Pentax changes focus as profits fall
By
Mike Tomkins
(Tuesday, July 19, 2005 - 14:35 EDT)
Several news articles today from Bloomberg.com cover the latest financial information released by Japanese company Pentax Corp.
Imaging Resource readers will likely best know Pentax for its lineup of Optio digital cameras, as well as a range of digital and film SLRs, lenses and accessories. The company also deals in a number of other fields, including medical imaging, sport optics, printers, and CCTV cameras, amongst others. According to Bloomberg, Pentax has today announced a 42% drop in first quarter profits, largely due to losses from its photographic unit.
In response to this, Pentax is apparently cutting its digital camera inventory, and shifting its focus in a couple of areas. The company intends to concentrate more on single-lens reflex digital cameras rather than compact point-and-shoot models - echoing moves from a number of other digicam manufacturers recently. The company also intends to ramp up the speed of its announcements from two models a year in the past, to three this year.
Alongside these planned changes at the photographic unit, Pentax is also looking to change the overall balance of the company as a whole. Company president Fumio Urano stated: "We want to balance our portfolio by making the imaging systems, medical gear and optical device businesses each make up about a third of sales." Pentax currently has three digital SLR models. The Pentax *ist D was announced in February 2003, and the Pentax *ist DS followed in September 2004. The latest model, the Pentax *ist DL was announced early last month.
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