[Leica] leica should have listend to me! (was re: leica plans)

[jshul at comcast.net (Jim Shulman)]

Entrenched businesses with rapidly obsolescing technologies almost always
predict a gradual transition--and then are shocked to discover that the rest
of the world doesn't share their timetable.  As an example, look no further
than classified ads in print newspapers and Craigslist, Monster and eBay.   

To that end, who would have predicted that a company like Sony (which made
wonderful TVs and other electronic devices) would become a major force in
still camera manufacture?  Or that cameras as a distinct object (as opposed
to a feature within some other device, such as a telephone or computer)
would be a waning technology for many consumers?

The vast majority of photographers realized that the F-word is FILM.  Thank
goodness that Leica's recent owners are better steeped in reality, and have
been investing in products that use digital technology creatively, melding
the best of rangefinder cameras with new research in sensors.

Jim Shulman
Bryn Mawr, PA


-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jshul=comcast.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jshul=comcast.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Kyle
Cassidy
Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2008 2:01 PM
To: lug@leica-users.org
Subject: [Leica] leica should have listend to me! (was re: leica plans)

if the folks at Solms had been reading my BLOG back in the year Two
Thousand they would have known better!

from my year end "PAW" essay:

"I learned, and here I can be bold for no one seems to agree with me and
I'm usually catching up on trends about four years after they're no
longer trendy, for all intents and purposes film is dead. Within the
next five years, everything will be digital. Nobody wants to wait hours
or days for their photos when they can see them instantly. All that
remains before the funeral is ready is a higher resolution CCD chip and
a moderately priced pro-level camera. Flame away."


http://www.asc.upenn.edu/usr/cassidy/pix/paw/learned-2000/2.html


I hope they're reading my blog now!

kc


Nathan Wajsman wrote:
> OK, here is the Cliff Notes version:
>
> The first part explains the history of the company in the past few 
> years, leading up to the near-bankruptcy in 2004. It cites an unnamed 
> Leica marketing guy as saying that they believed AT THE TIME that the 
> market would settle into 70-30 digital/analogue or perhaps 80/20, 
> allowing Leica to continue focusing on the analogue cameras. Instead, 
> the analogue market collapsed much sooner than predicted, hence the 
> "deep shit".