Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/09/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]And if we predict our future on the basis of extinct civilizations? well? oh hell? you must be right? Leica is doomed? But wait? I just remembered? we're all doomed? none of us will get out alive! yet many of us will go out shoot'n Leica's even a few on the Leica User Group email list. ;~) Regards, George Lottermoser george at imagist.com http://www.imagist.com http://www.imagist.com/blog http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist On Sep 15, 2009, at 5:38 PM, lrzeitlin at aol.com wrote: > You obviously have more faith in the judgment of industry leaders > than I do. > > Perkin-Elmer, the most respected optical company in the US, > ground the mirror of the Hubble Telescope wrong. RCA, the world's > premier television manufacturer after WW2 and holder of most US > color television patents, is out of business. The trademark is now > owned by Thompson SA, a French conglomerate. Microsoft, the world's > richest computer company has seen its stock fall by 60% on the > heels of the Vista debacle. General Motors, once the maker of 63% > of cars sold in the US, now has a market share of 17% and was saved > from bankruptcy by the kindness of US taxpayers. And there is no > need to mention Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Citibank, and all > the other financial high flyers that could do no wrong. Big, > respected companies DO screw up, make bad decisions, fail to > deliver up to expectations and drop from favor. > In the 1960's Leica was the dominant expensive camera maker. In > 1963 Leica sold more cameras priced over $300 (equivalent to about > $3500 today) than the combined total of all competitive makers. But > by astute decisions like ignoring the SLR phenomenon, failing to > upgrade their cash cow M cameras, and making cameras in high labor > wage markets, dissipated their lead. Today Leica's market share of > expensive cameras must be viewed with a microscope to be visible. > I have no faith that Leica's product design or manufacturing > policies are optimum, no matter how rich Dr. Andreas Kaufmann is. > Nor am I happy that they are willing to dissemble to hide > engineering ineptness. Remember that just a year ago it was > impossible to make full frame digital Leicas and that magenta > blacks were an illusion. Good people can make bad decisions. > Witness Bill Gates downplaying the importance of the internet or > signing off on Vista. The brief video view of Leica's assembly > process is hardly a confidence builder.