Official statement on the status and future of the OASYS

[StephenKay]

It's not supposed to make us happy, but to stop us from getting unhappier as we wonder why those very desirable M3 features aren't coming our way.

I'd say that's a very good description of where I was coming from - thanks.

[OysterPearl]

Ok

[Davidb]

The company is set to fail if it cannot manage user expectations.

Yes, absolutely true.
I suppose they will.

[kenackr]

Thanks!

[Daz]

The company is set to fail if it cannot manage user expectations.

Yes, absolutely true.
I suppose they will.

In these times a company is set to fail if it chooses not to manage the expectations of the majority of it's current users, future users and investors because it's expending key resources on managing the expectations of a niche group.

I don't like it, but that's the truth of the matter.

[Charlie]

A company is set to fail if it spends more money than it earns. There are many, many issues to take into consideration and fullfill to keep your cash-flow going. Keeping your stakeholders happy is (just) one of these issues (a very important one though .

I believe that most of the people being unhappy with Korg's Oasys policy will buy another Korg product as soon as something very valuable is launched. I mean, if you made music in the 80's and had been unhappy for some reason with Yamaha before you still would have bought a DX7 if you could (or an M1, or a D50 etc.).

Oasys is/was a niche-product. IMHO the best one Korg ever made regarding music workstations. But if you have to make economic decisions in tough times you'd better focus on your main business sectors instead of jeopardizing the whole company by spending valuable ressources on a small niche.

[Daz]

Well said Charlie

[OysterPearl]

So far I was polite in my expression on the subject. Now I'm going to be "direct" in highlighting some points in the benefit of customers, as I want KORG to realize that customer are VERY MUCH capable of assessing the situations and they are not idiots to let some of these things go unnoticed.

The economic downturn in 2008 was predicted in 2005. It's a shame if a company tries to project some new business strategies based on current market conditions. First of all, this was supposed to be their future platform, so, I'm at a loss to understand why did they create a separate architecture / platform for M3. Clearly, either their technology strategy guys were not in alignment with the busienss guys, or business guys took a call to "quick launch" a new product, which is "perceived to be successful", used the market conditions as an excuse and ditched the product which was announced as being their flagship -- as a customer I don't care and the only interpretation that is calid is that this company is not sustainable! How can a BIG BANNER FLAGSHIP be discontinued within 4 years due to any dam reason!!!

They used a simple trick of adding some knobs and switches here and there (e.g. 4 USB & LAN port, Function button, etc etc). Obviously an expectation was set that they were supposed to be working on it and delivering some value add stuff based on it. Where are all those EXFs? Why the hell did they collect "Wishlist" from users and what % of that has been converted into usable feature extensions?

If this was not a trick, they should publically acknowledge the fact that their business strategy failed and post an apology note to Oasys customers, and it will be at the mercy of customers if they decide not to challenge their prior commitments formally.

They did let their user speculate for almost one year before formal announcement of discontinuation and tried to hide under some so called company strategy to not to ammounce anything to the market upfront, so that they could sell their demo units.

The message of discontinuation of Oasys carries an extremely arrogant tone along with it, as it comes out like a notice/memo without any consideration to user expectations (common sense).

As an output, clearly they are running on very high levels of reputational risk and dropped their market credibility. I don't want to give a company a "benefit of doubt" of the metket conditions as they were supposed to be prepared for it.

I have seen in the past that some jokers who design their business strategies taking a near-term view have failed in the long run. I hope that KORG's niche technies are upfront acquired by Kurz / OL so that the great talent is not wasted once the shop is closed.

[danatkorg]

First of all, this was supposed to be their future platform, so, I'm at a loss to understand why did they create a separate architecture / platform for M3.

This has been discussed before. Korg started development for the chip used in the M3 in 2001. It allowed us to make a system at a much lower cost than the OASYS, in the traditional workstation keyboard price range.

They used a simple trick of adding some knobs and switches here and there (e.g. 4 USB & LAN port, Function button, etc etc). Obviously an expectation was set that they were supposed to be working on it and delivering some value add stuff based on it.

The 4 USB ports, and the LAN port, are part of the motherboard. All 4 USB ports can be used for USB storage. The LAN port is covered in the production units; it is used internally for development purposes. The FUNCTION button is also used internally; it cost little to keep there, and we thought it might possibly be useful later for other things.

The message of discontinuation of Oasys carries an extremely arrogant tone along with it, as it comes out like a notice/memo without any consideration to user expectations (common sense).

I'm sorry that you feel that way, as that was certainly not our intent. I just re-read it, and it doesn't sound that way to me.

- Dan

[Daz]

The message of discontinuation of Oasys carries an extremely arrogant tone along with it, as it comes out like a notice/memo without any consideration to user expectations (common sense).

You may have missed Jerry's post in reply to my comment about the 'tone' of the original statement :

Well, the corporation is a bit formal, being Japanese and such. But I helped craft the message, to be in the spirit and personality of the company and our leaders.

What you all may be missing is that many of us on the front lines are still here. Have always been here and will continue to be here.

We have been living through a very difficult and emotional time coming to these decisions, and a very difficult and emotional time "steeling ourselves up" for the ensuing reactions from you all. Stepping outside of the corporate formalities for a moment...

Do you not think that this pains us, as the architects of the project? No one who dreams of, develops, births and supports a product likes to see its path change. We certainly know the feelings of everyone here and we knew what we were heading into... To be perfectly blunt I've dreaded logging in each day to see what would ensue.

