Suppositions and differing needs are a mix for discontent. The M9 is what the community has been asking Leica to make, and before it is even widely available and put to use by many. It is declared to be insufficient and lacking. It is always easy to be a critic, but it is not so easy to actually create something. I think I will try it and make up my own mind.
The only determinant to what the "community" wants is sales, plain and simple. That's the bottom line.
Interestingly, the professional "community", those who through their business expense tax write-offs can afford virtually any camera on the market, doesn't seem to be running to the M9 in high volume (at least, not yet) because its technology and features doesn't seem to suit their needs. And the "community" of enthusiast amateurs have, by and large, been priced out of the market.
Here's the hard, cold truth: Leica are not making cameras that professionals want or that enthusiasts can afford. They will thus have to make dramatic changes to their business model, away from catering to narrow niche markets who desire digitized legacy form factors, or simply disappear.
Car makers can't compete with the manufacturing efficiencies of modern automobile design by hand-assembling like Rolles once did. Look at what's happened to the luxury European car brands, they've been forced into the 21st century or they've disappeared entirely. So this is happening on a global scale in a wider swath of industry than just photographic equipment.
Leica needs a professional camera line, one that pro's will actual want to own and use, and fits their current expectations. I'd prefer not to call it a DSLR, but whatever it is, it needs to perform at world-class levels. This involves sensor designs that outperform the best the Japanese can currently make. I don't know who's going make these for Leica, other than Kodak.
And Leica needs an enthusiast amateur line that a wider base of customers can afford to own. With a new line of lenses, using software correction to eliminate a final pair of optical elements, yielding legendary Leica quality at affordable prices. They need to take some of the clues from the u4/3 format, but not necessarily join the consortium, because Panasonic would out-perform them. The X1 is a good first step, but they need to change the viewfinder system and offer interchangeable lenses.
P.S.: Leica may already be too late, with Samsung's APS-C interchangeable lens offering; although I don't expect the Samsung camera to have nearly the same quality that Leica customers expect, so there's probably more room in the APS-C interchangeable lens market for Leica to emerge.
And many have defended Leica's high prices by slamming the US economy, saying that it's the decline in the dollar that's brought about the extraordinary high prices. There's truth in that. However, Leica needs to decide of the US is a market that they're interested in retaining. If so, they need to get off their collective posteriors and produce an enthusiast amateur camera aimed at that market.
