I agree with your guess that it is the consumer division that is being talked about. For decades, Panasonic and JVC released VHS, VHS-C, and DV camcorders that were generally equal. Now they release Plasma and Home Theater electronics. There's no good reason to do so. Why two Blu-ray players?

Now it would seem simple to simply leave the JVC brand and kill the overlapping products. But, for the JVC consumer sales channel, that might leave only a dozen products which would lead to defections.

When I lived in Japan, JVC was considered to be on a par with Sony -- and Matsushita was like GE. So an alternative is to keep the JVC brand and use it like Matsushita did "Techniques." A brand that does the more unique and more slightly expensive products. The HDD based DV (and HDV?)camcorders come to mind.

The JVC pro group has already made the smart move of not duplicating Matsushita pro products. Except for the 5000 series of DV camcorders, almost everything they sell is unique. Moreover, by NOT launching non-tape based products, they keep using their decades of investment in tape transport design. They also follow more of an "open standards" approach which cuts R&D costs. (They use DV -- not DVCAM or DVCPRO.)

They also partner. The HD1/HD10's encoder came from NTT. For all we know the new encoder chip also comes from outside. (Or, like American companies, they may design the chip and have it built by a fab company.) In the future, they could buy chipset's (even from the USA) that are a complete H.264 HD camcorder on a chip. The CMOS they talked of came from outside, too.

All this keeps R&D costs low and lets them focus their engineers on what really counts -- product design for the professional. The HD100 "feels" right, while IMHO, the X1 does not. Because they keep costs low, as long as they keep producing winners, they should be able to make a good profit. Thus, they could remain a separate company like now -- or become a specialty division like JEEP. JEEP makes unique products and it's Name and Image are critical.

So I wouldn't worry about our HD100, etc.

For all you finance types, you can find all of the financial results for JVC at their investor relations site. Read the President's message. He is very frank about the difficulties they have had.

http://www.jvc.co.jp/english/company/ir/index.html

Here's the Cliff Notes version:

Their problems were mainly with the consumer products division. Sales were down due to quality problems with DVD recorders and late product introductions. Fierce competition with digital products also eroded prices and profit margins.

The professional products division was actually pretty stable, although not really a standout. Sales were down slightly about 1% but profits were actually up. Professional products only account for 8% of the JVC's consolidated sales (compared to 74% for consumer products).

JVC is a pretty small player. JVC's entire sales revenue only makes up 7% of its parent company, Matsushita's (Panasonic) consolidated yearly sales. Panasonic AVC Networks (the divisions that make all the consumer and professional A/V electronics) make up 39% of Matsushita sales. That division actually lost money in 2002 but quickly recovered after that.

It's kind of interesting to look at these companies' financial results. It opens your eyes to how slim their profit margins really are when everything is factored in.

Oh heck, it's a great picture so here it is... just so long as no one thinks it's a real camera. It's been making the rounds at the studios. Personally, I'd have addded an AB battery and Focus drive.
J

That picture would only be better if it had the $11,000 wide angle Fujinon lens on it.

When I found out it was a hoax, it was one of those moments when I said, "I wish I'da thought a that!" I've been smilin' about that picture all day. Darn fine idea about the lens, though!

One could only hope that a hybrid like that could occur - it would really be a killer camera for the price. The best of both ...

Hmmm, I guess everyone forgot JVC is supporting LCOS as a viable alternative to DLP and getting great reviews of their products in the Home Theater press. And they are selling lots and lots of hd-100 cameras. Maybe they will be better off getting out of the low end consumer market with it's paper thin margins.

Relax, be happy folks, unless Sony buys them and shuts them down. Oh Sh#t, what a nightmare that would be.

And Jonathon, just what part of "Double Secret Probation" did you not understand????!!!!!!

Sincerely
Dean Wormer

With the workload I'm looking at today starting ....RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!! that was what I needed. Funny! I'll be thinking Wormer all day now.