From: rjung@sal-sun43.usc.edu (Robert A. Jung)
Newsgroups: rec.games.video
Subject: Re: Market Forces and the Lynx
Date: 25 Jan 1993 08:41:20 -0800
Organization: Southern California Lynx Enthusiasts
NNTP-Posting-Host: sal-sun43.usc.edu

(Still not able to post to alt.games.lynx...Grumble. Someone forward this,
s'il vous plait)

In article <rauser.727945351@sfu.ca> rauser@fraser.sfu.ca (Richard John Rauser) writes:
>   Although I no longer own a Lynx, I still like to browse through     
>alt.games.lynx every once in awhile for the heck of it. And every time
>there's the usual string of messages slamming Atari for their horrible
>marketing and calling for a letter writing campaign to Toys R Us for
>their poor Lynx support. A recent message suggested this campaign be
>extended to Software Etc. The underlying theme of these messages seems to
>be that the Lynx is an amazing machine that masses of people want to buy,
>but that Toys R Us and Software Etc (and many other retailers) won't let
>them. ...
>There are suggestions about Atari's total
>incompetence, endless tirades about the Lynx's utter superiority to the
>Game Gear, and allegations that Toys R Us is involved in a big conspiracy
>to sink the Lynx, which Nintendo and Sega recognize as a genuine threat.

  If all things were equal, and the Lynx wasn't selling, then saying that the
machine is not so hot is justifiable. The problem here is that all things are
_not_ equal; Atari Corp. doesn't have nearly half the resources devoted to
promotion and production that Sega and Nintendo do. It really _is_ a case of
the little guy trying to push a superior product against the name recognition
of the big boys.

  I think that, for the most part, the Lynx is a better machine than the other
portables, at least from a technology point-of-view. Lynx owners tend to be
overly enthusiastic because they do not like the thought of the better product
fading from the marketplace because of a lack of consumer recognition.

  Blaming Atari is questionable, in my mind. To the outside world, their
tactics look a bit dumb ("Why didn't they buy ad time at the Super Bowl?!?").
On the other hand, if there isn't enough M-O-N-E-Y to promote and produce more
stuff, what can the executives at Atari do? I mean, how much money has Sega
alone spent on their "Welcome to the Next Level" ad blitz of recent months?
A big chunk of money, probably.

  Give the Lynx a development and advertising budget comparable to Sega's and
Nintendo's, and then we can talk market forces and management styles. But not
until.

>    Uh, I know I'm going out on a limb here, but maybe, just maybe, the
>Lynx isn't that great a machine. Maybe, just maybe, that's why it isn't
>selling. And maybe, again, just maybe, that's why Toys R Us and Software
>Etc. are backing down.

  You're probably half right. The Lynx isn't that well known to most people;
_that's_ why it isn't selling. And then that is why TRU and SE are backing
down.

  It's easy to forget that rec.games.video, alt.games.lynx and the Internet
is not indicative of the real world...

						--R.J.
						B-)

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