I understand the economic principles but I also understand that price isn't directly related to cost except in a marginal way. Prices are set on the basis of what the market will bear. Short of getting access to the camera manufacturers financial numbers there's no way of knowing what the costs are, but personally I remain sceptical of the idea that the prices being set are determined primarily by R&D and production costs.
I agree with this almost completely. But how do you reconcile that with your earlier statement that it's just another ridiculously overpriced camera? If they're charging what the market will pay, it's priced exactly right, no? If it's priced too high and the market won't bear it, they'll lower the price until it sells. Sometimes you win and make money, sometimes you lose and lose money. Look at the LX100's predesessor - the LX7. Instead of leapfrogging the market leaders in technology, it got leapfrogged by Sony just before it was released. It was screwed. It was an initially $500 camera (consistent with most others in that category other than the RX100, which did the leapfrogging) that was selling for $250-300 within a couple of MONTHS of release and you could usually find one at those prices through it's product life (ie, until now). It was a terrific bargain at those prices, and I'm sure they sold quite a few and limited their losses, but it was all the market would bear but it wasn't what they were assuming they'd get for that camera and I'm sure they took a bath on that model. This time, if Olympus or Nikon doesn't come along with some major surprises, the LX100 will probably be the class leader in this market segment (the non-pocketable portion of it anyway) for the next year or two and will likely continue to be able to charge pretty high prices and still sell a lot of cameras. And probably make money on this one.
If you want a lower end DSLR instead, yeah, they're better bargains. The price you pay is the size and weight. But if you want a non-pocketable compact, this is, for now anyway, probably the best of the breed and you have to pay for that...
BTW, I expect to see the Fuji X30 going for pretty low prices in the current environment. Although they're already pricing it lower than the others out of the gate, recognizing the reality of the staying with the same 2/3" sensor. Even the price they're asking sounds high to me, but maybe they're counting on the loyalty of Fuji lovers???
I always thought that was how it was supposed to work???
-Ray