I don't know how well that would go down with Epson, for whom Cosina-Voigtlander manufactures the chassis of the R-D 1 under contract.
I believe that I've read here that C-V builds the camera body and Epson installs the sensor and electronics; hard to believe that C-V could do that much less inexpensively themselves, so I don't see how they could get $2,000 of retail price out of the product just by moving the electronics installation in-house. They could lower the price by deleting features, but some people already complain that the R-D 1 is pretty spartan in terms of features!
The big DSLR manufacturers that have a sub-$1000 model do it by sharing components with their more expensive models, and in some cases with a film SLR as well. This not only lowers the price, it lets the manufacturer justify the low-price model as a "loss leader" to get people into the system, where they'll buy lenses, accessories, and possibly a high-end body later.
I suspect this strategy wouldn't work as well with an RF camera, because they are inherently more expensive to manufacture (the rangefinder optics, coupling mechanism, etc. have to be very precise) and there aren't as many features to drop to create an "entry-level" model.
What might happen eventually is that someone might introduce a more expensive, more-featured model -- one with such often-requested features as a full-35mm-frame sensor, higher pixel count, more framelines, longer RF base, etc., etc. -- and this would provide downward price pressure on lesser-featured models. But I think we'll NEVER see an entry-level digital RF that's as cheap as bottom-tier DSLRs, simply because RF cameras cost more to make and don't sell at the same volume.
BTW, the above higher-featured camera does sound to me a lot like a digital version of the still-vaporous Zeiss Ikon RF camera. But I don't recall ever seeing Zeiss say directly that they intend to make such a camera -- only that they're considering all the options. The fact that they claim they're designing their lenses to be more digital-friendly is only common sense for any lens line nowadays; it wouldn't surprise me if Leica and Cosina are doing the same with new designs, but without any official announcement.
