Olympus abdicating entry level ILS market?

007peter wrote:

markintosh13 wrote: Bull. Most entry level camera buyers buy cheap period. They don't buy lenses, they don't buy batteries, they don't buy flashes. They take a few photos, and don't understand why the results are terrible and put the camera on a shelf.

Mirrorless battery life sucks. They're not even remotely comaprable to 800+ of a dslr. When was the last time you bought a camera from a camera store or Best Buy without hearing the sell staff pushing your for accessory? Not everyone shop online ordering form B&H, particularly not the 1st time buyers. They walk into Best Buy or camera store, and they walk out with UV, 2nd battery, and that lame extended warranty.

just because staff is pushing accessories does not mean people buy it. And than most of the time it will not even be the original accessories from Olympus or Panasonic. I got a battery recommended from a third party. I did not buy it because I know I never take more than 250 photos per day.

Enthusiasts, who do buy lenses like PRO lenses, and flashes and accessories, on the other hand don't usually buy entry level cameras. And it's very tough to make a profit on a camera aimed at enthusiasts if you then price it at an entry level.

Yet, all "enthusists" were one time "entry-level-buyer" We all started somewhere, do we not?

1st time buyer do not fork out $1300 for an Olympus EM1. They started small with entry-level E-PM1, E-PM2, then build they way up to advance camera upgrade.

Or they started like me and many others with a small DSLR and switched later

M43 users base is small in North America. Without an Entry-Level-Buyers to grow the M43 market, we are only selling to the dwindling based of existing M43 users, ergo, a dying market. In business, you either GROW or you Died. I don't want M43 to become a dying MySpace. I want M43 to become as popular as Instagram. And the only way to do so, is to have an Entry-Level-M43 camera that Lower the Entry of Barrier to camera buyer. We can agree to disagree.

It is great you want m43 to flourish. But Instagram is a free service and not comparable to an expansive hobby like photography.

Panasonic didn't want to compete in the low-end HDTV using LCD. Instead, Panasonic concentrated on the increasing esoteric Plasma TV, siting its superior contrast, superior refresh rates, superior color as the justification for its higher cost.

While there are "enthusist" who are willing to pay the plasma premium, not many people do. The result is 10,000 layoff and complete shut down of Panasonic Plasma TV business by October 2013.

Going niche didn't pay off for Panasonic then, I doubt its going to payoff now.

Leica is going Niche in cameras, same goes for Ferrari in the car industry. M43 is applying a strategy like BMW or Audi: Affordable premium.