One of the Guitar Center where I live has had a Technics KN2600 sitting in the "PRO" keyboard section for around a year now with nobody snatching it up. One reason being, they are asking way too much for it and most people know by now that Technics doesn't make keyboards anymore.

I'm really not sure how well high-end arrangers are selling at the local Guitar Centers near me. I suppose I could ask next time I go and try and get a feel on what direction Guitar Center might be taking regarding high and mid range arrangers.

I've felt for a long time now that Workstations and Arrangers would more or less "meld" together and it is beginning to happen e.g. with Yamaha's Motif ES/XS and Korg's M3 with Karma 2.0, etc. But I think you're right in that the "terms" used on arrangers will be "changed" to more professionally sounding names and terms. The current stigma regarding: Auto-Accompaniment, Styles, the word "Arranger", Etc., all have that "toy" symbolism ascribed to them in the minds of the traditional Workstation crowd. To overcome that stigma the actual symbols, names, and terms, would need to be changed to gain the acceptance of the Workstation professionals in my opinion. Yamaha is doing that already by saying "Arpeggios" and "Chord Recognition" and Korg is using the term Karma in a similar fashion for the M3.

Unless Arrangers can "turn the corner" and be more than just a "looped based" robotic music generator with no variance in the way the music is generated or presented, I think they will go the way of Home Organs also. With the prices for high-end arrangers going up and up and up, yet people are still getting this robotic artificially presented looped based mechanical connotation attached with them; that the once sizzle will soon fizzle, with people demanding more for their money or opting out of buying an arranger altogether. And the Big Three and others that apply arranger type functions into their Workstations need to "turn the corner" as well when incorporating those arranger type functions into them. Giving them different names helps but the technology that drives them needs to change and improve as well. Like Ketron is trying to do with the Audya and Lionstracs is trying to do with the Mediastation.

Best,
Mike