Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Path: sparky!uunet!mcsun!dxcern!zofka
From: zo...@dxcern.cern.ch (Milan Zofka)
Subject: CBM, This is not STUPID this is a PROPOSITION
Message-ID: <1992Aug10.144505.20684@dxcern.cern.ch>
Organization: CERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics
Date: Mon, 10 Aug 1992 14:45:05 GMT
Lines: 167
Hi there,
Once more I will "jeter de l'huile sur le feu" (mean I will
throw oil on the fire, french expression).
As you probably saw last days, I'm an Amiga fanatic. This
machine is probably the (objectively) best micro-computer
you can find on the market, BUT the commercials at C= don't
think like this.
I live in Europe, so I have a different point of view than
US people.
You can see three different Amiga users categories.
1) The game players. (85%)
2) The fanatics. (10%)
3) Professional users ( 5%)
CBM makes money with 1)
I make money as a 3) because I work with an Amiga at my job and I
own an Amiga at home so i'm also a 2)!
The R&D group at C= is a high level group. They made a real good
job with 2.1 (still in beta version, comming soon;-)). They have
very good ideas but no money.
The Commercial C= group is a low level group. They have corrupted
the US market and they think that they will make more and more
money at short time, that's the problem.
How to see the Amiga come back in the US market and how to enlarge
the 3rd category of users, that's a medium/long term question.
For 1) just try to build lower price machines (A600hd is a good beginning).
For 2) well, they make the work themselves!
For 3) all the problem is there.
Professional users will spend money for a machine if they find:
1) Easy to use, standard, quality software.
2) Robust, fast, complete hardware.
3) Service.
Today we have:
1) a good OS and some softwares. BUT NO PRODUCTIVITY standard, easy to
use, quality softwares (except very few ones). As a fanatic, I wrote
a letter to Bill Gates (Microsoft President) explaining the European
situation of the Amiga. It was a complete letter, including objective
considerations and what CBM <=> Microsoft should consider if they want
to build a good product. The reply I got was:
===
From bi...@microsoft.com Mon Mar 2 21:20:12 1992
Subject: Re: Whiches on Microsoft products for the Amiga Micro-Computer
Thanks for your input. Unfortunately we are not able to take resources
to do Amiga versions of our products. We are focused on improving our
MAC and WINDOWS products as much as we can. We have surveyed AMIGA users
and found that their interest in productivity software at the kind of
price that MAC and WINDOWS users pay is very low - that combined with its
much lower volumes and the immense work involved make it impractical.
Commodore has never done anything to make it easy to move software to their
machine.
===
That's ALL folks!
2) some good machines and some better machines comming (soon I hope).
But what professional users need is a good configuration. This mean
correct memory, correct disk space and a CORRECT display.
Look at SVGA. 1000*800*256colors is just what professional users need
and they will pay 1000$ more if the monitor is a stable 16'' one.
Of course, end user may use a normal 14'' at 640*480 like any other
machine but the solution should exist without any special hack.
3) Service, service, service. CBM should have in mind that without
service, buyers will have a look somewhere else. Can you imagine
to buy a dish machine without service? And when the machine start
to smoke and crunch your glasses, who do you call? Service.
Now, what CBM should do:
1) Get in touch with the big companies. Word is today a standard for
word processing. You can say what you want about Microsoft products,
today it's a reference. Excel is another example.
Just imagine theses programs on the amiga, specially with V2.1 of
the OS (and the locale.library). The first completely international
word processor. Completely font independant, with a real printer
spooler (with our true multitasking), fast (due to our custom chips),
a.s.o. The problem is that the price of this kind of product is a
bit high for end-users. A solution is that C= gives machines, money
and some ingeneers to Microsoft as a DONATION. After that, it will
be possible to have a 250$ package for Word.
At that price, where is the problem?
AS225 V2 will come soon. Amiga Networking in a few weeks. Great.
It will be possible to share disks thru network. So, it will be
possible to share documents, printers a.s.o.
And of course, do the same for Excel and others productivity packages.
CBM, start to think about that, try to think at medium/long term.
2) Your AA chips will do half of the work, just fine. OS V3.0 should
remove chips dependencies and it should be possible to add graphics
cards on the Amiga without any hack. You're in a good way.
BUT, a 2Meg / 52HD bundle is STUPID. You should put 2M chip and
4 Megs fast into ANY 3000. The 3000 is a real good machine at
theses conditions ONLY. The 3000 is not a game (only) machine.
You should consider that people how buy a machine like this one
expect to run software as on a Workstation, not as on a PC.
