[LRflex] Re: Leica - new report this morning

To add my 0.02 Euros here:

According to Panasonic, the lenses are built uing commissioned testing 
equipment by Assurance Quality of Leaica AG.

Then it means the lens were deigned by a handful bunch of guys and put in 
production in Japan (the cameras I have seen were made in Japan by 
Panasonic). David Y. explained that the Lens Zoom (80-200) was built by 
Jyocera for Leica. It oozes out quality and sturdiness.

The point is that Leica AG is not able to mass  produce. However the DigiCam 
market is more a competence of large consummers products makers such as 
Canon and Panasonic (hey, my Microwave and dust cleaner are from Panasonic!)
In a recent speech at a gathering here in Paris, The Chairman of Canon said 
they want to recenter their effort on the printing business. They are the 
only profitable company at the moment and they feel it is not going to last.

The back side of the medal is that Canon France is not able to repair the 
latest Digicams of the market because there are no spare parts. In other 
words, they sell a product and accept that they need to refound the client 
when the camera is not working. No way they are accepting maintenance, it 
costs too much.

So?

Probably they could live on the royalties from Panasonic, develop a M Lens 
Holder (leica MH!) they will live no better but no worse than before.

But the mechanical era has received another blow.

Douglas Herr, hold the SL, I'm adding a CCD to it!

---------------------------------
Xavier F. BILLE
Maisons-Alfort - France.





>From: Douglas Sharp <douglas.sharp@xxxxxx>
>Reply-To: leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>To: Leica Users Group <lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, 
>Leica Users Group <lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>Subject: [LRflex] Leica - new report this morning
>Date: Thu, 24 Nov 2005 09:47:46 +0100
>
>Good morning everyone,
>The local paper has an article on the business page about what Herr
>Spichting has been saying about the future of Leica.
>Just a quick-and-dirty translation of the main points.
>
>The headline is "Leica will be making a profit in 2007"
>sub-head "Staff reduction and digital technologies: The camera
>manufacturer is planning a radical renewal"
>
>Spichting: " Our most important target  has changed from short-term
>survival to medium and long-term successful repositioning"
>
>Spichting declined to comment on how many jobs are in danger, but
>mentioned that discussions are being held with the workers
>representative councel.
>Investor protection representatives demanded that Leica should
>concentrate on correcting the errors of the past.
>Leica didn't wake up to the realities of digital photography (directly
>translated : they slept through it) and were running a long way behind
>the market (and not catching up).
>  Spichting admitted: "I must note that, in the past, Leica did not make
>sensible use of all the chances offered by digital technologies"
>
>Leica will now be strengthening their market position with new digital
>products. Strategic partnerships with other companies will be reinforced
>and expanded.
>A new advertising campaign will underline the distinctive features of
>the brand "Leica". Emphasis will also be laid on the "Sport Optics"
>division (binoculars).
>
>Leica will be creating an "employment and qualification group" (My
>definition: this is part of the social net to help relocate redundant
>employees, since the 80s this has been a part of most redundancy
>packages - the sequence runs: redundancy warning, discussions with the
>workers council, agreement on severance payments (based on years of
>employment, age, marital status, number of children etc.) and then
>seminars for outsourcing, re-education for other jobs, how to write job
>applications,and everything else involved with becoming unemployed -
>except giving them new jobs - I've been through it all nearly 3 years
>ago, the severance money was good, but the rest is a load of time
>consuming rubbish which is very profitable for the outsourcers who run it).
>
>Leica is expecting to reach an agreement with the workers reps some time
>in December (funny, they always do it just before Christmas)
>
>Although Leica had a Q1 and Q2  increase in turnover for he current
>financial year (1st April 2005 to 31st March 2006)Leica is still in the 
>red.
>Income rose by 6.7% to 48M euro, the figures after tax after 6 months
>were still minus 4.6M euro.
>Leica employs 996 staff worldwide, 400 of these are in Solms.
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