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O-oh: Samsung NX..end of the line..Sad news.

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jim stirling said:
OzRay said:
already with their mobile phone and tablet lines, which are far more important to them, so with no real skin in the camera game, letting the cameras go is probably an easy decision. There's no point in throwing good money after bad.
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As an Olympus fan and user you should be grateful that financial considerations did not come into Olympus thinking as their camera divison has lost a fortune in the last decade . Any normal business would have shut down the camera line years ago. :-)
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First off, the Japanese apparently have a very different ethos regarding their products, especially ones that have historical significance, so the camera division was always going to be relatively safe. A normal western business would have shut it down but, thankfully, Olympus isn't run with western values (or western lack of values).

Secondly, the Olympus camera division is still very important to the company, as it forms the basis of optical development that flows into other areas, and vice versa. And, as we have seen, it's flowed into numerous third party development, which is all good for the system and the division.

Thirdly, Olympus sales have improved significantly and the predicted doom and gloom hasn't quite eventuated. Based on western values, the camera division would either never have eventuated, or would have died very early on with 4/3, given that it wasn't a roaring success story.

Samsung had none of that.
 
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jim stirling said:
OzRay said:
already with their mobile phone and tablet lines, which are far more important to them, so with no real skin in the camera game, letting the cameras go is probably an easy decision. There's no point in throwing good money after bad.
Click to expand...
As an Olympus fan and user you should be grateful that financial considerations did not come into Olympus thinking as their camera divison has lost a fortune in the last decade . Any normal business would have shut down the camera line years ago. :-)
Click to expand...
So they don't make a bunch of money with their cameras but they have a long history of excellence in the field and they would expect to be one of the last standing as it shakes out and then be in a position to make a couple of bucks.

In addition they are innovating like mad and probably aim to license stuff out.
 
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Hen3ry said:
jim stirling said:
OzRay said:
already with their mobile phone and tablet lines, which are far more important to them, so with no real skin in the camera game, letting the cameras go is probably an easy decision. There's no point in throwing good money after bad.
Click to expand...
As an Olympus fan and user you should be grateful that financial considerations did not come into Olympus thinking as their camera divison has lost a fortune in the last decade . Any normal business would have shut down the camera line years ago. :-)
Click to expand...
So they don't make a bunch of money with their cameras but they have a long history of excellence in the field and they would expect to be one of the last standing as it shakes out and then be in a position to make a couple of bucks.
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Geoffrey, its not a case of not making a bunch of money rather it is a case of losing 10's of millions of dollars for a number of years pretty much since the start of digital.
Hen3ry said:
In addition they are innovating like mad and probably aim to license stuff out.
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Perhaps.

As an aside I would liek to apologise for calling you Henry in previous posts I only recently spotted that your name was Geoffrey,
 
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jim stirling said:
OzRay said:
already with their mobile phone and tablet lines, which are far more important to them, so with no real skin in the camera game, letting the cameras go is probably an easy decision. There's no point in throwing good money after bad.
Click to expand...
As an Olympus fan and user you should be grateful that financial considerations did not come into Olympus thinking as their camera divison has lost a fortune in the last decade . Any normal business would have shut down the camera line years ago. :-)
Click to expand...
From what I have been told, Olympus now has only one optics R&D division, and that's located in their camera division. That would account for that division's "losses".

Given their pre-eminence in the medical imaging area world wide, it would not make any sense at all to shut down their "loss making" camera and optics R&D division ...

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Sad news indeed.

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Regards, john from Melbourne, Australia.
.
Please do not embed images from my web site without prior permission
I consider this to be a breach of my copyright.
-- -- --
.
The Camera doth not make the Man (nor Woman) ...
Perhaps being kind to cats, dogs & children does ...
.
Galleries: http://canopuscomputing.com.au/gallery2/v/main-page/



C120644_small.jpg





Bird Control Officers on active service.
 
