And let me continue, because on further reflection, I've realized some more things here,
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/namm/2009musicusa/#/50
This page is illuminating. Here, you see that the U.S. accounts for close to HALF of all music sales, in U.S. dollars. Now, you can argue all that you want to. You can kick and scream and say "YEAH -- BUT WE DON'T WANT to be held HOSTAGE by YOUR market!!!"
And I would agree with you. I would rather be "held hostage," if that were a relevant and appropriate way to think of it (which it isn't) by a country whose population seems to appreciate synthetic music.
What I find even more interesting, though, is the data on guitars -- which, for the U.K., show proportionally-similar numbers as the data for the U.S. Guitars, electric ones (in particular) still seem to dominate that market, by a whopping ten-to-one (!). You would be forgiven if you had thought that, in the land that gave us Haddaway and Seal, that you might find more enthusiasm for MIDI workstation keyboards.
Apparently I was wrong in thinking that way:
http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/namm/2009musicusa/#/128
Look at the numbers! 330,000 guitars sold, compared to a measly 30,000 MIDI workstation keyboards for a single year. (The only saving grace is that from 07 to 08, MIDI workstations gained about 5%, while guitars declined -- but I'd need to see much longer trendlines to tell you whether that was meaningful.) And I can't download all of the relevant data because I'm not a NAMM member and can't afford to become one right now.
And yes, you can be forgiven if you prefer to look at the TOTAL keyboard stats, which certainly improve the picture. But we, on this forum, seem obsessed with workstations -- something that I also love. There will be little that compares ever with the incredible experience of having owned, for the first-time, a workstation -- an Ensoniq ESQ1 in 1986. But those days are long-gone.
Anyway, this stuff is pretty fascinating and eye-opening. And if I've written anything that is erroneous, I hope that you'll bring it to our attention. I'm not on some mission to prove anything really -- I'm simply trying to discuss things in a meaningful and accurate way.
Later.
- Sammy
P.S. This is illuminating too:
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/16/asmyco-each-ios-device...
And for realtime news on iOS stuff, you probably already knew about it -- but here it is anyway:
http://www.sonicstate.com/news/iphone/
P.P.S. I've taken heat before for seeming too bombastic when it comes to hardware versus software versus MIDI controllers, workstations, et cetera. I'm defintiely NOT trying to be that provocative here. The title of this post was designed to get you to read it -- so if you made it this far, then I thank you. But I'm actually concerned -- if only a little bit -- about the state of our beloved keyboards. I wouldn't have joined this forum if I didn't like them -- so rest assured, I'm on your side.