neuroanatomist said:
Yes, it's a sign. A sign that they want to move a few extra 5DII's. Why? Who knows. When Best Buy sold the 5DII at ~20% off the normal price, everyone speculated that it was because a 5DIII was just around the corner - that happened about a month ago, but it also happened in September 2010, and clearly nothing came of it...
+1
Canon does not want to loose any more investors and is trying to move products and increase revenue and their quarterly earnings. What better way to do it then to lower the price on one of their hottest selling cameras? ... The MKII will see another price cut at the end of September which will further increase sales.
Otter, I'm curious how you know this. First because, as far as I can tell, Canon has not lowered their price on the 5D MkII. Individual retailers may be reducing their stock (and as Neuro points out, that can be for any number of reasons), but I haven't found any evidence that Canon itself has cut its price on the 5D II. Given that neither Canon USA nor any of the major U.S. retailers (B&H, Adorama, Amazon, Best Buy) have lowered their prices, I have a hard time believing that there is a broad strategy to boost 5D sales sufficiently to move their quarterly revenues. In fact, given the size and scope of Canon's product line, I really doubt Canon's quarterly revenues would shift all that much no matter how many 5D's were sold.
Also, since you mention a price cut at the end of September, do you have access to inside information about future price cuts? Where is that information coming from?