From: thom@crayfish.ucsd.edu (Thom Cleland)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: COMMODORE - HERE'S A CLUE
Date: 8 Oct 92 16:10:42 GMT
Article-I.D.: network.1b1mi2INN1md
Organization: Tenuous at best
NNTP-Posting-Host: crayfish.ucsd.edu

>>That's bullsh*t. It's absolutely no justification for running the greatest
>>multimedia computer in the world at sub-light speeds when it could be running
>>at warp factor 9!
>>
>>How much more expensive **IS** a 68020? I'd bet the chip itself is under $100
>>now, and I'd be SHOCKED if it's over $200. So, for the extra $100, we could
>>have a 68020-based Amiga. It's worth it, believe me!
>
Relax.  have a homebrew.  Like good sensible folk, CBM people have produced
computers targeted to particular markets.  You might argue with whether those
putative markets will pan out or not, but it's just good sense to do the
market research and try to please your customers.  I think the A600 is
brilliant.  Dirt cheap, hooks up in color to the TV, plays all the 
68000-dependent hardwired games, clever upgrading capabilities--played
right it could grab the Nintendo market into Amigadom, and it's up from
there.  Note that the A600 is quite like the A500... to put a 68020 in
there, besides decreasing the software base, would either have to (1)
be crippled by a 16-bit bus, LC style, and be ragged on by you, or (2)
require an entirely new motherboard design, 32 bits wide, placing the
A600 up in the higher price bracket, where it would be competing,
unsuccessfully, with the upcoming low-end 4000 series machines, and be
ragged on by you.  Commodore excels at producing relativley powerful machines
for no money; this market supports the high-end Amiga market and I certainly
don't think it should be discarded.  

>>How about getting CDTV ads into things like Time and NewsWeek? Magazines that
>>NON-computer people read? THAT's who Commodore should be trying to sell Amigas
>>and CDTVs to; not the people who already own them!
>
Maybe.  Not sure.  They may not have had much success with their last 
mass media ad campaign.  I'm still not a fan of most CBM advertising--the
latest series of print ads look like forty-dollar clip art.  There's a 
lot of substance to brag about which I suggest would be good to highlight
in ads  (the clip art ads do this a bit, but they have that far too happy
man getting in the way).  I *like* the CDTV ad.  I like the MPC ad except
for that clip art.  I think CBM should emphasize networking capabiliteis
over Novell, TCP/IP, and everything else, 'cause that's where they've been
ragged on heavily in Byte and the like for lacking  (this wouldn't apply
so much in Time/Newsweek ads).  And the 386 sx bridgeboard should be about
half the price it is, and there ought to be a way for Amiga software to
access the ISA bus so Amiga programs can use PC-compatible expansion
cards  (like A/D converters).  Getting off the point.  The ads could be good
in those mags or they could be of no use.  For name recognition it'd be
a good thing, certainly.

I think the new projected lineup-- 4000-series machines from a low-end
68030 model  (funny how the new low end is higher than the current high
end)  to a high-end 68040/DSP model pending new CPU cards, plus the
2x00 series as video-studio machines and the A600 as bait for the masses...
that's good.  Hopefully the low-end 4000 series will be priced low enough
so that CBM will have a machine targeted for the student market or 
low-end small business market.  That's been a weakness in the Amiga line
for a long time--the 500 was too homey and unprofessional looking, the
2000 way overpriced and underpowered for that application, the 3000 too
high-end in those days.  Perhaps CBM's initial choice of an IDE interface
for the A4000 hard drive was with that price point in mind...

Thom
 
-- 
Thom Cleland     \ /^^/  >Neural systems/network physiology< >Amigaphile<  
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