[HUG ] Re: SV: Re: Dollar fall kills Hasselblad? (and Leica?)

Tom Just Olsen wrote:
The point is the falling dollar. A camera that cost ? 3,000 back in 2002 would cost 3,000 US$ back then. Today ? 3,000 is more like 4,850 US$ today. Add then that you have to increase the price because of fewer units sold - like the Leica M8, and the camera producer will have to charge more than 5,000 US$. And so on...
Only in countries where they insist on trading in US$. And tose are, uhm..., the US. But a CFV back still costs the same as it did a year ago in the US, doesn't it? 

In other countries, the strong Euro means prices could go down.
But they don't: companies rather put that extra profit in their own pocket than give it to us. That's what their reason for being is after all, to generate profits. So we, poor Europeans are the ones who are robbed, paying more than we should.
And that that is true is demonstrated by (among other things) the "fly to the US and save a buck" shopping sprees. (Another thing that shows how we are fleeced is what we pay at the pump when filing up our cars. Oil prices have sky rocketed, true. In US$. But set the increase in oil price along the increase in Euro vs Dollar value, and lo and behold: oil hasn't gotten much more expensive at all. But you wouldn't say by what gas prices at the pump have been doing.)
The result is that quite a few companies achieved astronomical profits last year, some increasing profit by as 'little' as 600%. 
Hasselblad is probably not among those, though.




=============================================================================================================
To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your 
account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) 
and unsubscribe from there.

Other related posts: