From: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: COMMODORE - HERE'S A CLUE
Date: 25 Sep 92 20:05:34 GMT
Reply-To: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins)
Organization: Commodore, West Chester, PA
Keywords: moan, gripe, bitch

In article <1992Sep24.231339.8882@clipper.ingr.com> kontos@clipper.ingr.com (Thorne Kontos) writes:
> HEY COMMODORE, PAY ATTENTION ...
> 
> My opinions for what they are worth...
> 
> 1) Minimum CPU in any of your systems ... 68030. If a company like
>    Atari can follow Apple's lead, then so should you. 

Interesting notion.  Should we just stop selling A500's and A600's
in favor of a model with an '030 that retails for $100-$200 more
as our low end.  Does that make sense or should we both provide a
higher performance model and keep the low end units until such time
as the marketplace tells us that 16-bits doesn't sell at any price-point?

> 2) MAINTAIN YOUR USER-BASE. OFFER UPGRADE PATHS to the new high-end 
>    machines. If you alienate your user base, new software products
>    will become scarcer. There will be no repeat sales to previous
>    Amiga owners as they migrate to other platforms due to the
>    lack of software necessary to get the job done. HAVEN'T YOU HEARD
>    THE MAXIM THAT GOES:
> 
>                     SATISFY THE CUSTOMER!

Haven't we been fairly consistant about offering various upgrade paths
in the past?  Typically these have been in the form of incentive
discounts, but they seem fairly popular at the time, eh?

Also please note that we have put substantial effort into maintaining
a degree of upward compatibility in the expansion slots, video slots
cpu slots, video and other connectors.  If we made everything plug
compatible with the A500 or A1000 or A2000 the systems would be more
expensive, non-competitive and we'd get slammed on styling.

Are most customers statisfied or not?  Note that satisfied doesn't mean
satiated...

>  3) CD-ROM or a CDTV SOLUTION for all your products. 

A good idea.  SCSI CD-ROM should work with any of them, given that
someone comes up with a SCSI PCMCIA card for the A600.  CDTV is a
more diffcult issue.

>  4) STOP ALIENIATING THIRD PARTY SUPPORT...
>     A sale by them means a sale of another Amiga...
>     How long will it take before an Amiga 4000 Video Toaster is 
>     produced? Helping out third party vendors helps your sales.

Third party support is a good thing, but it's only one factor when
it comes to designing new systems. Our priority is to keep the systems
competitive.  We like to leave niches where 3-rd parties can add
value and make money, but they have to be willing to advance/invest
in new products as we move along.

Developers that believe the world revolves around them are apt to
feel alienated...  Developers whose niche can be defined as a
addressing a deficiency in an old product shouldn't be surprised
when we correct the deficiency in new products.  Developers that
think we can cling to old assembly technology, casework and
interfaces across product generations are unrealistic.

>  5) ADVERTISE! Atari is spending $60 million dollars to roll out
>     the Falcon. (Source San Jose Mercury News) The new sci-fi
>     series Babylon 5 seems a good place to start. 

$60M - this would be pretty impressive considering the hole that
Atari is in - sure it wasn't "up to $60M"?

As a side issue.  Is there a commiteed release date yet?  When?
Will the released machine match the "specifications" posted here
by the Atari fans?  Will the price be what has been suggested and
will it include a hard drive at that price or not?

>  6) A4000 needs immediate work before market release. Sure it has
>     great new graphics, but where is the improved sound? You can't
>     tout it as a multimedia machine if you are using yesteryear's
>     technology.

It's been released.  It's a considerable improvement over the A3000
and is extensible (via slots) by either CBM or 3-rd party products
to address many of what you consider deficiencies, right?

> Author's note:
>                      If this post sounds like something you
>                      might have read here, you are probably
>                      right. Most of the above came from people
>                      that post here frequently, some die-hard
>                      Amiga addicts. If you aren't going to treat 
>                      us right, then we will go elsewhere.
>                      And your sales will suffer from our loss.

You really have to address whether your "treat us right" is realistic.
If based on expectations that aren't in line with industry and previous
Commodore practices, think harder.  If you can't objectively assess the
new products because of expectations based on rumors, opinions or
exposure to the hypercritical "advocacy" here, think harder...

If you honestly don't Commodore is "treating you right", all I can
say is that the people I work with are trying pretty damn hard and
you are free to see if the grass is really greener elsewhere.

Somehow, I don't think it's Atari.  You might like Apple, but you're
still going to be paying a premium up front.  You might have fun in
Cloneland, but it's certainly not because the IBM, Intel or all of
the manufacturers are "good guys"...