G
gdwhalen
Guest
I think that market share has always been the black hole of corporate strategy. Profits are what matter, not market share.
I don't believe Leica is set up for a market share battle from a production standpoint. I think they are designed to make a small quantity of "typically" very good lenses and cameras. Given that situation, they are better off selling high (like Porsche) and simply making money on everything they sell rather than have a loss leader (body) that they sell under cost to introduce their profit center (lenses) into the market when they don't even have the production capabilities to produce 1.1x amount anyway.
This way they have a manageable production situation and a profitable bottom line. There are plenty of people that will buy into the S2 when it comes out. The real test will be a year down the road. After the camera is out and after the competition has seen the products capabilities. If the competition can't match the quality they will try to lower their prices. If they can match the quality they will introduce better functional capabilities. My issue with Leica has always been the same one. They are too slow to get their products out and by the time they are out (not talking about the M's here as that is a pretty much Leica proprietary market) they are almost obsolete - technically.
I don't believe Leica is set up for a market share battle from a production standpoint. I think they are designed to make a small quantity of "typically" very good lenses and cameras. Given that situation, they are better off selling high (like Porsche) and simply making money on everything they sell rather than have a loss leader (body) that they sell under cost to introduce their profit center (lenses) into the market when they don't even have the production capabilities to produce 1.1x amount anyway.
This way they have a manageable production situation and a profitable bottom line. There are plenty of people that will buy into the S2 when it comes out. The real test will be a year down the road. After the camera is out and after the competition has seen the products capabilities. If the competition can't match the quality they will try to lower their prices. If they can match the quality they will introduce better functional capabilities. My issue with Leica has always been the same one. They are too slow to get their products out and by the time they are out (not talking about the M's here as that is a pretty much Leica proprietary market) they are almost obsolete - technically.