Is Pentax to disappear?

Over a year ago I was in a Jacobs branch in the west end, I remarked to the salesman about the apparent demise of Jessop shops to be closed down. He told me Jessops expanded far too swiftly and as a consequence they were having problems. He felt that if Jessops went bust they would throw out the life raft and hire some of their staff but not all.

It is more likely in my opinion that Jessops will go to the wall not Pentax

This is a very interesting thread, the initial question "will pentax disappear?
Of course they will and their lines will be branded Samsung same as Sony did with Minolta.
As for Pentax not releasing more models well that could very simply be due to the fact that Samsung are quite visionary in markets and possibly decided just to consolodate at this particular time rather than invest millions in new models.
I would not be surprised to see Nikon being swallowed by Sony in the furture. You just need to take a look at the 52 week share prices of the companies concerned.
Pentax has hardly moved, canon and Nikon have seen massive share price drops and in all honesty i think this is partly due to them having so many models for sale at a very shaky time.
Canon and Nikon need these new models to hit the ground running and that just is not happening in the current climate.
As for Jessops, well they have been the masters of their own downfall. I was in the Glasgow store the other week and it was like shopping in Russia during the Cold War.
I asked about 3 different cameras and what bundles they could offer and the saleman basically said what was on the shelf was what they had and tbh that wasnt very much.
I think Jessops will eventually keep 2 or 3 big stores and bin the rest.

In the end these are not times for expansion of ranges but more of consolodation to ride it out and see what happens next as i believe there is no one in this world could give you a Best Guess as to what is round the corner.

You must have been in that Jessops shop for a long long time Craig Everyone's counting down the days to May 21st

May 21st?
What happens then?. End of world?. Jessops shutting up completely?
Or are you referring to the mythical New Pentax DSLR that no one with any cred seems to know anything about?
I hope its true, but im a "believe it when i see it person"
Its long been accepted that DPReview are amongst the first to get these snippets and i may have missed it but i havent seen a mention of it.
And as for that Shady Picture that keeps appearing on the web it looks like a Sony A700 has Raped a Canon 400D and this is its offspring.

Well, DPreview isn't exactly the most respected website... It isn't for nothing that more and more people call it Depressing Review...

You've not been banned have you?

You don't go for frenzied speculation then Craig?? If you believe the soothsayers then Pentax would have been dead a long, long time ago..

Meanwhile, there's a K10D near my right hand that's just begging to be used

Regarding Jessops disappearance, bad news for all, in a Daily Telegraph article 25th April 09 David Adams is revamping the ailing dealership, with sales rising and their sponsors HSBC and Jessops are now in a process which is likely to end with a positive outcome. Jessops climb back started a few weeks ago with the London Oxford Street branch having a £300,000 refurbishment and is the likely blue print for further stores.
So as they say watch this space!

Funny refurb - they reduced retail space by 50% by turning the ground floor into some kind of training centre. In the meantime dont bother trying to buy any acccessories, they stock a minimal range of bags, tripods etc. compared to what they used to stock.

If this refurb cost 300k, my flat looks like good value!