Olympus abdicating entry level ILS market?

Plasma isn't the best analogy... Tho I get what you're saying and I agree that they shouldn't ignore the low end wholesale, I think as long as there's older stuff like $350 GF6/E-PM2 on sale then they aren't really ignoring the low end... They just need to position those older bodies better and not try to rid themselves of them by all means possible.

The GM1 at $450-500 nicely rounds out Panasonic's lowest end lineup IMO, Olympus has a bigger hole but I think the GM line caught them but surprise and the price/size gap between their PENs was already getting blurred anyway. They'll figure it out tho... I doubt they're giving up on anything under $600, they just aren't reacting as fast as some would like.

Back to the plasma analogy tho, big plasmas were actually cheaper than comparable LCD HDTV (still are really, there's just a glut of mediocre LCD/LED displays at similar sizes that are now cheaper, good ones are still spendy)... Plasma had a perception problem more than anything, first it was all the image retention issues (rightfully so, manufacturers were slow to implement proper protection, it's a non issue today)...

Second to that initial issue was the fact that plasmas never looked as good on a store under harsh overly bright store lights, because they couldn't reach the peak brightness of most LCD (Samsung F8500 aside), they still looked better in most homes under more typical lighting tho. A whole lineup of Panasonic plasma TVs from two years ago, along with the recently discontinued Samsung F8500 line, are STILL better TVs than pretty much 99% of LCDs.

Perception, power usage along with the EU's taxation/restrictions, and 4K are what killed plasmas. There were never any small cheap plasmas because it wasn't physically feasible, same with a 4K plasma, so they sorta gave up on it... Still the superior display tech tho. The only thing that can truly match plasma's black levels and motion smoothness are OLED displays and LG's current OLED TVs are 3x the price (and smaller).

In a way your analogy actually fits, M4/3 has a big perception problem (along with lack of exposure, which is worse still)... But at least the EU isn't breathing down their neck and 4K is actually on M4/3's side, so it's not bound to join he extinct species list like plasma did anytime soon. I might be biased tho, bought one of Samsung's last plasmas this year and I own M4/3 gear.