From: Les_Jenkins@lppl.mi.org (Les Jenkins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: CBM is a game machine company
Date: 7 Apr 92 21:29:53 GMT
Article-I.D.: lppl.Les_Jenkins.074c
Organization: Les's Place BBS

In a message dated Sat  4 Apr 92 19:47, Mykes@amiga0.sf-Bay.org (mike Schwa
wrote:

[....stuff deleted....]

 MBS> Before the flames start, which undoubtably they will, I am not
 MBS> refuting
 MBS> the fact that the Amiga is a decent computer, also.  There is NO
 MBS> shame
 MBS> in building a computer around a video game hardware system -
 MBS> especially
 MBS> a high-end one.

You'll get no flames from me on this one. I agree. CBM is just releasing
game machines anymore. Although the drop in R&D is probably not as major as
Marc Barret makes it sound like it is, it is still dismaying to hear in one
report how CBM has broken a billion in sales recently and at the same time
is still CUTTING R&D spending. 

I am often considered one of the "doom sayers" so I don't post my views as
much anymore as it would seem that being concerned with the Amiga's
direction will only get you shunned by the likes of Ronald Kushner and
others.

 MBS> I'm not a fan of the PC or Macintosh, but you have to look at how
 MBS> the
 MBS> low-end has moved in those (what people consider to be business)
 MBS> systems
 MBS> over time.  The PC has gone from a low-end system with an 8088 and
 MBS> mono-text graphics to a 386 with VGA.  The Mac went from a 128K
 MBS> monochrome
 MBS> system to a 68030 based color one.  Both the Mac and PC users would
 MBS> cream
 MBS> in their pants, however, if they could have been using something as
 MBS> fine
 MBS> as the Amiga OS from 1985 through the present.

Quite true. I know of several people who are still holding back on
investing in Amigas because although they love the OS, the chipset hasn't
been updated in years.


 MBS> The time is coming, and soon, where CBM HAS to make the A3000 their
 MBS> LOW END machine if they are going to continue to compete as a real
 MBS> computer.
 MBS> The OS is going to be enough to keep 'C' programmers real happy, but
 MBS> the price/performance that was once in the Amiga's favor is GONE at
 MBS> the low-end and disappearing quite fast at the high end.

As I recall, when the A3000 was introduced it was billed as "CBM's New
Low-End Machine" which implied it would eventually replace the A500 and
A2x00s as the low-end machine and we would see nothing but bigger and
better machines from there on out. In reality CBM has only given us CDTV
(which is of debatable value as I don't think either it nor CD-I are going
to take off in any major way despite what any 'experts' have to say on it)
and the A600 which simply screams "I'm a game machine!"

 MBS> What is CBM doing wrong?  Marc Barrett hasn't been WAY off the mark
 MBS> (no pun intended - if only he weren't so downright insulting...).
 MBS> I wouldn't go near the low-end Amigas now, except to use as a game
 MBS> machine.  But I would rather have a Genesis.  At the high-end, the

I can agree with you on rather having a Genesis if all I wanted was a good
game machine. What is CBM doing wrong? Same thing the President of the U.S.
is: Losing touch with what they are supposed to be doing. They try a couple
of really pathetic marketing attempts in the U.S. and then flail their arms
about in exasperation is if they don't understand why Stevie raising his
house by the power on an Amiga alone isn't selling lots of machines. They
see big bucks coming in from Europe and decide to blow-off the U.S. market
until the "next generation Amigas are ready." 

You really have to wonder how they expect to sell any so-called next
generation Amigas in the future if they can't sell what they've got now.

 MBS> A3000 is becoming obsolete, due to the availability of much faster
 MBS> computers with better graphics capabilities.  I've been pretty loyal
 MBS> to CBM, having gone from A1000 to A2000 to A2500 to A3000.  I am
 MBS> beginning to look at what I'm going to have to spend NeXt time
 MBS> (pun intended) I need to upgrade.

Hopefully the SAGE DIG standard and lower-cost DMI resolver boards will
work to help this siutation somewhat.


-- Via DLG Pro v0.991

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