From: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Amiga 4000/Atari Falcon
Date: 13 Aug 92 23:47:37 GMT
Reply-To: daveh@cbmvax.commodore.com (Dave Haynie)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA

In article <1992Aug10.062804.29028@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au> davidme@qdpii.comp.qdpi.oz.au (David Meiklejohn) writes:
>In article <1992Aug6.153244.11787@kas.helios.mn.org> rhealey@kas.helios.mn.org (Rob Healey) writes:

>>	Things ARE changing in C=, but not for the better. The ONLY reason
>>	the "layoffs" of last week weren't more severe is that C= needed
>>	the warm bodys they ARE going to fire to finish getting 3.0 and
>>	the new hardware out the door. AFTER 3.0 and the new hardware is
>>	released you can say bye-bye to more engineers, Q/A and support
>>	staff as Ali and company strive to make the bottom line look
>>	better.

>What basis is there for this paranoia?  Why should C= wait until finishing 3.0,
>getting out new models, then call it quits?  

There's no basis for that I could think of.  Without stretching one's 
imagination too far, you should figure that if the release of some new stuff 
is coming soon, that many of us are likely off and running on the next thing 
after that.  If a release isn't coming soon, many of us are probably working
the next thing rather than the thing after.  It's rare to have everyone in
the company devoted to just one release of something.

The few layoffs that happened coincided, as they generally do, with the close of
C='s fiscal year, not anything specifically project related.  Its unfortunate 
when we have to lose anyone, but that's been a fact of life anywhere in the
computer business during the later 80's and so far into the 90's.

>>	By the way, NO systems are produced in the US anymore. ALL production
>>	has been shifted to Hong Kong.

>That's hardly unique to Commodore.  They're a multinational - they make
>machines where it's cheapest.

Most of everything Commodore has ever made was built somewhere in the Far East.
They've always built high volume systems there -- the kind of manufacturing
equipment necessary for those kinds of builds isn't something you can set up
in every factory you own.  This is becoming increasingly true as more and more
automation sets in.  Some small runs used to be done in West Chester, but 
that's even hard to do with today's manufacturing requirements.  

>>	and engineers can be moved to Europe or Hong Kong.

>The US remains the center of the world's electronics industry.  Being in the
>US gives Commodore's designers better access to companies like Motorola.  It
>therefore makes sense to use the US as their design center, which it is at
>the moment, even for machines sold in Europe only.

That's very true.  Not only that, but there's very little chance that any
significant number of engineers would be willing to move to Europe or Hong
Kong.  You might figure that engineers are disposable items if you're building
MS-DOS systems and Intel or C&T or whoever does most of the design work and
zillions of BIOS hackers can be had for the tiny bit of software work necessary.
C= couldn't possibly take that attitude.  Apple wouldn't even dare it -- while
they're moving manufacturing to Colorado, they're still building up their
California engineering buildings because they know most of their engineers
wouldn't make the trip to Colorado.

>No, the Amiga is the only future Commodore have.

I'm not sure they always did, but today management certainly believes that.  
No question.  I picked up on back at the January '85 CES show when I first got 
to play around with an Amiga.

-- 
Dave Haynie Commodore-Amiga (Amiga 3000) "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      BIX: hazy
	"Work like a horse, drink like a fish"	- Psychefunkapus
 
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