Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/07/25

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Subject: [Leica] matsushita to make the dig M6
From: "r g" <photos@nyc.rr.com>
Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001 19:04:19 -0400
References: <200107252023.f6PKN6x02023@hermes.toad.net> <2695801743.20010725220229@web-options.com> <3.0.6.32.20010725184101.00a44160@pop.infi-net.mindspring.com>

My apologies if this was posted before, as I admit to skimming past some of
the war correspondence.
rg

- --
Matsushita, Leica In Digital Camera Tie-Up
TOKYO, July 24 (Reuters) - Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial Co Ltd
said on Tuesday it would ally with Germany's Leica Camera AG in a bid to
gain a 10 percent share of the fast-growing digital still camera market by
2003.

Consumer electronics giant Matsushita, known for its Panasonic brand goods,
is a minor player in the digital camera market, in which rival Sony Corp
holds a sizable share.

Matsushita and Leica announced at a joint news conference in Tokyo that they
will jointly develop digital still cameras for release this autumn,
utilising Leica's optical lens units.

Matsushita Senior Managing Director Kazuo Tada said the company aimed to use
the tie-up to help it gain a 10 percent share of a forecast 29 million unit
digital camera market in 2003, and hinted that it might play a part in a
networked consumer electronics scheme.

"With the help of Leica, we will be able to reach a new level of richness
and quality for our new digital still cameras," he said.

"Digital cameras are playing an important role as a network tool - you can't
build a network without digital cameras."

Matsushita rival Sony has said it sees digital cameras as an input device
for networked consumer electronics, a way to capture images for input into
Vaio PCs or Sony photo printers, all interconnected with camcorders, audio
players and other gadgets via its memory stick data storage device.

Leica Chief Executive Hanns-Peter Cohn said he hoped that the jointly
manufactured digital cameras would account for 25 percent of his company's
total turnover within three years.

"Matsushita's strength is in electronic and digital components, and our
knowledge is especially in optics," Cohn told reporters after the news
conference.

"We want to bring the two together effectively."

The devices will be marketed under both Matsushita's Panasonic brand and the
Leica brand, with three products to be released in early autumn, Tada said.

Production will take place in Japan, with the companies initially using
Matsushita's subsidiary Matsushita-Kotobuki Electronics Industries Ltd's
factory in Takamatsu on the island of Shikoku.

Tada said that other production sites would also eventually be used, but did
not give specifics.

In reply to: Message from "Steve LeHuray" <icommag@toad.net> (Re: [Leica] Equipment question....)
Message from Bob Walkden <bob@web-options.com> (Re[2]: [Leica] Equipment question....)
Message from Marc James Small <msmall@roanoke.infi.net> (Re: [Leica] Equipment question....)