Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!bbn!bbn.com!denbeste From: denbeste@bbn.com (Steven Den Beste) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Wish I had an Amiga 1500 Message-ID: <42427@bbn.COM> Date: 10 Jul 89 01:52:20 GMT References: <20219@cup.portal.com> <446@aucis.UUCP> Sender: news@bbn.COM Lines: 40 In article <446@aucis.UUCP>, easton@aucis.UUCP (Jeff Easton) writes: > (A lengthy redesign of the 2000 - cut down the supply and get rid of some > edge connectors, and somehow cut $500 off the list price. Somehow.) > > I for one would have bought the above machine instead of my B2000. > PC compatibility? I dont need it, I'm drowning in PC's around here :>. > Accelerator boards? A '030 mother board would fix that. > > There, thats my $0.02 worth. > > Jeff Easton UUCP: !mailrus!sharkey!aucis!easton > Zenith Data Systems OEM Engineering And there we have the key: Why the hell should Commodore make a machine which undercuts the 2000 and has a lower profit margin than the 2000 without raising total sales. That doesn't sound very wise to me. Please, PLEASE remember that Commodore's best interests intersect with, but do not precisely equal, your own. If you can cite object lessons from other companies, then I'll cite one. Remember the PCjr? The idea was cockeyed from the beginning. IBM wanted to try to break into the home market, but they didn't want to design a machine which was cheaper than the PC but had all the same features. So they crippled the PCjr and it died on the market. They were on the horns of a dilemma: They could either: 1. Give it enough features to be reasonable and watch the sales of their $2700 PC drop by as much as the PCjr rose, or 2. Cripple the PCjr and risk market rejection. They chose the latter route. Commodore has ridden a different path. You can choose "cheap" (the 500) or "expandable" (the 2000). I don't see any room in there for a third path. There is NO BENEFIT FOR COMMODORE in selling your "1500", even if they COULD match the price you quote. [And I don't think that "it'll have a nice small footprint which is more in favor in Europe" is a sufficient benefit.] Steven C. Den Beste, BBN Communications Corp., Cambridge MA denbeste@bbn.com(ARPA/CSNET/UUCP) harvard!bbn.com!denbeste(UUCP)