From: paulg@weird.miami.fl.us (Paul Griswold)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: Death Becomes Amiga!!
Date: 19 Aug 92 21:15:28 EDT
Organization: Weird BBS [Amiga] (305)553-3207 S. Miami, FL USA


I would like to hear your response to the following letter that was mailed to me:


Dear Ron Alexander,
 
        If you are truely interested in how your stockholders feel about 
 
Commodore and it's policies, read the following letter.  Changes need
 
 to be made NOW!  The Amiga 600 is a failure.  Read Amiga Shopper's
 
August issue... No one in Great Britain feels that the 600 is an 
 
improvement.  Most people have stated that if they knew that Commodore 
 
was going to drop the 500plus they would have bought a PC.  Many of
 
 them have stated that they will not buy any more Commodore products,
 
and they will not suggest Commodore computers to anyone!
 
 
 
Please read the following letter that was sent to me.  
 
 
 
 
 
   Here's the rough draft of a letter that I am sending to AmigaWorld.  You
 
can take my complaints from it...
 
 
 
-------------------
 
 
 
Dear Mr. Barney:
 
 
 
   I have been reading your editorials since you took over the position of 
 
Editor-in-Chief of AmigaWorld.  It is my oppinion that you are losing touch
 
with the average Amiga owner, much as our Congress is losing touch with the
 
American people -- or so it appears to me from reading the editorials.  The
 
August 1992 issue was particularly bad in this regard, as you attempted to
 
talk around the real problems with the Amiga.  You sited Commodore's hiring of
 
a new head of sales as if going through yet another new and inexperienced head
 
of sales is a good thing.  The same issue featured as its "headline story" an
 
article that has to be one of the most useless articles to appear in your
 
magazine in a long time.  Your "Ultimate Amiga" article contained no new
 
information of any importance to the average Amiga user, and was plainly fluff
 
to make things appear better than they actually are.  (Really, the machine
 
that you put together is very analogous to a C-64 with a UNIX workstation
 
motherboard attached; it is very powerful, but too bad it will not run any of
 
the old software on its display)
 
 
 
   I have included with this letter a sampling of recent messages from Usenet,
 
to show just how angry people are with Commodore.  The fact is, all of the
 
Amiga's problems lie with bad management decisions on the part of Commodore.
 
Looking at Commodore's past record, it is plain that Commodore has made bad
 
decisions all across the board, and not just in a few areas.  Take, for
 
example, Commodore's funding of research and development, which is critical
 
to how good future products will be.  What follows is a short listing of
 
Commodore's past track record with R&D investments:
 
 
 
Commodore International, Ltd.
 
-----------------------------------------------
 
Year | Total Sales | R&D  | R&D as % of Sales |
 
-----------------------------------------------
 
1992 |    950.0    | 24.0 |     2.25 % *      |
 
1991 |   1047.2    | 31.4 |     3.00 %        |
 
1990 |    887.3    | 27.7 |     3.12 %        |
 
1989 |    939.7    | 19.3 |     2.05 %        |
 
1988 |    871.1    | 15.4 |     1.77 %        |
 
1987 |    806.7    | 16.4 |     2.03 %        |
 
1986 |    889.3    | 36.8 |     4.14 %        |
 
1985 |    883.1    | 46.5 |     5.27 %        |
 
1984 |   1267.2    | 40.3 |     3.18 %        |
 
-----------------------------------------------
 
*Figures for Fiscal Year 1992 crudely estimated based on sales and
 
expenses for the first three quarters in the Third Quarter Report
 
 
 
 
 
   As you can see, Commodore has never adequately funded R&D to any degree
 
whatsoever.  This is even worse when you consider how reliant Commodore on
 
technologies developed in-house, unlike most PC clone coompanies that use
 
computer technologies developed by other companies.  Commodore has never in
 
the past seven years even remotely approached the computer industry average
 
of investing 8.0% of total sales in R&D.  It is interesting to note that
 
both Apple and IBM equal or exceed the industry everage in R&D investments as
 
a percentage of total sales.  
 
 
 
   This failure to adequately invest in their own future is reflected in 
 
Commodore's total sales.  As you can plainly see from the same table with the
 
R&D investment figures, Commodore's total sales have shown almost zero growth
 
since 1985.  
 
