Panasonic benefits from cross-fertilization too Locked

I wish I had something clever to say, but I don't. I suspect that there is very little cross-benefit. With Olympus, their medical expertise is with endoscopes which are optical instruments. So there is a very clear path to cross-fertilization. That path isn't so clear with a toilet. The electronics in the toilet are surely simple compared to a digital camera. Perhaps there is some area of commonality in the molding of plastic parts or assembly line operation, but that's about all I can think of.

BTW, we've had a Panasonic IntaMist "shower seat" installed on our regular toilet for many years. I recommend it highly.

Pana+sonic = "all sound" more or less.  But toilet sounds were probably not what they had in mind.

Chez Wimpy wrote:

As any Japanese contractor will tell you... stick to the specialists. Corona for heaters, Inax and Toto (the Canon and Nikon) for toilets. National (Panasonic) is considered the store-brand (also ran) for everything under the sun.

Oh boy, that's a hoot!  I figured there were toilet otaku (geeks) since there are otaku for about just about everything else you can imagine or even can't imagine.  First time to see it though.  Do you have magazines, websites, etc. about toilets where you can feed your passion?  I bet you toilet otaku have big fanboy fights about various toilets.  What do you call the equivalent of pixel peeping?  Maybe poop peeping or poop probing?  I think turd scrutinizing has a certain ring to it.  Whatever you call it then enjoy!

How do otaku test their toilets and compare them?  What is the equivalent of taking photos of a bookshelf in a dimly lit room or a brick wall?

s_grins wrote:

Your shots are straight evidence that both M43 leaders - Oly and Pana - do take care about human assh^le - just from different perspectives.

So true!  I am pretty sure that the Olympus 9mm f8 body cap fisheye lens is a result of the Olympus endoscope experience.   A very small, very wide angle lens.  In the case of the m4/3 lens it must be put in a rather large plastic m4/3 mount, but the actual glass elements are small.

BTW, I have plasma Panasonic TV for more than 8 years.

My Panasonic camera gear has been quite good and I have no complaints about the toilet either!

Thomas Kachadurian wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out why you need an electronic toilet seat? Does it play music? Do urine analysis?

Help this American get a clue.

Tom

It's a fancy bidet and might offer such things as a heated seat.  There's probably more, but I'm mostly familiar with the bidet-like features.  It is very un-American, but actually a good idea IMO.

Thomas Kachadurian wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out why you need an electronic toilet seat? Does it play music? Do urine analysis?

Help this American get a clue.

These should help you out.

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2014/04/toto_washlet_s350e_the_incredible_japanese_wonder_toilet_that_will_change.html

http://priceonomics.com/toilets/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilets_in_Japan

Chris Noble wrote:

Henry Richardson wrote:

I have read here on the forum several times about how Olympus is supposed to have this wonderful synergy between their medical instruments and photographic divisions. A lot of cross-fertilization occurs so that both benefit.

I have a lot of respect for Olympus. They have an impressive history in cameras and have survived as a niche player for a long time; but those synergy arguments are made by anxious Olympus fan boys grasping at straws... The truth is that Olympus is a small, struggling company, still recovering from management scandals that nearly put them out of business, in two product lines that all the investment analysts believe have zero synergies, and which Olympus management itself admits don't fit together. At least Olympus has #1 market-share in endoscopes, which is the only reason the company is still alive. Otherwise they'd be down the (pick-your-brand) toilet. By the way, all of the investment speculation about who is going to buy Olympus centers on companies interested in the endoscope business; the assumption is that once someone acquires that, the camera business will be sold off opportunistically, but without much financial contribution.

Small camera companies (and the Olympus camera division is small) are being bought out at a rapid rate by big ones (and the Panasonic camera division is big). Panasonic is hoping that Olympus hangs in there, and has no interest in acquiring them, because it suits them to have a m43 "competitor", but you can see from the respective number and variety of recent product introductions by both companies that Olympus's decline in the camera market continues.

Panasonic is so big in so many actually-related consumer markets (electronics, still and video optics, batteries, displays, sensors and other semiconductors) that just the brand presence in all these markets helps their various product lines. And, to come back to m43, their product intros keep on broadening the m43 range. They are now up to four distinctly different families of m43 cameras, plus a new m43 fixed-lens offering that was the rage at Photokina, while Olympus is down to two families, with new intros that are limited to timid incremental improvements of each. No surprise as they don't have the capital and corporate-management confidence to do more.

I hope another diversified camera company (Samsung?) buys Olympus's camera business when Olympus finally finds a buyer for the endoscope business, and invests in the m43 line. Panasonic hopes so too.

Being a one-trick pony could be dangerous. If endoscopy becomes redundant in the medical process or a different type of tech (where Olympus has no participation) replaces current technology, the sky could fall. A bit like when mechanical type-setting very suddenly disappeared.

People were surprised by Olympus' questionable risks into cosmetics and other related shenanigans but those who instigated these activities could have been visionaries - they just had very bad implementations.

Henry Richardson wrote:

I have read here on the forum several times about how Olympus is supposed to have this wonderful synergy between their medical instruments and photographic divisions. A lot of cross-fertilization occurs so that both benefit. I think Panasonic doesn't talk about this sort of thing though so are they hiding their light under a bushel?

Here are photos of our toilet in Japan. As you can see clearly it is a Panasonic. Can you speculate on what kinds of synergy and cross-fertilization Panasonic and us customers benefit from between the toilet and photographic divisions?

Sharing a model name would be the highest form of synergy surely?

http://ctlg.panasonic.com/jp/toilet/toilet-w/DL-GM5.html

Jay Turberville wrote:

Thomas Kachadurian wrote:

I'm still trying to figure out why you need an electronic toilet seat? Does it play music? Do urine analysis?

Help this American get a clue.

Tom

It's a fancy bidet and might offer such things as a heated seat. There's probably more, but I'm mostly familiar with the bidet-like features. It is very un-American, but actually a good idea IMO.

Ron White: and all of a sudden... i'm that guy !