Pentax, Samsung Unit In Digital Camera Tie-up
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 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
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year, hit by sliding prices of compact digital cameras, which pushed its imaging division to an operating loss of 1.6 billion yen.
It aims for 10 percent of the digital SLR market in the future, up from about 3 percent now. Canon Inc. and Nikon Corp. together control some three-fourths of the market, which is on track to top 4 million units in the year to March, up from 2.76 million units in the prior financial year.
Pentax said the alliance with Samsung could expand to eventually include procurement by Pentax of key parts such as memory chips, image sensors and displays from companies within the Samsung group.
News of the alliance sent shares of Pentax as high as 576 yen in morning trade on Wednesday, up 5.5 percent and their highest in over 14 months. Pentax closed up 2.56 percent at 560 yen, compared with the benchmark Nikkei average's 0.69 percent fall.visit us at http://www.cameradigitalpanasonic.com
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