I just got a phone call from my Roland MI rep to let me know what was new at the NAMM show this month in Austin Texas. First, he let me know that the G70 is now going to be available to all MI dealers interested in selling it. The E80, E60 and E50 will still be sold through the CK division as I was told earlier. Roland has introduced a new 4 track recorder which will be available in August at a street price of $229.00. It can also be used as a MP3 playback machine and even has the ability to loop a section of the MP3, slow it down or speed it up without affecting the pitch.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene
Reseda, California
818-881-5566

Oh great........... now that I've payed CK Division's inflated price for the G70, they now give it to MI to knock down and I'll get even less when I try to sell it for a G80 (or whatever they'll call an E80 in a G70 form factor) :-( ;-( :-(

I don't think this is going to help the sales of E80s, because I imagine the MI price on a G70 will be about $2600-2800, and an E80 will probably still be close to $4000 if CK do the same as they did to the G70.

Now the E80 is an improvement on the G70, but not a $1400 improvement........ If Roland want to recapture the high ground in arranger sales, they are going to have to let MI sell the whole arranger line, and just leave home digital pianos and Atelier organs to the CK guys. That's all they want to sell, anyway..........

First what's "CK" and "MI"?

Hey diki,avenge yourself.Just pick up a Juno G instead!

CK = Contemporary Keyboard Division - digital pianos & organs
MI - Musical Instrument Division - all the techy stuff

zuki

"MI" is musicial instrument division and "CK" is contemporary keyboard division. All the console organs and KR digital home pianos are in the CK division.
George Kaye
Kaye's Music Scene

I agree with Diki. Roland should have learned from the lackluster sales of the G-70 through the CK division. I guess they arent interested in selling too many of the E series in the USA. It seems to me that it would make a whole lot more sense if the CK division was just for the big stuff like KR pianos and Atelier organs and the MI stores carried ALL Roland portable keyboards. I am curious about their reasons. Anyone here who can, please clarify. If we knew why they do what they do, maybe we'd appreciate their reasons and then we'd have to find something else to complain about!

Their marketing department is so confused. Sounds like it is run by a mentally challenged individual.
"Duh, our sales for the G70 are not as expected, I guess I should have sold them through our MI stores, lets do that. I'm sure the E50,E60,E80 will sell ok in the CK stores though. The E series are like organs right? These marketing decisions are sooo difficult for me. Why didn't Roland give this job to my smarter brother?"
Starkeeper

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 07-27-2006).]

[This message has been edited by Starkeeper (edited 07-27-2006).]

Starkeeper the new E series are arranger keyboards, the E80 being the G70's successor with less keys.
The organ range Roland does is the Atelier and these are very good.

I know the E80 are arrangers, but does the Roland marketing department know this?
Starkeeper

It's as if Roland's marketing division went 'Sales of the G70 were slow......... what can we possibly do to the E80 to make them even slower? Oh, that's right! We can make it $1400 more expensive than the G70..........!'

Morons........