The rumours who have been going on for some time now
seems to be true. Sad news
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum25/HTML/002319.html

GJ

Another one bites the dust. Too bad because we just lost a part of the competition that makes it better on the consumer. We still have the big three, ie., Yamaha, Korg, and Roland which is comforting. And a couple nitche makers like GEM and Ketron. Will Keyboards be like Cars in that your choices basically are limited to "3" makers? Let's hope not!

Technics/Panasonic has other electronic and other stuff they sell so Matsushita is still in business just not their Musical instrument division. And they will still make the parts for the Technics for 6 to 7 years. That is good news too.

Well UD, it looks like you'll have a rare classic on your hands in a few years if you decide to keep your KN7000. It may eventually become a collectors item that you could possibly double or triple your original investment if and when you decide to finally sell it. Although look for the existing stock of the Technics Keyboards to be rock bottomed out in price. If they do drastically slash the prices, that may be the time to snatch one up.

Best regards,
Mike

Will this include the closing of all Technics dealer stores also?

Probably depending of what else there are to
sell in the shops?
The good thing is that the Technics keyboards are just
as good, and will last for many years to come
GJ

You think the reason is low sales do to competive features vs consumer wants & needs/low profits, bad advertising, or other things ?

Where they had good distribution they were top sellers. In the UK when KN6000 ran it had 50-60% market share at its price level of the whole market, not just against PSR9000 alone for instance. 6500 and 7000 also did very well there, Germany another good market. Where the distribution was useless they did poorly, US distribution was always poor. UK trade figures show keyboards are a declining market year on year.

At the end of the day Music Instrument Division was a tiny part of Panasonic/Matsushita, and probably had a fraction of a percent of the turnover of the battery division for example. Japan has been in stagnation for over a decade and the accountants have spoken. Thus is our Brave New World.

Yes, among some other reasons as i.e. technicsplayer mention here.
I can't remember last time I saw a advert for Technics keyboards here
in my country.
Also the swinging trends, remeber 20 - 25 years ago?
Big 2 manual organs was the big thing, so the arranger keyboards came
and made a "revolution".
Now I can see it's a kind of back to basic. The young ones buy pianos,
the old fashion acoustic type.
It's good, because if you can handle and play a ordinary piano, then you
really have what needed........
Well, my personal meaning, of course
GJ

Fascinating! I wonder if that is the scenario in different Countries as well. If the U.S. market and also the German market are declining too, then we may well see the "big 3" and others quit making Keyboards altogether!! Although I find that highly unlikely. I mean; there will always be Musicians that require a Keyboard (as apposed to a 'Piano'). Keyboards are so portable and they're getting better and better all the time technology and sound wise. Let's hope they don't stop making them any time soon anyway.

I think there will be an evolving of the current Keyboard technology though. Look for it to integrate seamlessly into Computer based Soft Synth technology. And the current Keyboard physical design and looks will be radically changed too IMO.

Best regards,
Mike

Anthony

Hi,
my local dealer in Sydney was complaining about sales a couple of months ago. He said things were quiete. Sells mainly Technics & Yamaha digital piano's & keyboards.

Suppose with so many households already having computers, that soft synths & p.c. software ie sequencers with arranger functions may well be the ttrend in the future.

best wishes
rikki

[QUOTE]Originally posted by keybplayer:
[B]

Rikki,

You may be on track here. Young people seem to want everything faster and work less to achieve their goals. Music and mastering a keyboard requires a lot of hard work and dedication--something most young people I've met during the past decade are just not willing to do. Granted, there are exceptions, but by and large, the younger generation, at least in this part of the world, wants everything now, they want it fast and they want it for free. Accomplished musicians will eventually be somewhat rare. Schools are cutting out art and music programs to save money, but they dump lots of hard-earned dollars into teaching kids how to use a computer. Most of the high-school kids here cannot perform simple math tasks without the aid of a computer or caluculator. Imagine, they cannot add, subtract, multiply or divide simple numbers without the aid of electronics. Music seems to be going in the same direction. Kinda' makes me glad I'm old.