This doesn't mean for a moment that I question, or disagree with the decisions that were made, because I don't. But I surely regret that they had to be made. As does everyone who works on the project - there are no callous, or uncaring members of the team. We're all human, we're all musicians who care about the gear we make and use, and we all feel a great responsibility to our customers and friends.

But the situation "is what it is".

OK, that's about as far as I should step out of my "role/job" for now. But please don't think for a moment that we are insensitive to how you all feel.

Regards,

Jerry

That puts it in a very different light.

[OysterPearl]

>> First of all, this was supposed to be their future platform, so, I'm at a loss to understand why did they create a separate architecture / platform for M3.

> This has been discussed before. Korg started development for the chip used in the M3 in 2001. It allowed us to make a system at a much lower cost than the OASYS, in the traditional workstation keyboard price range.

Dan, with all due respect to you, here's my rsponse to KORG's strategy you just explained:

I don't care which facts led to what decision by KORG; as I being into the world of business management, I do care only about the OUTPUT -- and the output is that the big banner flagship which was marketted as "future platform over years to come" was junked.

In order to ensure minimum levels of business ethics and regain that significant drop in it's market credibility, KORG must keep the Oasys up-to-date - what it means is that any new workstation receiving some additional features / sounds must be brought into Oasys no later than it's launch date. I like the fact that M3 XPanded sounds were brought into Oasys, similarly all differential features must be brought in too -- and NOT like 1 year after the lower segment customer receive them for cheap products. Or, refund the differential amount of money we have paid for Oasys along with an apology note and ask us to shut up.

Remember we paid for the R&D before and AFTER the launch date. If the 'AFTER' part cannot be cashed in a leader's style, we want our money back - period.

It's a shame that the niche segment customers need to remind an industry leader of this very basic fact. KORG tried to post a formal message with no sensitivity towards it's customers "in pride of it being an industry leader and in it's perceived position with respect to it's competition" - hillerious. Dan or Jerry have been posting explainations on a user forum as in their individual capacity, however I would have expected KORG to officially send a personalized e-mail to all Oasys customers, who are big time impacted by their decision due to flawed business strategy and incapability to fulfill their commitments made to the customers.

This is my last post on the subject and this was last spend on any KORGT product. I have flushed off all I wanted to say am now back to work.

[Trommis]

As I said in my last posting: I knew the OASYS was discontinued when I bought it. I would also love to see Korg continue the development of the OASYS, but I'm afraid the fact is that this is not going to happen!

One idea for Korg: Why not cut the price (or give it away) for the LAC-1/MOD-7/EXs3 expansions? Registered users/owners of the OASYS should not have to pay any more money to get the most out of this instrument now that it's discontinued. This would be a nice way to say: "Thank you for buying our future-proof worstation."

The vast majority of Korg users did not buy the OASYS. They did not want to put that kind of money into a single keyboard. (Or they just could not afford to buy one.) Anyway: Theese are the users Korg make their most profit from....

However mouch I'd like to see Korg continue the OASYS, I don't think this is going to happen. Even if all OASYS owners said: "We will not buy from Korg again!", the rest of the customer base would not care, and continue to buy their keybords as if nothing had ever happened.

Let's face it folks: We, the owners of an OASYS, are among the very few (lucky?) ones in the world of synthesizers/workstations. Try to put on a smile on your faces!

[StephenKay]

One idea for Korg: Why not cut the price (or give it away) for the LAC-1/MOD-7/EXs3 expansions? Registered users/owners of the OASYS should not have to pay any more money to get the most out of this instrument now that it's discontinued. This would be a nice way to say: "Thank you for buying our future-proof worstation."

Nice idea, but imagine the backlash from everyone who paid for them. For that reason, wouldn't work.

[rtucker55]

One idea for Korg: Why not cut the price (or give it away) for the LAC-1/MOD-7/EXs3 expansions? Registered users/owners of the OASYS should not have to pay any more money to get the most out of this instrument now that it's discontinued. This would be a nice way to say: "Thank you for buying our future-proof worstation."

Nice idea, but imagine the backlash from everyone who paid for them. For that reason, wouldn't work.

Unfortunately, the backlash probably would happen and would end up on both forums. I still think it would work and would be better for Korg to generate some revenue, for a product that now just requires the issue of an Auth#, vs. No further return on their investment.

I do see this practice happen frequently in the software world. I have several packages that I paid $XXX for a few years ago and now it is being sold for $XX or even $X. I personaly have never seen 'End-of-Life' software given away for free but again so heavily discounted that it was close to free.

Most often you are just purchasing a license to use the product, not the product itself, and sometimes the license is not even transferable or there is a fee for doing the transfer. In this case you have just payed a one-time fee to use the SW and the longer you use it the less your true cost becomes. Plus, those who jumped on the bandwagon early got the bragging rights of being first to use.

I don't own any of the expansions but would love to. Being unemployed for six months now I don't see myself being able to afford such a luxury even if they were Heavily discounted...

Regards,
Rick

[Sharp]

One idea for Korg: Why not cut the price (or give it away) for the LAC-1/MOD-7/EXs3 expansions? Registered users/owners of the OASYS should not have to pay any more money to get the most out of this instrument now that it's discontinued. This would be a nice way to say: "Thank you for buying our future-proof worstation."

Nice idea, but imagine the backlash from everyone who paid for them. For that reason, wouldn't work.

Something just popped into my mind reading that.

I wonder how many didn't buy the expansions and if they had of bought them all, would things be a little different now. Maybe we would have seen at least one additional expansion ?.

Just thinking out loud.

Sharp.