text: I have a different take on Terada-san's comments.: Olympus SLR Talk Forum: Digital Photography Review
  4/3 was not a 'failure', it simply didn't sell as well as they hoped. My personal take is that 4/3 was ahead of its time - sensor performance was not to the point where the drawbacks of the smaller sensor could be realized. It's there now - the EM5 and EM1 hold their own against APS DSLR's. There is another reason that Oly couldn't grow in the DSLR market, but that merits a separate thread.
  If Oly were targeting only young women with µ43, they wouldn't be making the EM1, or the 12-40 F2.8, or the 40-150 F2.8, or the two rumored high grade follow ons: 7-14 F2.8 and (maybe) 100-300 F4. Plus the ZD 150 F2 may be recreated as a smaller F2.8 version. None of those lenses are targeted at young women taking snapshots, they are all targeted at serious photographers.