Spalding, the only thing that offends me is the 'faith' in corporate decisions. Moronic is only the politest term I could come up with THAT concept, in the face of the last few years of unremittingly bad decision making from the corporate sector. You can't POSSIBLY be trying to tell me that ALL corporate decisions are driven entirely by the market...

As far as I can see, corporate decisions are driven by what best profits the corporate officers, not the shareholders or the public (or the country that shelters them and makes their profits possible).

I see your argument, particularly as you have no better information about Yamaha's market research or intra-divisional agreements than any of the rest of us, as a blanket trust in the power of the market and the infallibility of the corporate structure. Which the failures of many large corporations (does the current sub-prime meltdown speak well for long-term corporate decision making?) completely refutes.

The truth is, especially in our age of deregulation and emasculation of anti-trust and anti-competitive statutes, the concept of a free market and transparent competition between market forces is a joke. Dominating a market (which, in truth, Yamaha only dominate a SEGMENT of the arranger market, so you can't truthfully even say that Yamaha IS the market leader, only in the one area that they chose to compete in) is often achieved by RESTRICTING competition, and by anti-competitive measures, rather than by simple market forces.

But, in fact, you have only to admit to yourself that the last time you said ANYTHING bad about ANY corporation's tactics, methods, decisions or direction is all the proof we need. Let's face it, if ANY corporation could be wrong, then Yamaha could be, too... All you have is faith.

But if no corporation could EVER be wrong... Then God help us all.