self-tuning piano?

[Bill Ballard]

It's an ingenious idea, but I just don't see it getting far in the 
piano market as we know it. A new technology always starts out with 
small sales (because people are unfamiliar with the technology and/or 
its advantages) and high cost (because of limited production).

Assume that the self-tuning feature adds an extra $1000. If a 
potential piano buyer can get an honest reckoning of how many tunings 
they would have put into a conventional piano (most of the time not 
very many), then they could figure how quickly this new technology 
will pay for itself in conventional tuning fees avoided.

If a prospective buyer honestly declares that they're not likely to 
pay for more than one conventional tuning per year, and if they're 
more likely to stop playing the piano after five years (and 
thereafter, neglect it), the self-tuning feature will never pay for 
itself.

That $1000 feature cost would probably be the same on the cheapest 
console as on the biggest grand. But it's a much bigger addition to 
the price at the bottom end of the line than at the top. Which is why 
we probably won't see it on the cheap pianos.

And at the top of the line, where the profit margins can easily 
absorb it? Is that where the large number of unit sales can be found 
which are needed to 1.) popularize the feature and 2.) let the 
economies of scale work their magic on the feature's cost? I could be 
wrong, but I'm not betting a boat payment on it.

Besides, who ever heard of a new-technology feature sparking interest 
in an consumer item which was being left behind by the consumers. 
(With all due respect to Del's life mission of bringing long-overdue 
re-designing of piano manufacture.) For my own business, I'm not 
worried. Of course I was never going to suggest to my sons that they 
follow on in my line of work.

Bill Ballard RPT
NH Chapter, P.T.G.

"If you think that Mick Jagger will still be doing the whole rock 
star thing at age fifty, well, then, you are sorely, sorely mistaken."
     ...........Jimmy Fallon as the uber-road manager in "Almost Famous"
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