I believe some of the issues are because many feel that since this is CMOS, it should be cheaper. Before the chips were all CCD and no one was making these but Dalsa (and before Kodak) Teledyne/Dalsa is a large company, with huge U.S. gov. contracts and I believe that the MF CCD manufacturing was a small part of their entire company revenues. However for Phase One, and the other players, there was not a CCD in a 35mm camera that could approach even the P65+. It was clear if you wanted high resolution, you needed CCD and Medium format.
35mm quickly switched over to CMOS years ago I believe since the D800 36MP chip, the gap did close quite a bit. I base this on my use of both systems. I am sure there were people that moved to Phase One after using the D800, but I am also sure there were many other photographers that moved from either older or lower end MF backs to the D800. At least with photographers who shoot outdoor landscapes. I am still amazed daily at what I can get from the D800, in both color and dynamic range. If Phase One increased their sales over last year by 1% that is an increase. But I am sure it's more than that. I also believe that Phase One sales in China may account for quite a bit of their overall revenue. Phase One being a private company does not publish any sales results.
I personally feel that the cost of the chip in the IQ250 is considerably less than a comparable CCD chip mainly because the cost of the current 36MP 35mm chips are keeping the D800 at 3K, this is for a entire camera solution, not just a back. But 36MP at 35mm, vs 50MP in 1.3 crop MF, the yields will be a bit different. However Sony surely has the fab process figured out, and they have already published specs for their own 54MP 35mm chip. This is not a rumor, it's on the Sony site and Sony has talked about this chip several times in regards to the fact that the camera associated with this chip will not fall into the 3K price range. So the cost of these larger chips is more, but more than likely not 20K more.
Right now, Phase One is the only company shipping a MF CMOS back. Pentax and Hassi, may ship something later on, but for now Phase One has the only "real" product. If I was Phase One, I would charge what the market will bare. Will that change if Pentax and Hassi ship a product? Only time will tell.
But if the spec's for the 645DII do hold to what the early reports show, for the first time the players will be on an even playing field, CMOS 50MP, Sony chip. This was never there before. It took Pentax years to get the 645D to market and when it did, Phase was shipping the P65+. When the 645D did ship, it was hard to find, get service and purchase lenses at least in the U.S. This has improved and large dealers, like CI, now carry the Pentax line and they will be possibly in a great position when and if the 645DII does hit the market. For me at the price point of any of these solutions, I prefer the removable back, as it can be used on both a 645 camera and tech solution. Is this capability worth the large extra cost, that is something that each person has to determine.
Paul C