John King said:
jim stirling said:
OzRay said:
already with their mobile phone and tablet lines, which are far more important to them, so with no real skin in the camera game, letting the cameras go is probably an easy decision. There's no point in throwing good money after bad.
Click to expand...
As an Olympus fan and user you should be grateful that financial considerations did not come into Olympus thinking as their camera divison has lost a fortune in the last decade . Any normal business would have shut down the camera line years ago. :-)
Click to expand...
From what I have been told, Olympus now has only one optics R&D division, and that's located in their camera division. That would account for that division's "losses".
Click to expand...
Yes , I am sure I read they were going to hide their loss making division inside a successful one. Doesn't really change anything just hides it. The finacial losses of Olympus cameras does not reflect on their products they have many genuinely innovative ideas and lots of great products

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/olympus-large-degree-of.html
 
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jim stirling said:
John King said:
jim stirling said:
OzRay said:
already with their mobile phone and tablet lines, which are far more important to them, so with no real skin in the camera game, letting the cameras go is probably an easy decision. There's no point in throwing good money after bad.
Click to expand...
As an Olympus fan and user you should be grateful that financial considerations did not come into Olympus thinking as their camera divison has lost a fortune in the last decade . Any normal business would have shut down the camera line years ago. :-)
Click to expand...
From what I have been told, Olympus now has only one optics R&D division, and that's located in their camera division. That would account for that division's "losses".
Click to expand...
Yes , I am sure I read they were going to hide their loss making division inside a successful one. Doesn't really change anything just hides it. The finacial losses of Olympus cameras does not reflect on their products they have many genuinely innovative ideas and lots of great products

http://www.sansmirror.com/newsviews/olympus-large-degree-of.html
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Where are the rest of the financial data in that link, Jim?

If I were to present accounts in this form (as a CPA), both the ASIC & the ATO would put me in jail for them - and my professional body as well ... .

OK to look at divisional results, but these must be placed within the context of overall corporate results, otherwise there can be serious distortions due to generally accepted accounting principles being breached by such selective reporting. Such financial accounting distortions will always exist in any company with more than about 20 employees ...

As I said before, accounting for a sole proprietor or SME is just a tad different from accounting for any large enterprise. I have done all three for significant parts of my life. The 'beauty' of being an Internet commentator is that one is not bound by either professional standards or legislation, regulations, tax office rulings or court cases ...

--
Regards, john from Melbourne, Australia.
.
Please do not embed images from my web site without prior permission
I consider this to be a breach of my copyright.
-- -- --
.
The Camera doth not make the Man (nor Woman) ...
Perhaps being kind to cats, dogs & children does ...
.
Galleries: http://canopuscomputing.com.au/gallery2/v/main-page/



C120644_small.jpg





Bird Control Officers on active service.
 
When the news first broke I did believed it to be true and I was surprised how all of a sudden a lot of people demised it. At the time I was under the impression Samsung NX wasn't doing very well and there wasn't many new products coming out to support the system. So it didn't make sense for Samsung to offically continue with the system when unoffically it wasn't supporting it behind the scenes.

End of the day I feel sorry for those who will lose their job and those who invested into the NX line.
 
brianric said:
Better than quoting Ken Rockwell.
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At least Ken Rockwell doesn't keep making predictions that always spell doom and gloom. He seems to have a far more positive outlook on life. :)
 
borrowed from the Samsung forum.

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www.dpreview.com
 
Jorginho said:
On the positive side we may conclude that NX series was outcompeted by MFTs and I think especially Sony mirrorless FF. Having said that I think it is not only the fierce competition of other mirrorless cams. I think Samsung have largely got themselves to blame for they simply made some insane choices.
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There was no "competition" in mirrorless friendly Japan - a huge untapped market - because Samsung has (almost?) no consumer electronics presence in the country. Even harder to find than an American car (and just try getting a foreign motor vehicle to "pass" the biannual inspection without breaking the bank). No Samsung and no LG means Japanese TVs are priced more in Japan than anywhere else in the world (where they actually have to compete outside of de facto price fixing).

Most of my friends have no interest, err... open disdain for Korean products ("Kimchi sensor"), so, yeah, that kind of institutional discrimination in The Camera Kingdom probably sealed their fate early on.
 
