Official K-r gone. What will replace it?

As I stated current on UK, USA & Japan sites.

Does John or someone have a contact at Pentax UK to simply ask the question (I assume questions are allowed). Will we (still) have affordable Pantax K system DSLR's come the New Year or should we start thinking about our next system before we spend any more money on kit?

I wouldn't worry..... You can always buy a K-m

AMAZON link

This is all a bit of deja vu. I remember when the K200D was discontinued. The Km was released shortly after. Pentax has a history of discontinuing one camera just before the next is released. They seem to avoid having competing models. Nikon, on the other hand, continues with old models long after the sucessor is established (you con still buy a new D90...)

I am not worried. Signs of Pentax' demise have been there for years.

Odd how a thread develops. When I started this thread, I was imagining that it would lead to conjecture about the k-r's replacement. For example, what features might trickle down from the k-5 or even, god forbid, it might have no optical view finder (tongue in cheek).

Dave

I think people are surprised they have pulled a good product so early in its lifespan....

To me it looks like about right for Pentax... It seems that the majority of Pentax cameras don't make it past the year - year and a half till the next model comes out. It also looks like the lifecycle of the products has been getting shorter.

Maybe because Pentax cannot - due to volume - keep 3-4 different models in the marketplace it tries to produce the illusion of more than 2 product lines by shortening the lifespans of the models so current models are for sale along older models that still have stock to sell?

Not as good for marketing purposes as having 3-4 distinct lines but definitely a lot more efficient.

I'm not surprised, technology moves fast. What does surprise me is they've done so with no replacement announced!

I'm guessing there is a three part answer to that..
1) components shortages from suppliers causing delays for parts for the kr/k5
2) a deal with Walmart to sell of existing stock at lower prices (who'd by the kr replacement for twice the kr's price?)
3) the newer models are still being developed and maybe components needed from Taiwan, had to be sourced elsewhere...

Panasonic did a similar thing about 5 years ago. They discontinued all their TV DVD/HDD recorders without any replacements being available and once they dried up in the shops you couldn't buy a Panasonic recorder anywhere. I managed to find one in Argos and then about two months later new models started to appear. Even Richer hadn't got any.

makes sense that retailers don't want to be stuck with unsellable old stock. A smaller player with smaller market share has to be on good terms with the retailers if they want them to carry the brand's product!

Yes I remember that, including the Panasonic DMR BS-750 and 850 blu-ray/freesat recorders. I got one for almost half price and when, after a few months, the replacement models popped up they were a bit cheaper than the old models, with a few minor feature changes but the guts was the same and of course a lot more expensive than the one I got (they ended up at less than half price in some places). An extra model with similar specs was added, but for Freeview.

So Ricoh could be doing this, as you say, it's been done before in low-volume up-market consumer electronics.

Perhaps they're getting rid of old stock so the new ones can be labeled as the PENTAX K-ricoh

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I thought that was exactly how they did

This just in, "cows moo".

Popped into Currys today and they are still selling the K-r at the normal price and have had no notification of this camera being discontinued.