[Leica] Joint sales figures for M9 and S2

[rgacpa at yahoo.com (Bob Adler)]

One item of note. There is a Phase/Leaf dealer here in town. I told him I 
was 
hoping in a year that, because of the new products coming out from those two 
companies I could perhaps trade in my used back for a newer (not new) one at 
a 
great discount.
His response was that the big change occurred this year in reducing the 
price of 
his backs from the intro of the S2; don't expect as significant a reduction 
in 
the near future. So it has had an impact and manufacturers of competing 
products 
will compete aggressively against it. If Leica doesn't have their pricing 
flexibility, it could be a problem for them...
Just my $0.02...
 Bob Adler
Palo Alto, CA
http://www.rgaphoto.com




________________________________
From: Frank Filippone <red735i at earthlink.net>
To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>
Sent: Sun, December 19, 2010 8:32:13 AM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Joint sales figures for M9 and S2

Shooting for a 10% market share in a small market ( how many Digi-SLR are
Digi-MF? as a % ???? ) is not a marketing success by overall Photo market
standards.  It might make the company profitable, and it might meet the
company plans and goals, but in the grand scheme of things it is lost in the
rounding errors of sales volumes or sales dollars.

I am not against the S2 as a product... Do I think it is or will be a
successful camera, even to Leica?  No.  Will it revolutionize the Digi-MF
market?  No.  It is simply another player in a really small niche market,
which in itself seems to be growing smaller day by day...  Do I think
Hasselblad is eating Leica's lunch, and will ultimately kill the S2?    Yes.
Add Mamiya and everyone else that is trying to get into this market.....
Figuring out WHY the S2 is going to be a success is pretty much a stretch
for me.... YMMV

I am against the thought that it is a mainline product in a big market.

The number of M9 users on this list is pretty high.  Ditto the high end (
$5-8K) cameras from N or C.  But only 1 or 2 S2 cameras.  So a $7K camera is
not unsalable here, but the lenses were pretty much free ( already owned and
used in film or on the M8).  That kind of thinking lowers the cost of entry
a lot... and produces more success than asking the user to buy both the
lenses and the body..  With only 2 S2 LUG cameras, you must ask why?  Price
as a cost of entry?  Need for these big files?  For Pros:  Need by THEIR
customers for files of this size?  

Is the price a problem with market success for the S2?  I think so.  But the
number of Digi-Hasselblad cameras says that for some  ( Pros?  Well heeled
Amateurs?) it is not.  So we, here on this LUG list, are not financially
well enough off as amateurs, or those on this list as Pros, do not have the
right customers to allow then to buy this thing?

Does  Porsche have lower market success than GM?  What are the measurement
standards?  Unit volume?  Total WW sales in cars as measured in $$$$  ?
Total sales of Trucks?  Customer satisfaction?  Number of beverage holders
in the car?  ( My Toyota Sienna has 12, beat that Porsche!)  By Big Company
(GM)  standards, Porsche is a failure.  Yes, I have always wanted a
Porsche..... not the 924 that I did own, but a REAL Porsche.

Market share is always measured in unit volume.

Unless the $$$ measurement proves the users' plan better........ or unit
volume numbers are not available....

In the case of the S2, the unit volume or the EURO success is just too tiny
to count on a world wide basis, even as a Digi-MF at a predicted 10%..  The
reality is still to be determined.

They have sunk their R+D expense.  They can not reverse that fact.  Now they
must produce a profit or at least support the camera for the next X years
regardless of the Electronic realities of retired technology....   Even the
Battery in the DMR seems to be a problem for them... too small a market.....
Whatever happened to the S1?  Great files, died a quick death.

We'll see.

Proposal.... Make the S2 Successful and make Frank eat his words by going
out and actually buying one today.......It is the Season to do good
deeds....

Frank Filippone
Red735i at earthlink.net



Sounds like bollocks to me. Does that mean Porsche has less market success
than GM because it sells fewer cars? Even when it has been very profitable
for years and GM has not?
No, you won't get agreement on that from many people I wouldn't think!
FD




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