Just because they KNEW the market for a hundred years is no guarantee that they KNOW the emerging market today. The newer players like Iseki MAYBE can capitalize on the successes of the bigger players, like their japanese/korean counterparts - kubota/kioti. In my opinion Iseki CAN have a better chance of succeeding than you might think.
Todays corporate structures are so self serving that they find it difficult to adapt to changing markets. Frankly, 100 years of making tractors makes them more likely to fail due to this very fact.
When you study the locomotive industry this becomes evident and unfortunately, tragic. But do read about Baldwin locomotive and you'll see what I mean. The corporate leaders were not visionaries at all and the industry suffered greatly. Im talking about the change over from steam to diesel.
Here is my point, the bigger players like Deere and Kubota better watch out, because IF the smaller players like Iseki can make great products and offer them cheaper, THEN the deere and kubota market share will decrease. The original poster noted some neat features on the tractor and wondered why the ACGO/Massey line is not more popular.
I assert that the name recognition carries the older known tractors, but that the newer names like Iseki may have equally quality products, but without the name recognition. I chose Kubota for a lot a reasons and I believe the kubota
L3130 is an excellent value for the money. It carries name recognition when I sell it someday- thereby hopefully maintaining some intrinsic resale value. But I would not bash the Iseki, knowing that they want their tractor to become popular and are likely more sensitive to whatever consumers want so they can gain market share.
dwight
