From an article in the German Giessener Anzeiger newspaper two weeks ago (Google translation):
“The 1000 employees of Leica Camera AG (Solms / Lahn-Dill-Kreis) fear for their jobs. With sharp words of CEO Rudolf Spiller employees in a staff meeting has described the situation of Leica. In order to stabilize the company, the employees are on holiday and give Christmas bonuses for a total of around one million euros.”
At the same time (2 weeks ago) there were 50 pre-orders for the new Leica S2 camera from the US alone.
Moving forward to yesterday: Amateurphotographer reports an incredible demand for the new Leica M9 in London in the first few days after the official launch: photographers were trading in their “bulky” Canon and Nikon DLSRs for the smallest full frame camera on the market today. In one of the Leica stores in London, the initial delivery of eight Leica M9 cameras was sold in 14 minutes and the store’s manager claimed that “I could sell 50 today”.
