I don’t think Kenwood is getting out of the ham radio business. They’re just evaluating and reacting to the current market, based on ham’s wants and needs with evolving technology and operating preferences. They probably just determined that having the long time TS-590sg and newer TS-890s HF radios are enough at their respective price points.
I understand their discontinuing the TS-990. Have you seen the current price “on sale” at HRO?…$7,700! The competition has their SDR two-receiver radios at less than half that price. And the more sophisticated Elecraft K4D is $2K less. A no brainer to knock it out of their lineup.
Also, even though Cycle 25 is showing promise for better propagation, and folks somewhat returning to the legacy CW and SSB modes, digital modes like FT8 are still humming along and jamming their band segments at increasing numbers. No indication of slowing down, so maybe the manufacturers are realizing that one doesn’t need expensive radios with all the bells a whistles to operated those modes.
Bob K7JQ