From: oahvenla@lk-hp-10.hut.fi (Osma Ahvenlampi)
Subject: Re: Is Black bad in Europe ?
Organization: Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Date: 13 Oct 92 09:55:21 GMT

In article <1992Oct12.154421.8822@sagpd1> monty@sagpd1 writes:
       I have a question for the European members of the net.

      I was just talking to one of our design engineers and he made a statement
   that I would like to verify. It seems that Europeans do not like electronic
   equipment that is Black. I do not know if this is true or not and would like
   some feedback. His statemnet was that if there are two comparable pieces of
   equipment one being black and the other just about any other reasonable
   color, the black one will not sell as well in Europe, especially southern
   Europe.

Well, I don't know about southern Europe (with some definitions of Europe I
don't know even about northern.. :), but I would LOVE to see some other
colours than that awful beige for a change. Black could be just great, in fact
I'm going to spray my A500-in-PC-case black the moment I can find time for it.
Red could also be cool...
Fact: Some years ago, there was a German company that would make you a big,
bad, black, tower 68030 Amiga, if you sent them a A500 or A2000 (for the
special chips I think)..
Black is fine, almost all home electronics is black, but WHY does all
computer equipment have to be beige? I HATE it! Have you heard about ICL? It's
a company that bought Nokia's computer line, and now makes the same computers.
At least in Nokia (a Finnish company, that why I'm mentioning this) time,
you could get their PCs in several colours... A great idea, I think.
Why isn't there a Amiga with the case design of something like NeXTcube or
Silicon Graphics' Iris Indigo? They would be so ultracool I would probably
buy one even though I cannot afford even an A3000...

     Could this be why CDTV did not take off as well in Europe as was expected?
   I am not trying to offend anyone with this posting and intend no derogatory
   meaning or implications of any kind.  Now before you immediatly hit the 
   reply/followup key, mark this article as unread and think about it just a
   little before responding. One of the things this engineer metioned was that
   stereo systems tend to be chrome in Europe and black here in the US. This ki
   of rejection of things can be something that is subconcious and unless you
   stop and analyze it carefully you might mask your true feelings.

No, I think at least 80% of stereos are black, and I haven't ever seen a VCR
in any other colour.

       As I said above, please do not take any offense from this question, I am
   just trying to verify a random statement made during a free form discussion.
   The implication is that if it is true, maybe CBM needs a shiny CDTV. :)

I don't think that's the reason for CDTV's non-success. In Finland no-one has
even heard of it, unless they're hardcore Amiga fans. It's just a case of
marketing.
--
--
Osma Ahvenlampi  -  oahvenla@niksula.cs.hut.fi, oahvenla@snakemail.hut.fi
My opinions are mine, and though someone else may share them, that's not my
fault. You may freely agree or disagree with me, I don't much care.
Xref: sparky comp.sys.amiga.misc:15017 comp.sys.amiga:295