I was thinking about adding an XT to my bag, but with the disparity in prices for some of the lenses I’m gonna wait and see how the dust settles and what happens with Alpa and the X-shutter. May get an aperture only lens now to scratch the itch.
Don't hold your breath on timeline. They are aware of the price disparity and want to squeeze the x-shutter monopoly. P1 has said they will make x-shutter available early 2020 ... now it is Q4 earliest ... but is it in their interest when they are about to expand the XT line? C'mon. P1 sees how sales develop, Lance and Doug probably feedback sales statistics to P1 HQ indicating wiggle room on pricing given other tech cams stall in sales, etc. and the reality is the shutter will first and foremost land on their own lenses. Hell if I were a P1 manager I'd also squeeze margins and delay opening of the ecosystem. This is dirty business tricks 101. If the 50 costs 12k, brace yourself for 14-15k lenses entering the arena with the 90HR / 138 HR.
I think they are just playing the game of publicly stating that it will be made available soon, but the reality is it is a tough environment atm and the X-shutter is the key differentiator of the XT. Why on earth make it available soon if XT sales are going strong? It is an age-old business strategy - starve out the competitionn by not supplying key components. It may even be anti-competitive. I think they will just state it to be a good citizen, but delay it to the max.citing reasons of Corona, etc. because this is the perfect excuse to delay that timeline given out initially seeing how well XT fares. Alternatively they can make it available, but freely decide on price. So what if the licensing of each shutter will be 4k or more?
Imagine Alpa pricing then as P1 won't let it happen that other manufacturers with XT shutters undercut their prices. If an Alpa XT 50 4.0 would cost 11k vs. P1 XT at 12 ... it would be just for the compact body and metadata stuff ... but is this going to happen for real? Would you let competitors undercut you in pricing by selling them a key differentiating component? Only solution to this for Alpa is to come up with a proprietary solution, but after e-shutter got killed and given X shutter is vastly better and given they are a lot smaller and just sunk money into the Fuji exoskeleton project which didn't take off ... doubt they have the resources, capabilities or risk appetite to R&D a competitive alternative to the X shutter.
P1 is a behemoth compared to them able to cross-sell the x-shutter technology into "consumer" after having developed it in their industrial segment for the industrial reconnaissance / mapping applications. So basically it is check mate for them and they are dependent on the "mercy" of P1. Poor them, previously they were king of the hill in tech cam land and now financially capable photographers and enthusiasts are slowly buying into XT because at the very top you want the best and the shutter is important and integration is differentiating.
And Cambo? Well they are the ones laughing in the corner getting a cut on each XT and XT lens sold. Smart Dutch.