From: fheitkamp@desire.wright.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Will PC Makers Survive Mutimedia?? 
Date: 31 Dec 92 13:51:59 EST
Distribution: usa
Organization:  Wright State University 

In article <1992Dec30.112544.3885@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu>, nwickham@nyx.cs.du.edu (Neal Wickham) writes:
> From Jan. issue of Computer Shopper:
> 
> 
>                WILL PC MAKERS SURVIVE MULTIMEDIA??   
> 
> Conventional wisdom says a "killer application" is what's needed to drive
> multimedia into the marketplace, doing for computers of the '90s what
> Lotus 1-2-3 did for the PCs in the '80s.
> 

	Most of the PC Multimedia articles I read charge of talking about
	Microsofts Multimedia "standard" , mention Quicktime a few times
	and never mention the Amiga.  Once again a pioneer in the industry
	is left in the dust like they never existed.

> However, Paul Saffo, a research fellow at the Institute For The Future,
> quipped that several killer apps for multimedia have appeared already,
> "and so far, all they've managed to do is criticlly wound the manufac-
> turers."  

	Hmmm didn't mention "PC" here.
> 
> Not only is multimedia still several years away from business or con-
> sumer acceptance, contends Saffo, but many of the PC makers pioneering
> multimedia today will be gone by the time the market finally does gel.

	...mentions "PC", "pioneer", and "multimedia" in same sentence.

> 
> Ironically, many analysts consider multimedia a huge market opportunity,
> the biggest of any electronic technology. [Did you hear that Marc?]
> Dataquest, for instance, prjects a 51% annual growth rate for multimedia
> with worldwide revenues topping $9 billion by 1996.

	More like a buzz word oportunity.  Buzzwords is what sells PCs
	right?  Let me do it:  "Excell"  "Word"  "VL-Buss"  "100 mega-bits
	per second"  " true-color"  (what are the sound buzz words?).
> 
> The problem is multimedia's "hybrid nature" which demands that hybrid
> companies bring it to market, said Dataquest's Robert Corpuz.  This is
> evident by the strategic partnerships now forming amoung companies 
> such as Apple, IBM, and Sony, he said.                           

	The PC clone companies are hybrid by their very nature.  No any
	one PC Clone that is mostly manufactured by the same company.
        You get company Xs video card, company Ys sound card, company Zs
	controller etc. etc.

	
> 
> As multimedia becomes the melting pot for communications, computers,
> and consumer electronics, PC vendors as we know them today will either
> die-off or evolve into "information conduit" companies, Saffo predicted.
> [...like cable companies?] 

	Curriously, ignoring the Amiga again.
> 
> In the meantime, however, computer firms bundling multimedia systems
> are expected to enjoy modest success in the commercial and consumer
> markets--provided the don't invest too heavily in any single platform.

> 
> Standards are far from settled, warn analysts, and the market will stay
> dangerously volatile over the next seveal years.  For now buyers, and
> sellers alike need to treat multimedia as "disposable technology" says
> Corpuz.
> 
>                  --Anthony Strattner
> [end article]
> 

	Actually this articles sounds like BS from a "PC cheerleading"
	magazine.  Really capitalizm playing on ignorant users at it's
	worst.

> 
> Just because the PC world is a chaotic mess doesn't mean multimedia 
> won't take off!  I read in the Denver Post yesterday morning that CD-ROM
> was the big X-mas item this year.  Too bad they were nearly all for 
> sucky PCs.
> 
	That's just it, the PC world is a chaotic mess and we all know
	that the only thing out there are PCs.  Right?

> 
> 
>                                   NCW
> 
Fred Heitkamp,  ** Not an organization.  My opinions only **