Jeff S Posted September 3, 2009 Share #1 Posted September 3, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) In his recent blog, Puts' says that an overlooked part of Leica's strategy is to "introduce tens of new products over the next one to two years," and that this mission is a flawed...Blog Does this product introduction strategy accurately reflect published reports from Leica? (I haven't read the entire Annual Report.) If lenses are counted, I don't doubt Leica will introduce many products over the next two years, and I would disagree with Puts. I can't imagine that a significant number of new camera platforms, or major camera updates, will happen over the next two years. Or, are we underestimating the 9/9 offerings and others on the way? I guess we'll learn more soon, but whatever the strategy, I sure hope it works. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Advertisement Posted September 3, 2009 Posted September 3, 2009 Hi Jeff S, Take a look here Erwin Puts' Blog...Flawed Leica Strategy?. I'm sure you'll find what you were looking for!
sdai Posted September 3, 2009 Share #2 Posted September 3, 2009 The reality is that the rangefinder niche is simply too small and obviously can not support the company's long term development, so naturally they're looking at expansion into other areas. You can not expect everyone shoot like a marine marksman but if you give them a fully loaded AK47 they'll probably hit one or two. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share #3 Posted September 3, 2009 The reality is that the rangefinder niche is simply too small and obviously can not support the company's long term development, so naturally they're looking at expansion into other areas. You can not expect everyone shoot like a marine marksman but if you give them a fully loaded AK47 they'll probably hit one or two. I don't think I understand your position regarding my questions. Do you think Leica plans to announce "tens of new products," excluding new lenses? Do you think such a strategy would be wise given their size and investment capacity? I have no doubt that Leica cannot survive on RF alone...that's obvious. But, what else could tens of new products refer to if not including lenses? Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sdai Posted September 3, 2009 Share #4 Posted September 3, 2009 Do you think Leica plans to announce "tens of new products," excluding new lenses? Do you think such a strategy would be wise given their size and investment capacity? 10 to 20 new products (excluding lenses) in the next 2 years is not totally unrealistic IMO. Keep in mind that there may be some stuff Leica is working on or already has but we just don't know, and now they already have M9, S2, X1, D Lux, C Lux, perhaps another Digilux and more compact cameras down the road, adding sports optics, projectors etc ... It's only his opinion and if it's true that Leica has already decided to withdraw funds from research based on what we've read from the "What's going on ..." thread, it may not happen anyways. Enjoy what we have now and worry less about future, it's time to support Leica with our wallets instead of forum posts. If they can't survive today how can they live tomorrow? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
mooky Posted September 3, 2009 Share #5 Posted September 3, 2009 Puts' is just one opinion. Low cost FF cameras are coming soon - and everything will be changing for every company and every company has a different base or foundation to work from. Enjoy the ride, I'll continue to buy carefully for longevity and creativity and I believe Leica is in a good position to survive. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigSplash Posted September 3, 2009 Share #6 Posted September 3, 2009 Puts' is just one opinion. Low cost FF cameras are coming soon - and everything will be changing for every company and every company has a different base or foundation to work from. Enjoy the ride, I'll continue to buy carefully for longevity and creativity and I believe Leica is in a good position to survive. I believe that Leica may have an opportunity to add new prodts via partnering as others have done successfully. In my view (although I do NOT know) Pradovit could be built by Sim2 or Infocus etc and that with a leica lens could be a nice money spinner. In a similar way there are few high end mini DVcam coders....I have the Canon XL2 and it really is a great product. That said Sony plus Panasonic make very good competing products but with lenses that are in my opinion not so good. I would believe that Leica could team up with Sony or Panasonic and bring out a high end £5000 to £6000 HD camera using the partners chassis and electronics. In the era of Super 8 there really was Beaulieu that did well against Braun, and Leicina ...in my view Canon 1016 was not in the same league Another product that Leica may wish to look at is an undewater housing for M8 and a wide angle lens specially adapted for the housing. The item did exist for M6 at www.hugyfot.de but today this company make housings for Canon and Nikon. If the M9 has an electrical release so much the better for this kind of work. The above represents three products with leica really only engaged in lens design. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted September 3, 2009 Share #7 Posted September 3, 2009 Advertisement (gone after registration) Ah- the P-word. Are you suggesting Leica take the Pradovit away from the designers and their partner ProjectionDesign ?? projectiondesign - high performance projectors Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest BigSplash Posted September 3, 2009 Share #8 Posted September 3, 2009 Ah- the P-word. Are you suggesting Leica take the Pradovit away from the designers and their partner ProjectionDesign ?? projectiondesign - high performance projectors Jaapv I did not know that Leica was working with Projection Design who are certainly at the high end for DLP projectors and have a great reputation. InFocus and Sim2 medium models have a slightly better "paper" spec. at half the Leica Prdovit retail price. Their top models have a much better "paper" spec and are priced at Leica level.. I also do not know if this Norwegian partner actually mfgs the projector for Leica. My view is that Leica gets someone to make a projector for them that uses a Leica lens of course at as lower a cost as possible. I would suspect that Projection Design does not manuf. the volumes of either Sim2 or Infocus and has as a consequence a higher cost structure. The Projection Design "own" products retail price are also in the same ball park as Pradovit and I query this since their competitors that are using the latest chip set from TI offer a better spec. on paper at half the retail price. Now if there is something subtle due to the use of a Leica lens or whatever then fine then maybe leica Pradovit is special. Given the main items governing picture quality are around the DSP module and DSP chip set from TI I would suppose it is best to use the latest TI offering. I also suppose it is best to partner with someone who has the volumes to support new product releases on an annual to 18 month cycle as new TI chip sets evolve. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaapv Posted September 3, 2009 Share #9 Posted September 3, 2009 Not very difficult to find out. I just asked Leica. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
leicanut2 Posted September 3, 2009 Share #10 Posted September 3, 2009 If you look at canon and the like they bring new things in every year . You can make a small upgrade every year it would be called new. Digital is still evolving. Jan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Ash Posted September 3, 2009 Share #11 Posted September 3, 2009 For everybody understanding German: http://de.leica-camera.com/assets/file/download.php?filename=file_4291.pdf Actually I do not understand why Leica does not provide a translation of this test. To make it short: Leica was the cheapest and far best. Regards Steve Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff S Posted September 3, 2009 Author Share #12 Posted September 3, 2009 If you look at canon and the like they bring new things in every year . You can make a small upgrade every year it would be called new. Digital is still evolving. Jan Yep, I get it. But this refers to "tens of new products over next one to two years." I interpret "tens" to be at least 20. Without lenses, that's a lot of new stuff...upgrades or not...in one to two years. I'm no armchair CEO, and don't feel qualified to seriously question Leica's strategy. I just wondered if Puts' claim that this was indeed Leica's strategy is spelled out anywhere (annual report?) and, if so, how it should be intrepreted. Jeff Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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