You have a good platform but no peripherals. You sell boxes (machines)
but no way to find a good disk or memory from you. WHY?
3) Here in Switzerland, we have some stores that makes a real good job
about service. They did it themselve and they sell a LOT (yes, they
sell so much amigas that they opened others stores!!!) of machines.
But, when users ask for something special that the dealer cannot
reply, they have to wait indefinitely from C= to get a reply...
And I can affirm that C= at Switzerland is doing everything to find
the solution as fast as possible... Where is the problem?
Conclusions:
Anyway, I cannot recommend the Amiga for professional use today due
to a lack of productivity software but I recommend it for friends how
wants to play games and to work with video.
If C= think that they will continue to grow without productivity
software, they are wrong.
If C= don't improve the service department (specially they have to
find solutions for unhappy (sometimes stupid but...) users), they
will NEVER hit the professional market.
Professional don't put price at first level. Professional users think
like this:
1) Is it possible to use my Word documents with my Mac (at office xyz)
my TsoungPoung (PC Clone;-)) at office abc or my IBM PC (somewhere
else).
2) If my machine is broken, what should I do?
3) Is the price not to high?
If all conditions are good, they may think that the machine is good
enought (specially if the machine offers capabilities that others don't,
like video software...).
That's only my opininions. To change things, it will take time but it's
a medium/long term strategy. Of course, advertizing should also be
done at the same time and the Amiga should be "relaunched" with the
new serie.
Hope this new will be read (was long enought to be skipped).
C= I love your machine, please don't kill it!
Milan
--
===== ZOFKA Milan - CERN/PPE - CH-1211 GENEVA 23 - Switzerland ==//==
email: zo...@dxcern.cern.ch or mcsun!dxcern!zofka //
I work with a small cheap box that runs few differents OS. \\//
================= Just one makes it possible... ==============\/=====
Path: sparky!uunet!cis.ohio-state.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!darwin.sura.net!
convex!news.oc.com!utacfd.uta.edu!rwsys!caleb!jdp
From: j...@caleb.UUCP (Jim Pritchett)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy,comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: CBM, This is not STUPID this is a PROPOSITION
Message-ID: <A6Iur*uO0@caleb.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1992 05:49:56 GMT
FollowUp-To: comp.sys.amiga.misc
References: <1992Aug10.144505.20684@dxcern.cern.ch>
Organization: is sometimes desirable
Lines: 22
In article <1992Aug10.144505.20...@dxcern.cern.ch>, Milan Zofka writes:
> From bi...@microsoft.com Mon Mar 2 21:20:12 1992
> Subject: Re: Whiches on Microsoft products for the Amiga Micro-Computer
>
> Thanks for your input. Unfortunately we are not able to take resources
> to do Amiga versions of our products. We are focused on improving our
> MAC and WINDOWS products as much as we can. We have surveyed AMIGA users
> and found that their interest in productivity software at the kind of
> price that MAC and WINDOWS users pay is very low - that combined with its
> much lower volumes and the immense work involved make it impractical.
> Commodore has never done anything to make it easy to move software to their
> machine.
No great loss. Remember Microslop's buggy AmigaBasic?
Jim Pritchett
UUCP: rwsys.lonestar.org!caleb!jdp
or utacfd.uta.edu!rwsys!caleb!jdp
Path: sparky!uunet!cbmvax!cbmehq!cbmger!peterk
From: pet...@cbmger.de.so.commodore.com (Dr Peter Kittel Germany)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: CBM, This is not STUPID this is a PROPOSITION
Message-ID: <9513@cbmger.de.so.commodore.com>
Date: 11 Aug 92 15:12:22 GMT
References: <1992Aug10.144505.20684@dxcern.cern.ch> <A6Iur*uO0@caleb.UUCP>
Reply-To: pet...@cbmger.de.so.commodore.com (Dr Peter Kittel Germany)
Organization: Commodore Germany
Lines: 17
In article <A6Iur*...@caleb.UUCP> j...@caleb.UUCP (Jim Pritchett) writes:
>
>> From bi...@microsoft.com Mon Mar 2 21:20:12 1992
>>
>> Thanks for your input. Unfortunately we are not able to take resources
>> to do Amiga versions of our products.
>
>No great loss. Remember Microslop's buggy AmigaBasic?
Well, huh, but it *is* useful. In fact, I use it every day. It has
sort of character, you know, it has its quirks, but I know them by
now and know how to live with them.
--
Best regards, Dr. Peter Kittel // E-Mail to \\ Only my personal opinions...
Commodore Frankfurt, Germany \X/ {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!cbmger!peterk
or pet...@public.sub.org