8ty8 wrote:How would it destroy the company? It would have the whole market saying "wow, look at that, this is a company that supports products, they take care of their customers. I have no issues giving them my money"
Because they are in business to sell hardware, and by extension - sell software updates for said hardware (hence the optional paid plugin model they shifted to last year). If they supported their hardware for 16 years as you suggest, no one would have any reason to buy/upgrade to new hardware (not to mention the limits the old hardware that would put on new software that they need to sell). It would literally stymie software (read: plugin and new OS) innovation.
Let me ask you this: are you still using the same computer you had 16 years ago?

If you are, then congrats - but the vast majority of us buy/upgrade to new hardware at some point. Take a look at how many new AAA-title games were being developed specifically for the PlayStation 2 back in 2016 (very little to none). There's a reason for that.
At some point a company has to call it a day on a product they sell in order to innovate and move new products off the shelf. Akai/InMusic are exactly that. And despite InMusic/Akai bearing little resemblance to the Akai of the 1980's/90's, the Akai of the 80's/90's business model was literally the same in that regard (they have that in common anyway). Sell new hardware. Deprecate the old at some point.
I'm just saying, your suggestion that Akai supports their hardware for
16 years will never happen in any universe. I'd love to be wrong, though. Earmark this post for the year 2033 and let me know how it works out.

*EDIT: I'm amend my post and say that the original X came out in 2017, and as of 2023 - is still being supported with software updates. That's 6 years so far, which is pretty good for a piece of niche music hardware. Would be great to see it supported for at least a few more (same with the OG MPC Live).
