Not sure where you get your information from, but Steinway has hardly cornered the market. As far as the action is concerned, a lot of people complain about the NY Steinways because the actions are not consistently good. The Hamburg actions were outsourced to Renner years ago. As far as repair, I know people who have bought new S&Ss that have practically fallen apart in a couple years.
Ok, perhaps "cornered the market" was a bit stong. However, Steinway has a long reputation of building pianos that last. They are also easier to repair than most other pianos. I've seen the actions of many other manufacturers and the action of S&S is easily the most solid design. Perhaps your friends need to tune their pianos more frequently, or abuse it less, because a Steinway doesn't even come into it's own until a few years of playing on it -- much like the first 100k miles on a Cadillac are considered the "breaking in" miles.
It is true that Steinway can brag about having their instruments in more concert halls, and played by more concert pianists than any other brand, but this is more through bullying marketing tactics than anything else. That situation is changing, btw.
Such strong opinions you have... "bullying marketing tactics"? Liszt preferred and played on a Steinway, and I doubt it took much bullying to get him to play on it. I would like to think that if most concert pianists choose a Steinway, it is more about the piano and less about the marketing; afterall, they're the ones that have to play on them -- would they all choose to play on an unreliable and inferior piano on the sole basis of marketing? No? Then the logical conclusion is that the Steinway is neither unreliable nor inferior.
As far as Yamaha, you have your decades wrong. They started making - and emulating Steinway - pianos way before the '80s. The Koreans then started in the '80s, and have almost caught up with Yamaha in terms of quality. Please post more about these "defecting" engineers. I've never heard that.
You're right, Yamaha did start emulating the Steinway earlier than the '80s, but they were frustrated because they couldn't get a tone or action comperable to the S&S piano. So, in an effort to improve their situation, they did some under-the-table negotiating with some of the S&S engineers, offering them so much [money, houses, college for their children, etc.] that they simply couldn't refuse. All they had to do was bring the blueprints with them. Then, in the early '80s, Yamaha was making pianos that rivaled the Steinway. They now came with a Capo d’astro bar in the treble region and the actions to both the Steinway and the Yamaha grand pianos were (and are) virtually IDENTICAL. This is not something either company will brag about, but I was fortunate to hear of this from a master piano technician I know.
The result? You can now buy a piano from Yamaha for half the price of a Steinway piano and you will get virtually the same thing. Granted, the softer wood in the Yamaha gives it a more "brittle" and metallic sound. Also, since Steinway pianos are hand manufactured, each one has it's own character -- some better than others, but if you've ever played on one of the better ones (as I have), it will likely restore at least some of your faith in the company. Since the Yamaha piano is built by robots, each one will likely sound the same as the next, making it very consistant.
Topic: Pianos manufacturer you like the most?