Now that's a great quote. Dead on target. The MF back market is a niche market, of modest size, with high development costs, competition, and evolving fairly quickly. How many manufacturers do we expect to compete in this market? 2 or 3? Right now, with Phase, Leaf, Hassy (Imacon) and Sinar/Jenoptic - does anyone else get the feeling its a bit crowded?
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I agree, excellent point from hcubell. It's a lot like the major computer hardward mfgrs. You have to be open enough to provide critical compatibility, but closed enough to lock consumers in as much as possible (without pissing them off so much that they jump ship to a competitor).
No one should be suprised at this trend. It's like Apple fanboys (I'm one) that occasionally are surprised (I'm not) when Steve does something machiavellian to limit choice. It's in the best interest of Apple as a corporate organism. Same goes for every camera manufacturer out there.
To that end, how many major computing platforms are there? If there are any parallels between the markets we can definitely expect shake out and consolidation.
Frankly, I need perfect choice less than I need great support, good third party product selection, etc. for a living breathing camera system, regardless of the fact that it's closed.
Final pointless imperfect analogy:
If Apple = minority 'challenger' platform and MS = majority incumbent platform, is Hy6 Apple and Hassy MS?