Rx for Profit = Sony RX* ?
If there were any doubt about my speculation as to the Sony RX1 being a trial balloon, as per the Sony Q1 FY2013 Consolidated Financial Results:
In the imaging business, sales of image sensors for smartphones, including external sales, continue to perform well due to market expansion and Sony’s industry-leading product appeal.
In compact digital cameras, where the market continues to contract, Sony has shifted its product lineup to high value-added models. Sony aims to enhance its profitability through initiatives such as adding new models to the “DSC-RX” series, which created a market for high-end compact digital cameras with large image sensors developed by Sony last year.
DIGLLOYD: Note “compact digital cameras, where the market continues to contract” (see CIPA discussion as well as the existential discussion).
Note also: “high end” and “large image sensors”. While this presumably means full-frame as well as relatively large sensors in very small cameras like the Sony RX100, dare we hope for a medium format mirrorless camera? Probably not, but who knows. But in the 36 X 24mm full-frame category, I bet that Sony can make a camera that could make Leica M users all hot and bothered. Fixed and interchangeable lens both make sense.