TOKYO—Japan's Pentax Corp. said on Wednesday it has tied up with a
unit of South Korea's Samsung Electronics to jointly develop digital
single lens reflex (SLR) cameras, aiming to pool resources and cut
costs.
The deal will allow Samsung to make a full-fledged entry into the
fast-growing market for digital SLR cameras, which are generally
more expensive and offer better performance than simple
point-and-shoot compact models and use interchangeable lenses.
It also marks the latest alliance between traditional camera makers
and electronics firms in digital SLR models following similar deals
between Olympus Corp. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.,
and Konica Minolta Holdings and Sony Corp.
Pentax said it and Samsung Techwin Co. Ltd. would work together on
developing entry-level and middle-range digital SLR models that sell
for under 200,000 yen. Each company plans to market the cameras
under its own brand.
Samsung Techwin is owned 25.5 percent by Samsung Electronics, the
most valuable technology firm outside the United States and a vast
electronics maker with leading positions in a wide range of products
including chips, mobile phones and flat panel displays.
The alliance will bring together Samsung's strength in electronics
and Pentax 's expertise in lenses. Pentax also hopes the deal will
allow it to accelerate product development and better weather a
brutal price war in the digital camera market.
"In the digital era the pace of innovation is so fast," Pentax
Senior Executive Officer Ko Torigoe told a press conference. "We
have embarked on this joint development to increase our speed."
Their first joint effort will be a camera, based on a current Pentax
model, that incorporates some Samsung technology and which will be
launched next spring. A jointly developed camera would not come
until next autumn, Pentax said.
Pentax is concentrating on digital SLR cameras to shift its focus
away from compact digital cameras, a segment of the market that has
been flooded with dozens of electronics makers, pushing down prices
and leaving margins razor-thin.
Pentax reported a 48 percent fall in group operating profit for the
2004/05 business year, hit by sliding prices of compact digital
cameras, which pushed its imaging division to an operating loss of
1.6 billion yen. |