 
 
   The other area where Commodore has been extremely difficient is in selling
 
and marketing.  The problem here does not seem to be a lack of funding, but a
 
total lack of vision and patience.  When Commodore does do something good, 
 
they just do not keep it up long enough.  If a new ad campaign or marketing
 
approach does not turn immediate profits, the program is canceled completely
 
and Commodore goes on to something else.  This was the case with Commodore's
 
"Stevie" campaign a few years back; the campaign ran for only a few months,
 
and nothing like has ever been seen since.  Not long after the A3000 was
 
released, Commodore also tried getting into the UNIX workstation market, but
 
then canceled the entire Amiga UNIX program after less than one year.  Also
 
not long after the A3000 was released, Commodore hired a new director of
 
edicational sales, named Howard Diamond.  Under Mr. Diamond, Commodore spent
 
quite a bit of money attempting to get the Amiga into the bookstores and
 
university-owned computer dealers of 40 major universities.  Commodore took
 
out ads in the Iowa State Daily, and sent a person to ISU to attempt to get
 
the Amiga into the university-owned Microcomputer Products Center.  Less
 
than five months later, we heard that Howard Diamond had been fired.  No
 
Commodore ads have appeared in the ISU Daily since, and there are no Amigas at
 
the Microcomputer Products Center.  By the way, I would like to ad that it took
 
Apple Computer over two years to pursuade the ISU MPC to carry the Macintosh.
 
The MPC is a very tough nut to crack, but well worth the rewards when finally
 
cracked.  Commodore just lacked the patience to do it.
 
 
 
   Actually, there are some very good people in the middle management at 
 
Commodore.  So where do the problems lie?  At the very top, with the Board of
 
Directors and the CEO.  In my oppinion, all of the Amiga's problems lie with
 
just two people: Irving Gould and his handpicked successor, Medi Ali.  
 
 
 
   First of all, there should be seven people on the Board of Directors, but
 
there are only five now, and these positions have been vacant for a couple of
 
years.  Why does Mr. Gould not appoint anyone to fill these spots?  Because
 
keeping these positions vacant just gives him more control.  The five 
 
remaining spots consist of Irving Gould himself, who is a 72-year-old
 
financier; Medi Ali, who is a 42-year-old banker; General Alexander Haig, who
 
is a 68-year-old former Army general; Ralph D. Seligman, who is a 67-year-old
 
consultant counsel; and Burton Winberg, who is a 72-year-old oil and real
 
estate investor.
 
 
 
   Where are the people on the management with any experience in running a
 
technology-driven computer company?  Mr. Haig probably does not even know he
 
is on the Commodore Board, and probably does not care if he does.  The
 
real-estate investor is to old to be actively enaged in pushing the Amiga and
 
directing its courses.  For Mr. Seligman, his sole purpose in life is
 
to maintain a small office in the Bahamas so that Commodore can continue to
 
call themselves a Bahamian company; this small office is Commodore's 
 
"international headquarters", in much the same way that a small hotel room
 
in Texas is George Bush's "home".  Mr. Winberg also runs other companies, so
 
he hardly has time to work with Commodore.  Again, where is the leadership in
 
this group?  Is there anyone in this group who really understands what the
 
Amiga is, and how to best direct its course?  The answer is plainly "no".
 
 
 
   If you will take a look at the messages from Usenet, you will see that the
 
last is mine.  It has not been posted to Usenet yet, but will be as soon as I
 
am out from under my non-disclosure agreement with respect to the AA chipset.
 
Yes, I am an Amiga developer, registered with CATS, and have full knowledge
 
of the AA chipset.  Needless to say, I do not regard the future as being very
 
bright.  Until someone takes over Commodore, throws out the mad management, 
 
and pumps some decent cash into improving the future of the Amiga, the Amiga
 
will not have a very good future at all.  (Hey, according to his statement
 
with the Federal Election Commission, Ross Perot has great interest in 
 
computer companies.  Let's start a mail-in campaign to pursuade him to buy
 
Commodore!  Just kidding...)
 
         
 
   Finally, I would like to take into account your labeling of all other 
 
systems except the Amiga as "dull".  If you will get out of your glass house
 
and take a look at the real world you will see that it really is quite a bit
 
more exciting than the Amiga.  IBM has a fantastic product with their OS/2
 
2.0, which has more features by far than AmigaOS.  Apple Computer's new 
 
Newton also looks very exciting, and promises to turn the computer industry
 
on its ear the way the Macintosh did in 1984.  Really, between the AA chipset
 
-- which offers nothing new beyond what the Amiga needs for basic survival --
 
and the products from Apple and IBM, it is easy to see which ones are dull and
 
which are exciting and innovative.
 
 
 
 
 
                                             Sincerely,
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                        
 
   
 
 
 
Commodore can no longer continue to run the corporation in this manner.  
Irving Gould and the rest of the board members need to take HUGE pay cuts 
NOW!!!  Commodore needs to put more money into research and development 
and advertising, and less money in their pockets.  CDTV could be a viable 
product if Commodore would lower the price and release an Amiga 2000 and 
3000 compatable CDTV drive!  Why can't Commodore accomplish the simplest 
of tasks?  A CDTV compatible drive would increase software production 
immediately.  As it sits, companies such as Xetec are beating up on Commodore 
with their own CD-ROM devices.
 
 
 
Everyday I hope that Commodore will be bought out by a company that at least 
knows SOMETHING about promoting the sales of their products!
 
 
 
 
 
Please feel free to call me!
 
 
 
Paul Griswold
 
 
 
(305) 279-5435
 
 
 
 
 
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,connect.audit