Who understands Olympus prices?

Astrotripper wrote:

Pixnat2 wrote:

Difficult to understand what makes the E-PL9 so expensive?

Any idea?

Bottom line, would be my guess.

I think they simply calculated that if they sell 20% less of those cameras at the higher price, but get 40% more profit on them, then that is a move worth taking.

Not that I think it's a particularly good thing. But I really couldn't care less. I'm not gonna buy it no matter how much or little it costs. Neither would you, am I right?

So yeah, it's 100 EUR more expensive than the E-PL8 with no inherently good reason to really justify that price hike. Like E-M10.3, it is not a straightforward upgrade. It's more of an evolution of the E-PL formula. Dumbing down and feature cuts for the sake of "convenience" and aimed at casual snapper. Now with less room to accommodate photographic growth of its owner. Probably not a big deal for this kind of camera, but still a bummer, I think.

But here's the thing. This camera is not aimed at enthusiasts who meticulously research cameras and seek the best features.

I think Olympus counts on the design and appearance to carry the sales of this camera. And I think they might be onto something. Fuji X-A5 might be a great value for money, but it's just unremarkable looking (if not outright ugly) compared to E-PL9.

I really think Olympus designer nailed it with E-PL9.

Also, has nobody noticed the marketing message here? Someone at Olympus has been paying attention. This is probably the best press release announcing a new camera I saw in a long time. Compare it to the one for E-PL8 or even the recent X-A5.

Finally someone there realised that marketing message for this kind of camera is not about impressing with specs. The people that read specs don't care about a camera like this.

I think if Olympus can reach their target audience with their marketing message, E-PL9 will do just fine. It's the best looking E-PL body to date, and that's a good start

Good and thoughtful answer, thanks. What you say make sense.

But the more I think about it, the more I think something doesn't match.

Ok, Olympus tagret japanese women or hipsters that would be attracted by the design of this camera (the X-A5 aim this target too, according to Fuji ads).

But isn't the other (and more important for long term) role of those entry-level camera to catch P&S upgraders into the system, making them potential buyers of upper models?

In that segment, the X-A5 or the Canon M100 are much more attractive, because most P&S upgrader DO look at the specs actually.

So in the short term, they could make a better profit (thoug I doubt it's very signficant for Olympus corp.), but for a long term stategy (catching new users as potential upgraders), it seems to me that selling this camera at a premium price isn't a very good one.