Is Yamaha PSR I series officially dead ?

[AnupamEnosh]

With more than a decade passing away, the last keyboard from this lineup was I455, which was a hit all over India (specifically) and Asian market. Even today, one can get himself a brand new I455, and people never stop highlighting the Yamaha brand value, with this keyboard.
But since I425 is discontinued in the country, and I455 is still in production, it doesn't seem like Yamaha is in a mood to revive the lineup. While these keyboards were specifically targeted at Indian players, the latest models like E463 has very few Indian voice/style data, which keeps it behind the competition set by Roland & Casio, as both the brands have packed in a lot of Indian stuff onto their entry level gigs. Also, I455 comes with smooth high quality keybed, which is not there in latest E463.
What is the latest trends in Yamaha Global market, is it planning to gather its fanbase through only Genos, or will they look after entry level lineup ?
P.S. Hello members, I am back here after a while, not able to visit the forum quite often due to life commitments..

[SeaGtGruff]

It's good to see you back again! RL ("real life") does have a way of taking priority over OL ("online life").

As for the future of the PSR-I series, only Yamaha knows what they have planned. It does look like the PSR-E line keeps adding more "world" voices and styles, but that includes other areas besides India. The PSR-A line is still in active development, and it's especially geared toward (I think) Arabic music, so it would be a shame for the PSR-I line to be dropped.

Are you sure that the PSR-I455 is still in active production, or could it be that the stock from the original production run is still being sold off? I'm wondering how much inventory is still on hand, and if perhaps Yamaha won't even consider beginning to work on a replacement model until the existing inventory goes down to a particular level?

[2112]

I spent some time researching the older models of various Yamaha keyboards. I do not have reliable non-public information, only what I observed available openly.

Yamaha did abandon making dedicated models for the large Russia/ex-USSR market. The two quite popular models got discontinued: PSR-R200 & PSR-R300.

https://asia-latinamerica-mea.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/keyboards/portable_keyboards/psr-r200/index.html
https://asia-latinamerica-mea.yamaha.com/en/products/musical_instruments/keyboards/portable_keyboards/psr-r300/index.html

Some of the educational styles used by the Russian schools at least got ported to the PSR-E453:

Сборник классических симфонических стилей
https://asia-latinamerica-mea.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/5/1223225/classicalstyles.zip

Hardware-wise PSR-A* situation cannot be really compared to other regional products like PSR-I*. The PSR-A models obviously need about a dozen of additional front-panel buttons to quickly switch between various quarter-tone scales.

Personally, I think Yamaha's keyboard strategy is being mostly driven by their European subsidiary in Germany, not by the geographically-local subsidiaries or even the Japanese headquarters. I reviewed a lot of older marketing materials to come to this conclusion. To me it seems like the Yamaha's strategy was to try to somehow tie those regional models with the regional music education schools/conservatories. It apparently failed in the ex-USSR/Russia.

Edit: Other (indirect) point of information you may find interesting is that last year Yamaha made some marketing moves in Africa. Maybe you can make a better guess of their strategy with that information?

African Church songs and styles XG
https://asia-latinamerica-mea.yamaha.com/files/download/other_assets/8/1127128/African-Church-songs-and-styles-XG.zip

[AnupamEnosh]

It's good to see you back again! RL ("real life") does have a way of taking priority over OL ("online life").

Thanks Sir. 🙂

The PSR-A line is still in active development, and it's especially geared toward (I think) Arabic music.

Sadly, PSR A lineup has not been launched in India..

Are you sure that the PSR-I455 is still in active production, or could it be that the stock from the original production run is still being sold off? I'm wondering how much inventory is still on hand, and if perhaps Yamaha won't even consider beginning to work on a replacement model until the existing inventory goes down to a particular level?

Yes Sir that's cent percent correct information, PSR I455 is still manufactured in India, all official  demonstrations of Yamaha are done using an I455, all over India. Though I425 was discontinued in 2015 I remember..
The sad part is that I455 comes with outdated functionality, outdated slow processing system to save even registrations, I have experienced it myself, how slow it is in saving to bank memory. And loading styles, is too slow process because of outdated hardware.
They sell the keyboard only in the name of Indian styles and voices, they never use an E453 for demonstration in public, once I mailed them with the suggestion to use the E453 in demos, they replied, "I455 is a better keyboard". 
Here is an image of the USB rating on the I455, it doesn't even support USB 3.0 system, which E453 definitely does.

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[AnupamEnosh]

The space and highlight given to I455 on Yamaha India website, is much larger than that of E463, even in official Advertisement.

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