Very far off topic, but did you know that Yamaha - parent company of Steinberg, and the maker of fine musical instruments since the late 19th century - also played a pivotal role in the development of the Toyota 2000GT, which in terms of design changed the course of history for Toyota as a Japanese car manufacturer? Up to this point in the 1960s Toyotas were dull, dreary and dreadful (as well as unreliable). This car - though the actual production volume was very small, it was very expensive - changed all that. The design is absolutely gorgeous, the dashboard alone (and the dials) are a work of art.
Here’s an interesting video where Lain Tyrrell - he’s the Daniel Spreadbury of classic cars - goes into the details of the history of the car and its design, mentioning that there is a fine line between music instruments and high performance cars (“they are a form of wind instruments”). He should know as he a fine musician in his own right, who aside from restoring priceless classic cars, has also done many shows around the world as a singer.
Warning: this youtube channel is highly addictive.
Yamaha still produce interior wood panels and “stuff” for luxury cars. They have a lot of knowledge accumulated from their instrument production. They also make some really nice bathroom products
Interesting. Yamaha is all over the place. Just read that Yamaha is the largest piano maker in the world, and not too long ago, they acquired Bosendorfer. I look around my house and there is Yamaha stuff all over the place. Guitar amp, studio monitor speakers, FM Amp/Receiver, 2 Steinberg interfaces, Cubase (of course), bass guitar, two acoustic guitars, and there used to be a DX-7 (which I gave away).
With the exception of the bass guitar, in which the active electronics failed, everything else has been working for a long time.
Makes me wonder about this 133 year old company. They got into audio electronics but stayed away from TV. They got into motorcycles, ski-mobiles, motorboats, but never cars as far as I know (at least directly). They started into chip manufacturing but stayed away from computers, phones, personal audio devices, etc.
Very cautious, but successful, I guess. A big company ($3.75B revenue last year) but not a leading tech company, even though they have leading tech in many of the areas they chose to lead in.
I remember there used to be Yamaha skis.
I could be wrong about the fields they didn’t venture into, but I would think a Yamaha laptop would have been great.