Originally posted by ianmcnll:
You're so right, mc...they have been the leader in several areas, including this audio/accompaniment stuff on arrangers.
Still, one must remember that Technics was once a leader in arrangers, and they went belly-up...I think a lot of people were shocked and/or disappointed.
Let's hope that the Audya's incredibly shaky introduction is not indicative of the direction of Ketron...it's a fairly small company compared to the Big Three, and it may not be able to survive if this product is not corrected in full in the near future.
Come to think of it, Technics was a division of the giant...make that really giant, Matsushita Electric, and it went under, so I guess no one is really immune from failure...but, a smaller company will have much less chance of bouncing back.
It would be horrible to see the present Ketron/Audya owner base stuck with instruments that no longer have factory support.
Ian
I don't see Ketron going belly up any time soon. Their main focus is arrangers, which it has been for many years. Ketron is not just the Audya; they also have the SD5 as their mid-range keyboard that had fantastic sounds and styles. Their only arranger module company out there, for the guitar and accordion players. Ketron does very well in Europe, I'm sure the US sales are icing on the cake.
It hard to compare Technics because it just wasn't the keyboard or pianos, it was the whole line, home electronics, musical instruments, etc. so there is more behind the scenes of Panasonic dropping the technics line than we know of. I have to say I see Roland dropping their arranger line more so than ketron going out of business. Roland’s best selling keyboard was the G series G800/G1000. The VA76 was a flop and the G70 didn't really take off also. Time will tell.
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