3. Losing confidence

As always, people look to the flagship as the leading technology and performance bearer for any product line-up. It is the flagship that points the way to the future and whether that future is reassuring or not, the technologies entrenched in the leading product are always what people invariably look forward to in order to feel safe and assured. Nobody cares much if the flagship earns money for the company or not; so long as it’s vibrant and competitive, that’s all that matters. And once the E-1’s retirement from the market had become imminent, the pressure on Olympus to respond mounted beyond the normal expected levels.

But Olympus is not Olympus for nothing. The company that countless knew of during the 80’s remains essentially the same in the new millennium. Of course the problem is that the current new generation hardly knew who they are today. And so on September 26 2006 at the Photokina Olympus unveiled the design direction that everyone had wanted them to go in the form of the new E-400. Memories of the 1972 groundbreaking OM-1 (or OM-2) were obvious. Statistically it was identical but weight-wise, it was lighter; enough to make it the world’s smallest and lightest DSLR. It was what the Four-Thirds format promised and the end of 2006 was the real starting point for many.

Two things were evident at that point and both weren’t good news for those who were eager to hear them. As sales of the E-400 were restricted to the European market, North American customers were not amused to say the least. Secondly a wood-crafted mock-up of a possible E-1 replacement was not well received. Let’s have a look at each of these separately.

The E-400 was purely a strategic marketing move to plug the gap in the company’s timeline. Its purpose wasn’t anything more than that. Reading the specifications would have easily indicated this. In as much as the North American market was disappointed, the two-model approach in 2007 pretty much erased the E-400 from memory quite quickly. By then easing both the E-410 and E-510 into the market had vindicated Olympus’ strategy and appeased the American market and more importantly signalled its new-found competitiveness. It’s fair therefore to say that the E-400 had merely fulfilled the company’s purpose and nothing more.

The wooden mock-up was entirely different. Facing a market that was pining to see the ‘real thing,’ Olympus misjudged the level of anticipation. It might be the most celebrated expectation of any DSLR in the past number of years but by delaying further, the company had sparked a level of fanning ire that was becoming increasingly difficult to placate.