VIDI: Will this convince Olympus to embrace SD/MMC?

Olympus fans may be annoyed that we keep on picking on Olympus for using the xD memory card exclusively on most of their non-DSLRs, but it's for their own good :-)

The latest financial results are reported at Bloomberg, and state that Olympus had a big quarterly profit drop due to lowering digital camera prices.


Olympus was hoping to sell 12.6 million digital cameras this fiscal year, but they say that they may not make this number. Well, if the problem is dropping prices, why would it affect the volume of sales? :-)

The answer in my opinion is embracing the SD/MMC memory card. This will benefit Olympus by:

1. allowing them to keep their prices higher, no need for dirt cheap camera prices to entice buyers to "swallow" the bitter xD pill
   
2. increased sales simply because of the SD/MMC compatibility
   
3. allow the "Stylus SW" line to shine since it is running virtually unopposed from the Big Boys. The nearest competitor is the Pentax W60. We think the SW-line could be a blockbuster seller with SD/SDHC/MMC memory card support. Case in point, the Stylus 770SW is in the Top 10 at Amazon at $200, but was nowhere to be found at $250+

And as a big bonus, Olympus, please stop the obnoxiously silly requirement of an Olympus-brand xD-card for panorama pictures. Everyone can work around it with exactly one Google search, and the gimmick puts off potential buyers. And gets you negative press Olympus :)

But to be fair and balanced, the E410/E420 DSLRs are adorable :-)

PS> This is an instant faux-editiorial :)