Let’s face the hard truth. The era of Arranger Keyboards will probably end with our generation. The younger crowd does not want to spend 2 years learning how to read music, spend two more years studying music theory, learning chord progressions and developing playing skills.
Don't tell Yamaha or Ketron that! Or Korg, for that matter. They still seem to be developing new or improved models. And how many kids got their first keyboard for Christmas this year? A low-end Yamaha or Casio which are, in fact, entry-level arrangers.
I agree that "peak Arranger" was probably circa 2001 and some of our most beloved brands are gone for good. However, for anyone with a little musical training or just musically curious, arrangers can create a lot of music and fun --on the fly-- with very little effort. Personally, I think Yamaha will be selling a Genos VIII thirty years from now!
edit: ...and Korg will finally get all of the bugs worked out of the Pa5X :-) BTW, the Suzuki Omnichord OM-108 which debuted this year is also an arranger with MIDI capabilities. It just doesn't have a piano keyboard. FWIW.
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