On my first day in Hong Kong I got the chance to meet up with the local Ricoh representatives, one of whom I've met at Photokina. It was a great opportunity to meet up again and we arranged another meeting. This time it would be for a full day.
This meeting was today and it is fantastic to see them again. Let me say a big thank you to everyone involved for meeting me and for arranging everything. Today's meeting was not only with Ricoh but also with their main distributor 'Laikok' and the people from 'DC Fever'.
We had lunch together and also discussed the recent price drop for the Ricoh cameras, discussed here by Nevin. The discounts are because of the current economic situation and not because of a new release. The earliest for a new camera release or announcement will be in 2-3 months but rather later.
A big thank you to the guys from DC Fever for getting the red Artisan&Artist* neck straps for me in such a short time. They have some very unique accessories that are difficult to find elsewhere so be sure to check out one of their shops when in HK looking for cameras or gear.
Afterwards we went to the HK Exhibition & Convention Centre to see the 'Inno Design Tech Expo 2008'. Ricoh are present there for having won the 'Good Design Gold Award 2008' for the Ricoh GRD II. If you ask me, this is well deserved since the GRD is the best designed digital camera available with perfect ergonomics.
This is what the jury had to say:
"In the digital camera market, where new products appear in rapid section, this series has always aimed for long-lived design with the high-end amateur users in mind. Ricoh doesn't want its cameras to become mere commodities. I appreciate Ricoh's effort to lengthen the life of their products from an industrial designing standpoint."The Ricoh cameras at the stand were very popular, especially with girls. Something to the contrary that girls want pink 'soap box' cameras as Canon thinks. This comes as no surprise since women make a big part of buyers for Ricoh cameras, especially in Taiwan.
There is another very interesting meeting with Ricoh scheduled in the next days so check back :).
Thanks for the good news of another design award to GRD.
ReplyDeleteYour trip so far seems to be very rewarding. The Ricoh people are truly beautiful, aren't they? I doubt another dc brand people would treat their fans like that. Can't wait to read more about your further meeting with Ricoh.
Thanks for the update and links. I made a response on mine to the Laikok people's comments.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Ricoh also won the Good Design Award (not Gold though) 2008for its GX200, R8 and G600.
Look forward to the meetup tonight, Cristi.
The trip is indeed very rewarding and I am glad to have the opportunity to meet the people from Ricoh.
ReplyDeleteNevin, thanks for the information. Knew about the GX200 and R10 but not the G600.
Looking forward to our meeting later.