I's funny, because many people really seem to think about the X series as a retro series. Obviously, it is not, see X-S1 and XF1, which aren't really retro. Of course, people tend to ignore what doesn't fit into their view of things, so many equal the "X factor" with how much a camera looks and behaves like an X100.
It is clear that even though the X100 was successful as a niche product, it was, is and always will be a niche product. Apple sells more iPhones in a day than Fuji has sold X100 and X100S since their introduction. So this X factor is also some kind of niche factor, meaning X cameras may be popular, but only to a specific set of customers with specific tastes and needs.
So once Fuji wants to expand towards the mainstream, the X factor has to be reduced in favor of more mainstream features and design desicions. Of course, this is no guarantee that it will work, because once Fuji goes mainstream, it automatically competes with all the other mainstream offerings that may be better or at least be perceived to be better by the mainstream customer, who is often influenced by soft factors like advertising, brand image, general popularity (eveybody has a Canikon, so why don' I?) and general availability and display frequency at physical dealerships (mainstream people buy what they see at Costco). In short: Mainstream customers tend to buy what other mainstream customers have already bought. If everybody has it, it can't be bad, right? If nobody else seems to have it, it looks like a risky buy. There must be a reason why nobody is buying it, right? Mainstream customers do not like taking risks, so lets wait and see how well Fuji will be doing with the X-M1.
