Gents, is the glass half full or is it half empty?
Saab have said they are looking to understand both the current market and the possibilities for exploiting a niche'.
Saab's history is one of innovation and definitely thinking outside of the square and some of the unique operational characteristics of their Gripen demonstrate their abilities in this regard.
Bombardier dumped their smaller TP airframes because they wanted to optimise their offering for the populous markets in North America and Europe. By streamlining and offshoring production of Q400 sub assemblies (firstly to Japan and ultimately to Mexico) they oped to minimise costs. ATR have a similar view to Bombardier concerning their major target markets and the features incorporated into the 600 series confirm it as a comfortable short hauler for transport between populous city pairs.
Saab has always been an innovator (they were the first to offer EFIS in a regional TP and convinced a sceptical market that such innovations would prove to be much more cost effective than "stream driven" instruments) and they were right!!
There are 400+ SF34s and 58 of the 63 SB 2000's flying every day world wide. The world wide fleet of 29 to 38 seat TPs numbers somewhere between a thousand and fifteen hundred units and currently there is no replacement.
Despite the prospect for life extension programmes to current airframes (including Saab) there may well be potential for an innovative manufacturer to offer a cost effective current technology aircraft to the existing market segment not serviced by ATR or Bombardier.
Such a project has definite potential and would be less speculative and far safer, from a cost containment viewpoint, than developing a new 90+ seat high technology, high speed and "green" TP for an untested market segment.
History does have a way of repeating itself and Saab deliberately sized the 340 to fit between the Dash 8-100 (which was in production) and the EMB-120 (which was in development).
If they get both their offering and their costs right, they may well profit from their industry and that seems very much up Saab's street!