Kodak may be second to Sony now, but Sony itself may become 2nd to NOKIA in a year or two. Most of them seem to understand already that they need a viable system to survive, simply churning out More-Megapixel-digital-P&S isn't going to be enough. This may be one of the reasons why 4/3rd system is getting more support from other manufacturers now.
I actually thought about one thing now. What if that "new strategy" simply means that Zeiss and Kyocera are breaking up? Otherwise why Zeiss wouldn't partner with Kyocera to produce Zeiss Ikon? Afterall, prototype design for the camera is done by Zeiss and a german design bureau anyway, it's not like Cosina is calling all the shots anyway.
Consider this. At the moment Zeiss is producing or licensing production of their lenses to following companies:
1. Sony - digital cameras and camcorders
2. Hasselblad - lenses for their medium format cameras
3. Rollei - medium format
4. ALPA - medium format
5. ARRI - cine lenses
6. Contax - well, you know what they do.
Now, think about the number of units shipped for every system or category. It's very easy to see that their Sony partnership is biggest - in 2004 they shipped 10 millions lenses with Sony digital cameras. It's easy to see that this is great source of revenue, even if profit margins are lower than in say medium format markets. So, no problems with this partnership.
What about Hasselblad? As far as I can tell, doesn't seem like there are problems there - it's still by far the most popular medium format system. Not to mention that it's serviced practically everywhere in the world. It's like Mercedes-Benz - seen and serviced everywhere.
Rollei - not much going on there, so I suspect Zeiss isn't seeing much money from this, but as long as it survives as a niche, it should be okay.
ALPA - unique cameras, that's why they're still around probably. As far as Zeiss goes, here is what's listed on ALPA's site:
"Carl Zeiss T* Biogon 4.5/38 mm
One of the finest and most legendary lenses. After two complete batches the lens is sold out. A new batch might come during 2005"
So, since Zeiss was only making one lens and selling the whole batch to ALPA - I assume it was worth the effort.
ARRI - as long as Hollywood wants it, there is no problem here.
That leaves us with Contax. And Contax have had quite many problems over the years and has been on decline generally. And since Kyocera makes a lot of things, but lately haven't been good at anything photographic - Zeiss may have seen this as a problematic relationship and may have wanted to pull out of it.
Interesting thing though is that they decided to invest time and money in producing M-mount rangefinder camera to compete with Leica. What is it - old rivalry or they simply really want to retain some presence in 35mm photo market? If the latter is the case - does that mean they believe there is a place for them in this market even if Contax goes out the window?