From: dnavas@oracle.uucp (David Navas)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: A Commodore Engineer speaks out.
Keywords: Reverse Enginneering AGA - can it be done?
Date: 7 Oct 92 18:27:48 GMT
Article-I.D.: oracle.1992Oct7.182748.28339
Organization: Oracle Corporation, Redwood Shores CA
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

In article <35618@cbmvax.commodore.com> grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) writes:
>You need to keep in mind that the A500 and A600 systems are where a lot
>of Commodore's Amiga profits come from.  At the low end, it can be

That's because Cmdre marketing is completely clueless as to how to
attack the high-end.  The fact that the Amiga, for instance, has the mid-end
multimedia market has little to nothing to thank Cmdre for.  Past the fact
that Cmdre actually released the thing AND had an extensive review of it
in a widely-read magazine (BYTE) at the time....

[much ranting and raving eliminated because it's all been said before.]

As the latest bit of unprofessionalism, one only has to look at the
slides that Dave A. showed at WOC.  A shot of a "lemming", while it might be
useful for gaining the attention of your average 12 year old, isn't going
to do much for folks who actually might have $3000 to plunk down on a
machine like this.

Karen, my SO, who has little to no knowledge of the history behind Cmdre,
but who found the A4000 intro very interesting, was flabbergasted at the
way marketing was trying to position the thing.  Frankly, so was I.  I
left the room the tape was being shown in in disgust.

>demonstrated that (a) price and volume are tightly coupled and (b)
>small increments in cost of goods have a relatively large effect
>on profit margin.

The profit margin on high-end machines has traditionally been higher than the
low-end.  Volume of sales is both a function of the cost (and therefore
your possible market) and the market penetration.  Cmdre's high-end
market penetration has been abysmally low as compared to some companies
(like Apple) even when they sell better computers at a lower price
(the A3000 when it intro'd, for example).

The "spin" that marketing puts on its failures ("we don't have a budget
<whine> <whine>") has some validity -- but the real reason there's been
no penetration is that Cmdre is not a "specialty" shop.  You folks know the
consumer market, you need some really professional help when it comes to
your high-end, though.

Of course, the other half of the argument is that Cmdre's gfx subsystem has
gotten woefully behind, both in throughput and resolution capabilities.  This
doesn't help -- ie: showing a scientist leaning on top of a cheezy looking
1084 display isn't going to sell many machines to scientists ;)
But then that's been rehashed lots too.

>Given this picture, it might makes sense to intermediate systems that
>offer new features or higher performace, but not to simply "upgrade"
>the low end if that adversly impacts the entry-level price.

That's true.  If you replaced the low-end you're unnecessarily reducing
your "possible" market audience.

>68030's, 32-bit busses and built-in "fast ram" are all nice things
>to have, but "nice" doesn't pay the bills.

Only if you sell them :)

>Note that Apple may be in a better position to make such a move because
>their volume/profit is spread over more systems and perhaps because they

...have an effective version of marketing?

>didn't have much choice if they wanted to have new software to perform
>"effectively" on all their hardware.

Or, perhaps, wanted to give a more powerful choice for their base platform
which was capable of an integrated form of animation.  Some might say that
Quicktime sucks, but as compared to what?  Page flipping?  Is Quicktime
page-flipping?  No, more like AnimObjs....  When was the last AnimObj
animation any of us saw?  RoboCity is kind of slow and jerky too, you know.

>Some folks have suggested that Atari has also done the "030 only" thing,
>but it's not at all clear that this is the case.

They would be foolish to do so.
However, what is clear is that Atari will be offering an "affordable" (<$1000)
030 based machine.  Will Cmdre?


David C. Navas						dnavas@oracle.com
Working for, but not speaking on behalf of, Oracle Corp.