Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2006/01/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]+I was talking with my local camera store owner a few months ago aboutMinolta. His opinion was that Minolta was dead in the U.S. market before digital became a factor. The naming of models was unbelievably confusing (see http://www.photozone.de/2Equipment/minoltacamera.htm for examples) and he said models were often being superceded by a newer one before he could ever supply demand for the first. Though he is not on a major market, this is a fairly large camera store in a town with a large state university, and the shop has had a minolta dealership since the 60's. Things apparently have been worse since the Konica/Minolta merger and he had almost dropped , both film and all except the lowest digital models. I know that here in Alabama, Konica film has always been a rare beast, and I suspect that no one on this list has chosen any Konica film as his primary film. I also suspect that only a few here have seriously used any Minolta camera made in the last 10 or 15 years. Perhaps the exit of KM from the photography has less th do with "The Death Of Film Photography As We Know It" and more to do with a giant conglomerate leaving a fast-changing market that it was too inept and ponderous to adapt to. Allen --- Original Message --- From: Don Dory <don.dory@gmail.com> To: Leica Users Group <lug@leica-users.org> Subject: Re: [Leica] Konica Minolta to quit photo market >Peter, >It is exactly the loss of control that is killing Kodak. Remember when the= >y >brought out a new format of film every 10 years or so? There was a huge >profit potential as they filled the pipeline with products from film to >special batteries to being the only game in town able to process the film. >As manufacturing prowess has moved west Kodak has lost the digital race as >well. > >Kodak is run largely by a group of executives that grew up when Kodak did >control the market and they can not seem to break out of that mindset. My >g*d they were all so proud of that bloated overpriced underperforming dung >called the EasyShare One. Late to market and way underspecced for the >price. Another billion down the rathole and another 10,000 employees laid >off. > >What the digital revolution has done is literally opened up what photograph= >y >is. For a very short while yet, what we use to take visual records is stil= >l >up in the air. Any company with a bright idea and access to capital could >change photography. An example would be the ipod. Digital music was makin= >g >slow inroads until Apple came out with a wonderful interface for listening >to MP3 formatted musice: boom, the old way of buying and listening to music >died. > >Don >don.dory@gmail.com > > >On 1/20/06, Peter Dzwig <pdzwig@summaventures.com> wrote: >> >> Don Dory wrote: >> >> > Companies that will be standing include Canon, Sony, Panasonic, and >> > NIkon(maybe). There will be a huge confluence of photography with >> phones >> > and MP3 players for the masses. If you can't be in those markets then >> you >> > will be out. >> > >> > Don >> > don.dory@gmail.com >> >> Unless you can do something about your costs and consciously seek to be a >> niche >> player. Which is Solms problem, they can do the second, but can't get >> their act >> round the first bit. Volume isn't everything, economics is. >> >> The trouble for all film camera makers is that control of their market is >> out of >> their hands to a large extent, being in the hands of the likes of Kodak >> and so >> on. That's why I welcome the arrival of Efke and so on and the desire to >> continue of Fuji and others. >> >> Peter Dzwig >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Leica Users Group. >> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information >> > >_______________________________________________ >Leica Users Group. >See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information