Rumor of UK A700 being discontinued?

[PhotoTraveler]

I think it's a safe bet the A700 and A900 are built on the same line, by the same people. Sony has probably built up stock of A700. Then they probably switched that line to A900 production for a while now, so they are living on A700 inventory for a while. They might not push A700 for a while till they can get past the A900 initial spike and get back to where they could probably go 1 week A700 and 3 weeks A900 and work on getting that eventually the other way around. So by the time they need to make the A700 replacement, they have got A900 production down to a much slower rate. Still, with the similarities they might be able to make both simultaneously, but I doubt they would want to do that.

They can't bring out a A700 replacement till A900 demand has died down some. They might not be in a hurry to drop A700 price either, as that could hurt A350 sales, and would widen the gap to A900. As I've said before, I think we will see the A700 replaced with 2 body. An A500 which is very similar to the A700 but lower priced, and adds some features to make it more like the D90. And then a more up scale body to take on the D300/D400 with a body that pulls some more parts back down from the A900. I really doubt there will be a true direct replacement that comes out at the same price point. And general gray area of the market. Still, none of that can begin till PMA. I doubt we will see both then, probably one, followed by the other a few months later.