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Leica Event May 10th – Live Coverage


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There's been a lot of teeth gnashing overnight :)

 

I'm sure that the real 2012 news is a mere 4 months away. I'm tempted to pay a first visit to Photokina.

 

The problem though is that Leica has driven up the expectations for M10, on the 10th of May.

Which became a big marketing mistake.

Perhaps, they realized in the last minute, that the M10 was not enough matured to present . But than it would have been much wiser to wait until Photokina.

Cheers Zsolt

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The problem though is that Leica has driven up the expectations for M10, on the 10th of May.

 

The Internet did this for them, not Leica. They never mentioned an M10 at all, but people just assumed that is what they were doing. I did too.

 

I believe that the M10 will be here in September and will be the star of Leica's own hall at Photokina. That is where you launch a major upgrade to a camera, when the entire world's photographic press is there, not in a private function in a bar on a Thursday night in Berlin.

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I love the idea of the M9-M, have already inquired, to pick one up at the earliest convenience and would indeed even be more interested, if it would have no LCD and a manual shutter cocking mechanism with advance lever to tie me over until I get my hands on a M9-M, I just received a package with a long awaited black paint Leica M2, which I will shoot with my favorite films - TX400 and Neopan400, both @ ISO3200.

 

 

Ahhhh yes what I love about the RD-1, that advance lever! What Leica should have done for us before Epson.

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Perhaps, they realized in the last minute, that the M10 was not enough matured to present .

There was never a plan to present the M10 on May 10. The date was just an arbitrary date carrying no symbolical significance whatsoever. What’s so hard to understand about that?

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you're right - most manufacturers while keeping the same form factor have managed to utilise larger and higher resolution screens...

 

 

Yes, but it poses a problem. How to preserve the M form factor with a large screen? The Ms have top and bottom pieces of brass.

 

It can be done with a wider screen and increasing a little the highness, using a completely different set of controls. But I would like to see it.

 

I mean... it is not easy.

 

There are a lot of CEO candidates but also many Chief Engineer candidates.

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This is all classic LUF, don't you think?

 

Where's Jamie and the other four rational members when you need them?

 

I'm here but I don't know where the other three are.

 

(And PS: I'll be sticking with film for black-and-white).

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There was never a plan to present the M10 on May 10. The date was just an arbitrary date carrying no symbolical significance whatsoever. What’s so hard to understand about that?

 

This really should be part of a Marketing Fails course.

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There was never a plan to present the M10 on May 10. The date was just an arbitrary date carrying no symbolical significance whatsoever. What’s so hard to understand about that?

 

A total failure on the part of Leica Marketing. When you unveil the M9 on 09/09 and then schedule an announcement for May 10 I believe people are correct to surmise that the M10 might at least be previewed. Let's remember Michael that it was Solms who started all this silly date business.

 

I still don't understand why they chose to have this event on a Thursday, which is one of the reasons why I thought the date was significant.

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We all know what their track record is like for bringing products to market on schedule, could be that the M10 just wasn't ready?

The M10 wasn’t scheduled for May 10. The only connecton between ‘May 10’ and ‘M10’ was in the minds of people outside Leica. Despite several hints given (by me, among others) that the M10 was still a couple of months away.

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Let's remember Michael that it was Solms who started all this silly date business.

On retrospect that 9/9/2009 announcement date was a mistake. But I’m on record saying that they did this just once and there was no reason to suppose they would ever do it again. And even now that the symbolical interpretations of ‘May 10’ are proven wrong, some people still cling to their belief, rationalizing that the connection was actually intended and the M10 announcement just pulled at the last moment. It wasn’t. From the very start, May 10 was to be about the products actually introduced yesterday.

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..............I believe that the M10 will be here in September and will be the star of Leica's own hall at Photokina. That is where you launch a major upgrade to a camera, when the entire world's photographic press is there, not in a private function in a bar on a Thursday night in Berlin.

 

Indeed Andy.

 

I've always thought that photokina was far more likely to see the launch of any major new camera, even more so now that Leica have reserved an entire hall for their stand.

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On retrospect that 9/9/2009 announcement date was a mistake. But I’m on record saying that they did this just once and there was no reason to suppose they would ever do it again. And even now that the symbolical interpretations of ‘May 10’ are proven wrong, some people still cling to their belief, rationalizing that the connection was actually intended and the M10 announcement just pulled at the last moment. It wasn’t. From the very start, May 10 was to be about the products actually introduced yesterday.

 

This rationalization is just amazing. Not everyone has inside information from Leica, and as far as I know, you're not an official spokesman, so your 'hints' were not considered to carry more weight than any other forum pundits.

 

Marketing is a subtle business. Customer loyalty can be a frail but extremely valuable commodity that needs to be delicately nurtured.

 

Leica is lucky at the moment, that their loyal customers are seemingly impervious to even the grossest marketing mistakes - as this undoubtedly was - and also that they are riding giddily high on an enormous wave of new money in certain dynamic economies where conspicuous consumption is hungry to find the most expensive items available in any market sector. This wave may sometime slow to a trickle - then Leica will need its old, loyal customer base again.

 

No company should be 'teaching their customers a lesson' about making mistaken assumptions based on misleading dates. There are 364 other days to choose for a camera announcement, none of which would have encouraged the same fruitless speculation. Anyone who doesn't see that has a very blinkered view of the wider world.

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A total failure on the part of Leica Marketing. When you unveil the M9 on 09/09 and then schedule an announcement for May 10 I believe people are correct to surmise that the M10 might at least be previewed. Let's remember Michael that it was Solms who started all this silly date business.

 

I still don't understand why they chose to have this event on a Thursday, which is one of the reasons why I thought the date was significant.

 

The M9 was indeed announced on September 9, 2009. Therefore, they should have called it the S9. OTOH, they should have announced the M10 on 10/10/10, preferrably at 10:10 AM.

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No one has commented on the implications of the M9M.....

 

It is a low investment stop-gap in the same vein as the M9P

 

It is very significant that the Titaniums illuminated frame lines are absent and that the viewing screen is unchanged. All they have done is change the sensor and processor.

 

It suggests to me that the M10 is further off than we think and possibly a more radical departure (with the ensuing technical problems and delays) than has been assumed.

 

The M9M looks like an afterthought to fill a gap in the product replacement schedule rather than a planned concept.......

 

Nice as it is, I think it smells of diversionary tactics to placate the impatient.....

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... All they have done is change the sensor and processor. ...

 

I am just trying to imagine the howls of dismay should Leica have dared to include in the M Monochrom features which owners or prospective buyers of the M Polychrom would have desired.

 

(BTW: "Monochrom" is the German spelling for "Monochrome").

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