Am Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:55:48 -0400 schrieb clipka:
> This is my interpretation of the events:
> 
> Virtually all of the former German Democratic Republic (aka East
> Germany) has had a rough time in the transition from socialism to
> capitalism; traditional markets in the Warsaw Pact countries became
> difficult to maintain due to the political shift, and also less
> profitable due to the adoption of the West German currency; the only
> existing footholds in the western world had been in niche markets for
> top-quality optics, which had been a welcome byproduct during the
> socialist era to get western money into the country, but weren't enough
> to sustain the whole optical industry that had developed in that area.

Yeah, that makes sense I guess. A lot of industries struggled in this 
transition.

> 
> The West German optical industry had basically been overrun by Asian
> products much earlier, and had already retreated into the niche markets
> of high-quality optics by the time Germany was re-united in 1989.
> 
> The major reason was that the German companies had always been excellent
> at producing high-quality optics, but Asian companies (at that time
> mostly Japanese) were better at virtually everything else, like
> electronics, systems, and - last not least - pricing. With technical
> innovation in optics progressing slower than in those other fields, the
> German companies rather quickly fell behind on the end-user market, and
> had to give it up, retreating to production of highly specialized
> cameras as well as optics for other companies' high-quality ranges of
> products.

Ah, so I guess, the japanese companies could already be cheaper still 
producing in Japan, and by the time they started producing in China (for 
example) they had already won the market? Because I think just from know 
how with enough effort the german companies could have competed - but 
maybe thats also not true. And if f.e. Nikon produces lenses in China it 
will be mostly the know how, which they sell. Anyway, that train has left 
for german companies and I think there is nothing one can do now 
(considering all patents and such :)).

Post a reply to this message