CyberGene
you've taken this in a different direction gene,
when kawaboi says acoustic pianos are obsolete and do not fit into the modern context for modern users, that excludes all of us, you, me, most people already here.
we're knee deep in it coming out of an earlier era, most of us from acoustic piano, where fewer "fun things" existed, and music making, on its own, was at least competitive with all the other entertainment products available.
That era, has passed. So when kawaboi speaks of the anachronism, it is not to denigrate all this "stuff" that works for gene and kawaboi, he's saying none of it works for the modern audience who are increasing diverted by more enticing devices/toys.
For people of our creed, the modern set of products make sense, not the least of which because we already know how to use them, and they fit into our definition of "fun". but from a newbie perspective, they are not good value, and they don't work sans the "educational" investment we've ourselves made in our youth, which they do not yet possess.
CyberGene I've never seen a hobby or human activity where the fans don't recommend the higher priced products more than the lower priced ones
this is a problem, because that added value is not there for newbies coming into the hobby.
it's like recommending an expensive car to every person that wants to drive. an expensive piano will not produce consistently beautiful varied music until 5-10 years if the newbie even makes it that far. and through huge luck his teacher emphasizes good reading skills and free-styling skill kit/tools
Another problem is the pricing of these products, the production cost of my es520, i estimate around $50-150, depending on kawai's purchasing power. The markup is pretty big. Not many product classes can sustain this kind asking price, short of being very exclusive and very high tech.
even if we let it go that they have to do this because they don't sell that many units, the amount of fun per dollar is still way too low to be competitive with other toys/devices.
being cost competitive, relevant, and practical is critical, because piano is dying rapidly.
the market strategy and pricing is still structured as if piano competes with piano. that is huge mistake, in the internet age, piano competes against everything in existence, soccer balls, pokemon, christmas lights.