Gary

computer age..?

its as bad as it is good for certain things in this world ...think about it... Hmmmm?

[This message has been edited by Dnj (edited 01-11-2004).]

Hi Gary,
I tend to agree.
My older son can't do maths in his head( 30 years old) totally relies on a calculator. I think he can add up when it's written on paper, but quite frankly, I'm not sure. Strangely enough, the 28 year old son used to be able to add & multiply an amazing array of numbers.
When he was little, if we went out to dinner, he used to calculate in his head, how much the bill was going to be. He was never wrong. Saved us money on more than one occassion when the total of the bill was incorrectly added up by the waiter. ( haahaa) He just had this strange knack for maths.

I think it's really sad when kids get through the school system without being able to read, write and add up properly.
It must be happening everywhere.

best wishes
rikki

Donny,

I think this has mostly happened due to Technics' antiquated sales policies: the dealers had protected territories, they were not allowed to advertize or sell by mail, and they were allowed to charge whatever the market would bear. Walking into a Technics store here in Phoenix is always an aggravation, especially when the salesman tells you that the price of KN7000 is $7000, but "today only" they'd give me a deal of a lifetime of only $5000. The company has lost its business sense - this practice may have been fine for pianos (charging comparable prices to real pianos), but a keyboard is not a piece of art, as a real piano is.

Technics was one of the innovators in the field of arrangers, and their latest instruments do contain some nice features. However, with all the niceties, their instruments are not that much better than other high-end arrangers (e.g. Tyros) to justify twice the price.

I know that many of the folks here are fortunate to find dealers with less predatory prices, but the above situation repeats itself every time I make my way into a local Technics store (it happened 6 years ago when I was thinking about KN5000, then again when I went to look at the KN6000, and then again recently with the 7000 - funny thing, though, they kept quoting me the same prices every time). Couple that with a less than knowledgeable salesperson, who hovers around me while I try to play, and after a while becomes annoyed that I am taking too much of his time, and there is the reason why I have never acquired the taste for Technics enough to look for a mail-order dealer.

I suspect that I am not the only one who feels this way about Technics, which is one of the reasons why their instrument sales were falling.

Of course, there is also another reason - used to be that a record would give one an approximation of a live performance, and not a very realistic one at that. These days with digital reproduction and other advances in recording technologies, you can play the CD or an MP3 file which will sound exactly like the original artist. A live performer may add some spontaneity and maybe originality, but it is a lot easier and cheaper to play records or MP3s than to spend years learning to play music. My 6-year-old's favorite pastime is to turn on MIDI playback of my G1000 (which does sound excellent) and dance to it or sing along if he knows the words. When I try to teach him to play, he gets discouraged very quickly, because it is just so much easier to play prerecorded music than to learn how to play.

These are my $.02

Actually my kids are learning the basics pretty well PLUS all the computer skills.
I know that's not the case everywhere. My 14-year-old, Max, and his mom played to a virtual tie in scrabble last night. My college-age son has an almost scary vocabulary and both are quite good at math.
Their friends also seem to be well-versed in the "old-fashioned" math and language skills.
...just an alternate perspective.
DonM

To Quote Alex K :"Walking into a Technics store here in Phoenix is always an aggravation, especially when the salesman tells you that the price of KN7000 is $7000, but "today only" they'd give me a deal of a lifetime of only $5000.":

Alex, the same is true here in Minnesota,
every Dealer I went to always gave me the same story. What a deal.

Denny

PS: The worst part is I fell for it once, that's when I bought the KN5000.
That was before I had the computer, after I got the PC I found out I
got ripped off.

[This message has been edited by dlstarry (edited 01-12-2004).]

Typical car salesman BS senario preying on the unknown......it sux!