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The "Other" segment represent various things, not only camera. The loss is about 2,7 millions USD (3 Billions JPY), which is barely 1% of what Ricoh paid to acquire Pentax.
I don't think Ricoh thought that Pentax would be profitable that fast. When you buy a company, you expect a 5 year cycle to get any benefit from it, if you are not cuting it into piece (like Hoya did).
Yes, the "Other" segment may be just the bucket for any strategically unimportant side-businesses, where cameras are just one of them. But only cameras got an explicit negative mention in Ricoh's Report, so it looks like, that cameras were the main culprit, i.e. they probably dragged down the profit of the entire "Other" segment.
They are investing in new technology for new cameras. That is costing a lot of money, before it is going to earn you any money. If you think your new products won't cost you money for development, production, marketing and service, but will only bring you profits to start with, think again.
I can't believe how a single new camera can be the culprit of dragging down all of the entire other Pentax business into a loss, and even further, also all of Ricoh's cameras, and further also all other non-camera businesses within Ricoh's "Others" segment.
Other camera makers also release new cameras all the time, and this doesn't drag their entire camera profits into a loss.
Something must have been going really wrong with Pentax, way beyond the FF. I suspect, that the core business, the revenues from the APS-C segment (K-3 and lenses) must have suffered a severe loss. Maybe the K-3 price drops in the US (unusual for a makers top model) were just a sign of sheer desperation. I suspect that Pentax lost and still looses market share in APS-C, and the pricedrop were an attempt to stop this. Because they may have had difficulties to get rid of their K-3 (despite the price drops), they would still be sitting on a large heap of unsold K-3 and K-3 parts. This would also explain, why the old K-3 will be still on sale, in parallel to the K-3 II. And why the K-3 II is essentially just a K-3 minus a flash and plus two useless gimmicks.
I ignore the GPS (Gimmick Placement Strategy) for now, as most customers already have a smartphone or a Garmin for geotagging photos.
And this sensor-wobbling demosaicking aid is also just a gimmick, which nobody in the community has ever been asking for (AFAIK).
The K-3 II won't be a big seller, So we can safely assume, that the 2015 figures will be bad again. Unless the non-camera "Other" business can compensate.
Ah, balance sheets are over the top of many heads. Now we see major investment in Pentax by Ricoh, which did not happen all these years since acquisition. So far, Ricoh has operated on nil new expenditure, or very little investment but saving through the restructure. Now when that period is over, new investment MUST come, and Ricoh must show lack of profitability because new investment surpasses whatever profit they made in the past. Readying for the FF is a serious long-term strategy that needs lots of $$, especially in the beginning when core technologies are built. Balance sheets must not cheat, and therefore, we see Ricoh reporting red, same as Fujifilm for example, who also invests lots of $$ into the new system and thus cannot report sufficient profits. This was rather expected, because that situation from 2011-2014, when Ricoh was showing some profits in imaging division, was not natural. That meant no new major investments happened after the acquisition. So yes, this is GOOD news — for those who can understand.
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Aurele · 513 weeks ago
I don't think Ricoh thought that Pentax would be profitable that fast. When you buy a company, you expect a 5 year cycle to get any benefit from it, if you are not cuting it into piece (like Hoya did).
Ronnie · 513 weeks ago
But only cameras got an explicit negative mention in Ricoh's Report, so it looks like, that cameras were the main culprit, i.e. they probably dragged down the profit of the entire "Other" segment.
Guy with a K-5 · 513 weeks ago
Ronnie · 513 weeks ago
Other camera makers also release new cameras all the time, and this doesn't drag their entire camera profits into a loss.
Something must have been going really wrong with Pentax, way beyond the FF. I suspect, that the core business, the revenues from the APS-C segment (K-3 and lenses) must have suffered a severe loss. Maybe the K-3 price drops in the US (unusual for a makers top model) were just a sign of sheer desperation. I suspect that Pentax lost and still looses market share in APS-C, and the pricedrop were an attempt to stop this.
Because they may have had difficulties to get rid of their K-3 (despite the price drops), they would still be sitting on a large heap of unsold K-3 and K-3 parts. This would also explain, why the old K-3 will be still on sale, in parallel to the K-3 II. And why the K-3 II is essentially just a K-3 minus a flash and plus two useless gimmicks.
I ignore the GPS (Gimmick Placement Strategy) for now, as most customers already have a smartphone or a Garmin for geotagging photos.
And this sensor-wobbling demosaicking aid is also just a gimmick, which nobody in the community has ever been asking for (AFAIK).
The K-3 II won't be a big seller, So we can safely assume, that the 2015 figures will be bad again. Unless the non-camera "Other" business can compensate.
K-lover · 513 weeks ago
again
RiceHigh 110p · 513 weeks ago
Mike Kawasaki · 512 weeks ago
Now we see major investment in Pentax by Ricoh, which did not happen all these years since acquisition. So far, Ricoh has operated on nil new expenditure, or very little investment but saving through the restructure. Now when that period is over, new investment MUST come, and Ricoh must show lack of profitability because new investment surpasses whatever profit they made in the past.
Readying for the FF is a serious long-term strategy that needs lots of $$, especially in the beginning when core technologies are built. Balance sheets must not cheat, and therefore, we see Ricoh reporting red, same as Fujifilm for example, who also invests lots of $$ into the new system and thus cannot report sufficient profits.
This was rather expected, because that situation from 2011-2014, when Ricoh was showing some profits in imaging division, was not natural. That meant no new major investments happened after the acquisition. So yes, this is GOOD news — for those who can understand.