Well I think the issue with Tascam was much more complex than that. But it should be evident that whoever it was that had control of the throttle at Tascam made some pee poor business decisions. Clearly, insteading of sticking with the "Semi Pro" market, they went after the bottom of the barrel, music should be free generation. $99 handheld junk, guitar trainers and other nonsense.
But I also see this as a two fold generational problem. It is widely know that Japan has become fat and lazy, exactly as the American people have become and that they are borrowing on their past successes, just as we are. Instead of their products being made by meticulous and highly motivated Japanese workers, they have farmed out their trinkets, excactly as we have. But that should be expected because MacArthur set up their model precisely following the American model after WWII.
The other part of the generational problem is that kids today think music should be free. And for the most part, an entire industry has been destroyed in the process. This includes local production studios, producers, A&R people, tape manufacturers, machine manufactuers, the list is endless.
I am from a generation that understood that when I went into a studio to record, I would likely spend $7 to $10,000.00 recording a single. And it was not unheard of to hear of major record albums that had over a million bucks invested in production. Thankfully, Tascam made it possible to "almost" achieve the same results as far as fidelity was concerned. As they said in ancient literature distributed with their recorders: they could not guarrantee that "you" would create a hit record, but they could guarantee that their product could, or something like that, iirc.
Bascially, Instead of staying in that botique market, they went for the masses. Bad mistake. On the other hand, consider how Universal Audio, Manley, Telfunken, Toft, API and so many other botique companies are doing. Even in these troubled times.
Tascam has been run into the ground by idiots.