Tuesday, May 19, 2009

I'm so sorry that almost all information about the K-7 was leaked.

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Hi Pentaxian friends.

We just can't have nice things anymore. In this age of instant gratification, keeping information secret about an unreleased product has become nearly impossible, as the latest news about the K-7 has shown us.

Someone somewhere got their grubby little hands on a few unreleased photos of the K-7 and plastered them all over the internet, ruining the surprise for everyone and stealing the thunder from legitimate Pentax representatives. It's a crying shame, but I do have a silver lining.

I scoured the internet looking to see just how much information really had made it out ahead of deadline. The photos are real, but the specs not all accurate. There is misinformation being posted about the K-7, so my advice would be to stop believing all the early leaks and wait until tomorrow. It's worth waiting for, believe me.

Thank you for reading,

Yvon Bourque

11 comments:

falconeye said...

> It's a crying shame

Hi Yvon,

I don't actually fully agree. If a vendor REALLY wants to surprise the world, it makes a presentation w/o advance teasers and information given out (under NDA) to dealers and journalists.

Just like Apple does, e.g., with the iPhone presentation.

Pentax choose to inform a large group of people prior to official announcement and this is both unfair to the rest of the world and predetermined to leak.

So, it's no crying shame.


Take care,
falconeye

Unknown said...

Falconeye,

It's okay not to agree. However, I believe the teasers from Pentax came after much of the info had been leaked. They were left in an awkward position. It is quite normal for a company to send information to dealers and some specialty websites, so that the day of the official announcement, all stores and websites can also post the new products, specifications and pictures.

But tomorrow, we all won't care about that. Some people will adore the new K-7 and some will complain. It's all part of living in this day and age.

Regards

Neil Gaudet said...

Well all I know is that your site will be the first one I check tomorrow morning. I look forward to your post.


Cheers

1001 noisy cameras said...

I think the core of the issue is that the marketing plans have not adapted to what happens on the internets.

Considering what we have seen the last five years or so when it comes to announcements, the marketing plans need to be created with leak-contingencies built-in (assuming of course the leaks are not part of the plan)

As far as I recall, none of the camera manufacturers have been able to keep an interesting/popular camera-announcement as a secret.

So if a marketing department is making the assumption they can keep it a secret just this one time, they are going against the odds and historical data.

If the marketing people do the same thing over and over and over, it's going to have the same results every time :)

Perhaps they need to come up with a 21st century approach to product announcements.

Of course this does not justify breaking NDAs and things like that, but it's what happens as the esteemed FalconEye alluded to.

Lloyd said...

Yvon,

I'm with you on the leaking, it gets kind of old that all anybody is talking about in Pentax land is the K-7. I think it is going to be a great camera, but by the time my K200d Dies we will be a long ways down the roadmap.

As a fan of Pentax I am very excited to see the spec on this camera though I think it will be a winner. Now for Pentax to re-do the limiteds to WR spec. A K-7 with DA-15 Limited WR would set my heart on fire as a slot canyon/general hiking camera.

See ya on-line tomorrow.

Lloyd

Unknown said...

1001 noisy cameras,

There is a lot of truth in what you wrote, and I can't argue your points. In my particular case, I did sign an NDA and this past Month has been real hard because of all the speculations (some false and some right on)and the fact that I couldn't respond to any. What would be a good way to introduce new products, in this 21st century, without giving your secrets to your competition?

1001 noisy cameras said...

@Yvon, you are right, this situation puts people who sign an NDA in a very difficult situation once things become globally public. Perhaps the NDAs need to include leak-contingencies in them.

I think the companies need to look at the different variables involved, eg time, number of people, amount of information, places where information is available, etc, etc.

Perhaps have big bang announcements like Falcon Eye described above.

Or inform the people who need to know ahead of time but just days/hours before it goes live instead. Obviously the internet-cycle is different from the print-cycle, which presumably creates some of these complications and dilemmas we see today. But nowadays almost all magazines have websites and blogs. Printed-magazines are already a few weeks behind current camera news anyway, so it's not like it is going to be game-changer for them. I always look forward to getting a nice PMA refresher in June when the magazines come out :)

But the above can reduce, not eliminate leaks, so in my opinion, the most important thing for companies is to accept the fact that there will be leaks, and come up with detailed game plans on how deal with different unintentional leaks at different stages of the game.

Pentaxian KBE said...

Hi Yvon,

The best way to minimize leaks is just releasing it by schedule date. Or giving false information of sorts till the release date. Regarding K-7 this is the best Pentax buzz ever since......they were still no.1 back in the years.
This got all the Pentaxians Pumped up. if this was a full-frame Pentax camera leak, this would be a larger buzz than K-7. =)

Regards,

Kenneth

Cateto said...

Yvon, on the one hand I can understand how you, and how Pentax representatives, must feel by know because the NDA has not been kept.

But I prefer to focus on the other side: maybe it's just my perception, but I think the K-7 introduction has made such a huge noise in photograph circles (not only Pentax circles) that probably it compensates the fact that NDA did not work.

At this time I have seen a level of excitation in general places that I had never seen before with any Pentax dSLR. So maybe, in this respect, there are reasons to feel happy.

Now it's time to have a look at the official specs, then hopefully to read good reviews of the K-7.

D. said...

Offical German Spec Sheet Scans of the K-7:

http://www.glanzbilder.org/2009/05/20/pentax-k-7-specs/

Anonymous said...

I don’t think it is much of a problem. This has been an enormous buzz in the Pentax community, close to half a million viewers have been by the PentaxForums thread, and we needed to know that a higher model was approaching.

It has been very hard to keep track of all the rumors and keep up with them, even if you often visited forums. So there will still be things I do not know about.

But the real bomb will be outside the Pentax world and then all the regular shooter not living in the net-forums. Many in Canon & Nikon land, will first know about it, when it hits the cover of DPr. And this is when regular Pentax shooters will learn about it as well.

Of cause for all you under NDA, you’ve know but couldn’t tell. But all this have just shown the enormous interest from Pentaxians. We’ll still come by this site and read, when all is settled, and you and others can inform.

No NDA were broken, and of cause it can't be done much differently. The moment embargo is lifted, all regular sites needs to know. So they need to have been able to play with the gear beforehand.

All of the rumors and various quality pictures, have not been from on-hands experience; so we’re all still awaiting with excitement.


In other areas, to try and keep it from the press and public, false romours are made, and given to certain people. So if it makes it to the public, you know who can't be trusted.