A700 Clearance ?

[Greg Beetham]

I was in our local branch of Harvey Norman today and of course had too have a look at the DSLR section, the Sony range is still in probably the most prominent section of the display, but I couldn't help noticing the A700 that was on display had a $1549 (Aud) (Including Kit lens) sale sign with the heading "Storewide Clearance", which I am guessing means all stores across Australia.
So does this mean the days of the A700 are numbered? or just that the sales of A700's have been a bit slow and they want to speed things up...hard too say, if I had had time I would have asked someone what was cooking, but the place was full of bargain hunters, there was a also a general stock clearance sale on as well, at the time.
Greg

[KevinBarrett]

It is possible that the a700 sales were supported only by the A-mount loyal who are only going to buy the most advanced camera in the lineup. Earlier this year, the a350 took the megapixel sales as a product that cost nearly half as much and delivered "more," and recently the a900 took the top-dog position... that's two very serious two blows to the market position of the a700, but there still exists a place for that camera. I believe these sales/clearances are a marketing correction until a solution can be found to this essential problem: The a700 is the perfect camera for serious, but not too serious, A-mount photographers. I don't think Sony can afford to drop the a700, but they are willing to lose some market prestige by allowing it to be sold at lower prices in order to keep it moving.

[Greg Beetham]

Yep, the A350 with it's 14MP and live view and lower price would certainly have damaged the sales of the A700, no question, but the thing is, they came in with a very high price here on the A700 at release, $2200 body only, if I remember correctly, certainly high compared to the US.
There is a market niche for an A700 level camera, that's for sure, but at the right price, people do have computers these days and can check what that same item is on sale for elsewhere in the world. (I wonder how many were bought "in" from SE Asia or even the States).
What I was thinking about, is this a sign that there is there an updated A700 in the works...or on the horizon soon.
Greg

[alphaomega]

David Kilpatrick addressed this question some time ago. I cannot find the entry but from talking to some people (including I think a Sony representative) the conclusion was that the A700 is still in production and there is not a replacement immediately over the horizon. I also believe that Sony need a presence in this segment and if they had any intention to stop production and introduce a replacement they would probably not have released V. 4 firmware bringing major improvements to high ISO images on the current model.
If you go on the basis of replacing the oldest product first the A700 is next in line. I do hope that there will be a replacement maybe within the next 12 months. There is a thread elsewhere with our dream A700 replacement specification. I participated and basically I would like 3" LV with a OVF not smaller than current A700 and a 17 Mp sensor with as good high ISO performance as the A700 v.4 for a start. Now there is a challenge for Sony.