd like to think that the little
company, Matsushita Electrical Corp., might continue the fourthirds
tradition for the foreseeable future.
Either way, I'm very pleased with my "new" cameras, the 4 month old
E-1 and the 6 month old E-300 combined with all of the other
Olympus "stuff" I own.
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Regards,
(afka Wile E. Coyote)
Bill

Click to expand...

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http://chrisalcalamd.multiply.com

The figures seem indicitive of new models just released. Pentax is way up due to the K100D. Sony's A100 is the new wiz bang perfect-on-paper camera, and is selling well because it's the new new thing. Of course Canon is going to be down in July, but I'm guessing they will be way up in September thanks to the 400xt. Same with Nikon and the D80. If Oly releasese in time for Christmas a E-500 and E-1 upgrade, I'm sure they will be doing just fine.

We knew that the Alpha was going to sell well, and that Canon and Nikon would have to release to keep an edge. Still, it's an interesting article, but no cause to jump off a bridge I'd say. I do want Oly to succeed, but I think they will do it slow and steady rather than taking Sony's strategy of storming the castle. It's more important to me that Oly captures the market that Canon and Nikon don't serve well.

Cheers, Seth

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What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?

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It does show the importance of new models. Oly should have updated the E1 internals and did an E1s or n or what ever a year ago. How hard to put an 8mb sensor up the memory and add a new graphic. For what they were giving the E1 away for it would have probably added margin as well as market share. Not to mention reduction of the million or so usless posts here over the last year. I didn't really need 8mb but I would have bought an E1n just because.
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Simchippy

simchippy said:

It does show the importance of new models. Oly should have updated
the E1 internals and did an E1s or n or what ever a year ago. How
hard to put an 8mb sensor up the memory and add a new graphic.

Click to expand...

(pre-Matsushita) They did have a new camera ready to manufacture, but the sensor quality wasn't want up to the E-pro standard, and they didn't want to put out a mediocre slightly updated E-1s like some other manufacturers did, they rather put out a high quality, pro camera, and that meant waiting until now when something worth doing was worth doing well.

simchippy said:

For what they were giving the E1 away for it would have probably
added margin as well as market share. Not to mention reduction of
the million or so usless posts here over the last year. I didn't
really need 8mb but I would have bought an E1n just because.

Click to expand...

Making a new model isn't just about putting in a higher-res CCD, you have to design and manufacture new chips to support that CCD, that will mean new circuit boards too, all of which means big bucks...the only thing you're saving money on would be the old case design; even a modified E-1s like this would have to be sold at a new model price due to the all the would required going into it.

well that means more cheap equiptment for us on ebay from those jumping ship

It doesn't surprise me that the companies with new cameras sold better. Sony had a bigger advantage than Pentax here because there weren't any Sony DSLRs in the pipeline to replace. Anyone who wanted to carry Sony DSLR had to order. Sony had to prime the pump. No other company including Canon had that advantage. It will be interesting to see how Sony does with reorders in a few months. Remember these are cameras sold to retailers. Not number sold to customers.
thanks
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barondla

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Sorry, but I believe long term, Sony will easily capture 8 to 10% maket share, which will easily put them above both Pentax & Oly. you're right, 21% is one time phenomena, but given their product position in the retail channel they can do 8%. Certainly stay ahead of Oly's pathetically low 4.8%.

1] As pointed out the figures are a sampling of major retailers sales of units on a monthly basis and not a true indication of market share...

2] Japan is a fickle consumer market and people here will buy "new" only because it is new - and Oly hasn't had anything new for a while... ( for other reasons as well - many people here buy new cars every 3 - 4 years and this is why there is a HUGE export market for used Japanese cars here for all over Asia including Aus. and Russia )...

Factoid... This is why Canon releases a new body every 3 - 6 months - always something NEW available...

3] The Sony was introduced at a time that NOTHING else ( Pana L1 doesn't count because it is not targeted at average consumers - just Leica-files ) was introduced and hence got a bit of an inflated market sales share - July is Summer Vacation time for most consumers - or leading up to it for others who combine "O'bon" holiday with it in early August - so typically it isn't a great time for consumer retail outlets...

4] Getting upset / worried / concerned about this report is like saying that "because I saw bad photos of a printed billboard on the side of a highway in Germany using the Sigma 30mm f1.4 lens it must be crappy and not worth purchasing" - ...

Perhaps they were just bad photos ????

Cheers...

If Sony is indeed storming the castle, they are doing it with coconuts and plastic swords.

Have you actually played with a new Sony Alpha? Considering all the plastic on plastic grinding and general feel of the thing, I can't imagine the failure rate will be exactly zero...
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Dana Curtis Kincaid
http://www.angrytoyrobot.blogspot.com

Olympus E500
Minolta Scan Dual IV film scanner
Contax G1
Contax G2
Contax 167MT
Sony V1
Fuji 2800z
Sony Video Cameras
Canon S9000
Epson 820

Apple PowerMac Dual 2GHz G5

Are you a shareholder?

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'There is no conversation more boring than the one where everybody agrees.'

That data covers two 2 months. It is a mere slice of time in the much greater scheme of things. These spikes correspond to releases of new products and you will see it in all product markets, eg, automoiles etc.

Also the data is for Japan only and is somewhat biased towards Japanese consumer habits. The article does not show previous months sales of Konica/Minolta cameras. I bet many were holding back purchases of KM products when SONY bought it. Now that they see a continuity of the KM product line there is renewed confidence in the system.

It would be intereting to see the data when Olympus launched the E-500. I bet there was a spike there for Olympus too. Pentax is doing well because their products are appropriately priced. It's a big jump in expenditure when one transitions from film SLR to DLSR. I'm willing to bet a good number of buyers of budget DSLRs just transitioned from film to digital for the first time. They never considered the digital P&S.