One of our long time Samsung sources shared some great info about the NX1:
1) Samsung will apply the Fuji Kaizen philosophy on the NX1, It means they plan to constantly upgrade the camera via firmware updates. The next couple of months you should expect to great firmware update almost…monthly! Samsung is collecting feedback from owners to tweak and improve the cam.
2) The NX1 is now selling very very well. In some markets the demand is higher than the supply. Hence the price will stay unchanged for months, possibly many months, differently from the original plans. Even in USA the NX1 is now selling better according to Amazon mirrorless camera ranking (Click here).
Ok, good to hear the NX1 sells well but they could please us with a small price drop anyway…don’t you Samsung? 🙂
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10 Responses
For sure the nx1 is having more heads turned than all the other nx cameras put together.
And if they really start listening to customers (something they never did before) they could actually succeed in creating brand awareness.
After all, if they want, they have plenty to add to future fw, according to this:
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/55198011
That’s not what Kaizen is. Kaizen is a process improvement within an organization to minimize waste. So your accounting department, your assembly line, your supply chain, is always looking for means to improve efficiency.
If we were really to apply kaizen to this context, it would mean for example that Fuji engineers and designers and production workers look for opportunities for shortcuts, cost reduction, efficiencies, in producing a product, in supporting back office operations, to minimize wastefulness of time and effort.
Applying fixes after a product is delivered to a consumer- and is owned by the consumer- to overcome product limitations or deficiencies has nothing to do with kaizen. If anything, an argument can be made to apply the kaizen technique to the manufacturer such that post-sales support is minimized.
Mh, no, well, yes, ok, that’s Kaizen applied to an organization inner structure. But the term is much more vast, including also how people live and behave, their relationship with the others, with nature, etc. It was intended primarily as a spiritual path towards getting better in life. Then, thanks to the matter-of-fact aspect of Japanese culture, it was applied to all sort of long-term commitments and social relationships, including, of course, the kaisha organization (which is oh so important in the daily life and society of Japanese people). And that’s probably how we (Westeners) got to know it. But the way Fuji (and not Samsung, since they are Korean) use the term is more than correct, at least linguistically (i.e. if you discount the fact that cameras should be properly working from day 1, not requiring further updates to do what all other cameras already do).
So Samsung is doing same as Fuji, that means they released a half-baked camera with missing features that they couldn’t implement at schedule or did PR trick to implement them later. Then they call these as “updates” or “upgrades”, while what it truly is, is just fixing the camera to do what it was suppose to from day 1.
The software technology has allowed manufacturers to get easy for consumers, as you can fix product later on. Only important thing is to get hardware in and then fix it later. If we would not have softwares so much, the product would required to be working in day 1.
Depends on how you see the glass (half full or half empty). Consider that, as much you can beta test a camera, you won’t be able to find as many bugs as when the camera is spread among thousands uf users.
So, yes, there are bugs and issues ti be fixed, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they knew those in advance.
And consider that they also added features with 1.2, based on the reviewers’ feedback.
I hope they also listen to customers and implement those features listed in the thread I linked from dpr in my other post.
Admin, could you forward the link to samsung?
Great strategy!
I hope Samsung wouldn’t abuse it to simply keep the NX1 in the news all the time.
Hopefully, if Samsung NX1 is successful, other manufacturers to be more proactive too.
Term of “??” or Kaizen means to change for the better. Firmware is expected to improve the operating system and hence, it is perhaps in this light that the term was used. Nonetheless, I agree that Kaizen is about making improvements at work not with existing products. Would NX-500 benefit from the NX-1 updates?
As a NX1-User it sounds very good for me.
In addition: any information from Samsung about a lense-roadmap 2015 or plans of third-part-lenses for the nx-system?
Samsung add 2 things and you will rule the photo/video camera crowd: 1. UHD @ 60p 2. 240fps burst (1080)
240fps at 1080 would be VERY interesting. If they can’t make it last for long periods, even 30 seconds at that rate would be great.
I hope this can be done.