Seven years ago the EOS M launched, was blasted by critics and forum members as ‘unable to compete’.
true. And correctly so. Not only blasted by forum members and critics, but "by the market" and potnetial buyers. That's why Canon had to firesell it. Had they launched the darn thing at 499 MSRP, they would probably have sold a load of them and never had to go down to 299. But, SMART Canon and their INFALLIBLE market research.
Today, the line is a smashing success.
Yes. But only since they launched almost competitive M5/M6 and even more so, the "more than fully competitive" M50. Had Canon been SMART enough to spare us and themselves a marginally iterated EOS M2 and a disappointing M3 and launched the M5/M6 pair plus M50 and M100 about 2 years earlier, they'd have made a LOT MORE MONEY. And had they spared us some of the wekaer EF-S lenses and instead launched EF-M 32/1.4, 50/1.8 IS and 85/2.4 IS earlier or at all, they'd have made EVEN MORE MONEY.
But, SMART Canon.
Last year, the EOS R launched, was blasted by critics and forum members as ‘unable to compete’.
It was and still is not fully competitive. Price too high and/or sensor+performance too weak. Had Canon launched a stronger R last year [=fully 5D V equivalent, slightly better than Z7 and A7 III] at a sensible price, it would have been A SMASHING SUCCESS already last year.
But, SMART Canon.
Had Canon on June 29, 2017 announced and launched their EOS RP [specs as is] instead of the 6D II, they would still have missed been 5 years late to the FF MILC party and missed lots of sales, but the RP would still have been a SMASHING SUCCESS and had HIT Sony nicely and squarely smack in the face already 2 years ago.
Instead, Canon marginal-iterated DSLRs and let Sony build their mirrorfree FF system and market share totally unfettered and unbothered by them. For more than 5 years (A7: 2013/10).
Really SMART, Canon!
Always good fun to see such SMART companies deploying extremely SMART product and business strategies.