I'm really not surprised. A few years ago the Samsung CEO announced he had an interest in photography and announced a line of dSLRs and lenses which were produced in conjunction with Pentax and Schneider. Everyone thought that with Samsung's resources they'd be a force to be reckoned with. Well the camera were rebadged Pentax and the lenses were pretty average. The products were not marketed very well, ie you couldn't find them in the shops. Not long after Samsung discontinued them and announced that mirror less was the future. This time in terms of the technology they've done a better job, but try finding them in the shops. So it appears that they've repeated the mistake they made with dSLR line.

Samsung are really good at promoting their other products and getting them into markets I can't understand why they didn't with their camera division.
 
Chez Wimpy said:
Jorginho said:
On the positive side we may conclude that NX series was outcompeted by MFTs and I think especially Sony mirrorless FF. Having said that I think it is not only the fierce competition of other mirrorless cams. I think Samsung have largely got themselves to blame for they simply made some insane choices.
Click to expand...
There was no "competition" in mirrorless friendly Japan - a huge untapped market - because Samsung has (almost?) no consumer electronics presence in the country. Even harder to find than an American car (and just try getting a foreign motor vehicle to "pass" the biannual inspection without breaking the bank). No Samsung and no LG means Japanese TVs are priced more in Japan than anywhere else in the world (where they actually have to compete outside of de facto price fixing).

Most of my friends have no interest, err... open disdain for Korean products ("Kimchi sensor"), so, yeah, that kind of institutional discrimination in The Camera Kingdom probably sealed their fate early on.
Click to expand...
 
Paul Amyes said:
Samsung are really good at promoting their other products and getting them into markets I can't understand why they didn't with their camera division.
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I'm not sure that Samsung really knew what the market was all about.

With phones, the competition was Apple. With tablets, the competition was Apple. With TVs, the competition was Sony, LG etc, With Washing machines, the competition LG etc. With microwaves, the competition was LG etc. And so on.

Who was the competition when it came to cameras? What were they aiming to achieve?
 
OzRay said:
Paul Amyes said:
Samsung are really good at promoting their other products and getting them into markets I can't understand why they didn't with their camera division.
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I'm not sure that Samsung really knew what the market was all about.

With phones, the competition was Apple. With tablets, the competition was Apple. With TVs, the competition was Sony, LG etc, With Washing machines, the competition LG etc. With microwaves, the competition was LG etc. And so on.

Who was the competition when it came to cameras? What were they aiming to achieve?

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Well that is all to do with market segment and product recognition and that is where Samsung dropped a Clanger. In the end it was their marketing division that led to this. The products were fine, some of them (ie the NX1) were quite revolutionary, but outside of the specialised photographic media there was no attempt to build market presence. In contrast I seem to see Olympus OMD ads everywhere at the moment. Olympus got badly burnt with the 4/3 system. A great product, but very badly promoted to the public. This time around with m4/3s they've learnt their lesson.

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OzRay said:
Martin.au said:
OzRay said:
captura said:
borrowed from the Samsung forum.

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/thread/3916029
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That pretty much confirms that truth of the rumour. Samsung is exiting. It's much like what went on in Australia with Ford, Holden and Toyota exiting car manufacturing in Australia. Lots of rumour denial, then half-baked explanations and then finally the truth.

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Thoughts, Musings, Ideas and Images from South Gippsland
http://australianimage.com.au/wordpress/
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Did you actually read the thread?

Looked like a denial of the rumour to me.
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I was referring to what the Samsung rep was quoted as saying.
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You need to read the whole thing through.

"As for the sales reps It is my experience that the sales reps at these shows are not long term employees but are just salesmen who look good in a dress shirt can memorize a manual and regurgitate on command to make it seam like they know what they are talking about."

It ain't over 'til it's over. Y.B.
OzRay said:
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http://australianimage.com.au/wordpress/
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Tough competition they ventured into, and they realize it quickly enough. Unlike Olympus, who will throw everything they can into it, and lose millions in the process, Samsung just do not want to go that path. If true. Sad enough, they started looking almost excellent in cameras business, and then (if true again) just this - another one goes.
 
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