Pentax losing market share?

seems vistek in toronto dropped pentax d-slrs from it's store and will only order in lenses on special order...
is that happening elsewhere?

I thought that Pentax's market share was up since the K10D came out!

I'm sure it is.

Different suppliers change their portfolio of products all the time. Quite a few in the UK are now also embracing Samsung as well as Pentax, so market share will without doubt be increasing.

Several large retailers in Aust don't sell Pentax gear even thier compacts. Why that is i suspect. :
We only have one importer of Pentax equipment into Australia Which is why the price of Pentax gear is so high. The retailers i suspect don't want to deal with him because he is a rip off merchant. (putting it bluntly)

My local family owned photography shop stocked pentax
then they got taken over by wilkinson cameras (chain store) and they dont stock pentax, nor second hand equiptment, and the guys workin there arent nearly as knowledgable!

Hi Don,

Was into the new Vistek location in Mississauga a couple of weeks ago and although they were still unpacking and stocking shelves, there were some Pentax items in the cabinets. I asked the sales person if there was more "on the way" and she confirmed, just "start up" confusion. It would be a surprise to me if they were dropping the line given the opportunity they had of not even allocating shelf space in a new store if that was to become policy.

As a suggestion, another smaller family owned camera store I also visit has significantly reduced the number of stocked Pentax bodies. They will still order anything needed but it appears their strategy is not to be caught with excessive "obsolete" inventory once the newest Pentax line-up is introduced in the new year and the larger city vendors start dumping (the older models) at potentially below cost pricing (it's happened in the past).

They seem to be looking forward to this new model with the two specs. By comparision, selling the Nikon line has become confusing to the average consumer with all the "D's" introduced over the last couple of years.

Hopefully, if Vistek is reducing their Pentax inventory (the Pentax Canada warehouse is about three minutes from their new Mississauga location) it is just a parallel strategy to that of the little outlet. If so, I think it further compliments the specifications of the new Pentax model indicating these will introduce a significant improvement over the existing products and put the Pentax produce squarely ahead of the other contenders.

Based on this dream, didn't ask Santa for any Pentax stuff this year!

Hope you and everyone else on this forum enjoy the season and have a safe, healthy and prosperous 2008.

Al

Over the past year or so I've noticed that the Pentax adverts for the major stores have been becoming more numerous and creeping further to the top of the page. Just a little personal reading beween the lines (or ads)
Still come after the dedicated canon and Nikon pages though.

Not sure about Pentax but the last couple of mags I've bought had a huge increase in Canon advertising. It's been suggested that Canon are disappointed in 30/40D and 5D sales. Not a surprise to me given their pricing policy.