Orcio14

@RED i: Bugatti was a luxury product for a very wealthy customer. There are different laws of the market.

@Ruairi: maybe you're right. But if it is so good, then why is it so bad? Does Harvard still teach classical marketing theory, or is it teaching "modern"?

OK, I will help Mr. Sugimoto and tell him where He should to look for the cause of the Olympus brand failures.

So, the classical theory of marketing states, that in order to be successful in the market, you have to meet 4 conditions (so-called "4P"):

PRODUCT - it should have the features that the CLIENT expects, (Not Directors of Manufacturer, but CLIENT, Dear Mr Sugimoto),

PRICE - the product should have a reasonable price, (REASONABLE FOR CLIENT, not for Directors of Manufacturer!),

PLACE - it needs to ensure a good product distribution system and service,

PROMOTION - appropriate promotional activities should be performed.
(IMHO, a great but overlooked (I don't know why) way of promoting cameras
are TV screens standing in the halls of hypermarkets such as WalMart, MediaMarkt or others. I do not understand why while walking around these halls I cannot see short films promoting cameras on TV screens?)

See also here: https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/62852229

An "endless string of successes brought Olympus to its knees", isn't it? And Mr. Sugimoto still doesn't know what happened.

If Mr. Shigemi Sugimoto did not decide at Olympus in matters of product and pricing strategy and he had a different point of view from the rest of the Olympus management board, then leaving him as CEO of "OM Digital Solutions" is good decision and will create a chance for success. But I'm afraid that wasn't the case.

1) "We believe that this lens will be a very special option, not only for wildlife and sports photographers but for all kinds of customers who need a telephoto zoom."
OK, but I'm afraid to ask about the price of this lens. I'm afraid it's price won't be acceptable for most "enthusiasts of wildlife and sports photography". Am I right?
2) "According to Mr. Kataoka, we'll see more of a focus on high-end gear going forward, of the kind that he hopes will appeal to professionals."
And IMHO, this is the main mistake Olympus made. The main target for Olympus and for entire m43 system should be the market of "enthusiasts" of nature, sports and tourist photography, not professionals.

Profits are made from a small margin at a large scale of sales and not by increasing margins when sales decrease. And here is the problem: companies (because not only Olympus), enthusiastic about the market boom started with the appearance of digital technology, did not even notice how they pushed themselves into the cul-de-sac of "adding of added-value" to their products and now, when the boom is over, they aren't able make radical price decisions. They prefer rather to close factories or spend more billions on inventing technologies with marginal use, to force millions of customers to replace equipment under the pretext of new products. 4K is such a classic example of technology, which can be useful in some specific industrial applications, but not at the home of the mass consumer.

I have a question for dpreview: do you know what agency advised Olympus? Especially in terms of pricing strategy? And who else does the same agency advise for? We will know who will be next after Olympus.
BTW: could dpreview interview the agency's representative and ask him what mistakes Olympus made on the market?

Calculations made by us, unfortunately, revealed that, delighted with the expert prospects of the endless sale of our products to Space Residents and the great value that we were able to add to our system products, we forgot to equip our system with heat shields (thick deposits of loose cash on accounts at the most prestigious banks of the world), therefore, our trainees from the accounting department noticed, that our System ship could burn if entering the denser layers of the Earth's atmosphere. So if after entering the atmosphere a break in communication between the crew of our System ship and you, our beloved enemies (disgusting customers from Earth) lasted more than 4 minutes, just in case we say: Farewell!"
/2

Fragment of the Memorandum (official version):
"Olympus has improved the cost structure by restructuring the manufacturing bases and focusing on high-value-added interchangeable lenses"

Non-official version (by Orcio14):
"We have added so much added-value to our best interchangeable lenses that their prices have shot into Space, beyond the range of the anti-aircraft defense of our eternal enemy: the budget of our potential customer. Our experts assured us that life in Space is a common phenomenon, existing on every comet that flies nearby The Earth as well as on the more and more commonly discovered "exoplanets". Unfortunately, many years of orbiting did not confirm the opinion of experts, and therefore it was necessary to make a difficult decision to return to Earth.
/1

"The 150-400mm lens will change the world".
Maybe. But not, if it will cost 5000 USD or more.

"The size of the sensor does not determine the cost of the product, or the quality of the picture."
Perhaps it's true. But a lot of consumers think quite differently. If Olympus does not take this into account, then will lose it.

And again, none of the photo producers think about the camera with the interchangeable matrix module. This would be a breakthrough at least as significant as the introduction of mirrorless!

First, no manufacturer presented camera with interchangeable sensor module.

Very pretty camera, but fixed LCD is big disadvantage for me.

I do not understand the tendency to reduce the size of cameras: even now, the dimensions of some of them make it difficult for use. And what kind of benefit is there after installation of professional lens 24-70 mm or larger?

Really good pictures. I've a question: are they directly from camera, or after any PP, rather?

Knock-out! Good job.

Good job, but IMO it does not hold the rules of challenge: there's no visible crowd or group of people

Good job, but IMO it does not hold the rules of challenge: there's no visible crowd or group of people

I think, this is Trametes versicolor.