Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sunybcs!nobody
From: nobody@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (nobody)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Fading? : Revisited
Summary: Grabbing the college market.
Keywords: Commodore, college, Amiga
Message-ID: <20074@eerie.acsu.Buffalo.EDU>
Date: 28 Mar 90 02:26:53 GMT
References: <15047@snow-white.udel.EDU> <5464@sugar.hackercorp.com> <133568@sun.Eng.Sun.COM>
Organization: SUNY at Buffalo
Lines: 64

From: swann@acsu.Buffalo.EDU (stephen swann)
Path: swann

	I don't know about what's going on in the video/animation industry,
but I can see there's a controversy about how C= is handling their place in
the market.  I see a problem at another level, though: the home/personal
computer market.  The Amiga is a damn fine machine (insult my Amiga, you
insult me! :-), but it just isn't being pushed like it should.  I worked
on an IBM, doing MS-Windows applications for about a year (my intro to 
personal computers).  When I saw my first A500, I couldn't believe it was
the same species of computer as the PCs or Macs I was familiar with.
	A couple months ago, when a non computer-literate friend of mine asked
me to recommend a personal computer for 
	1.)  word processing
	2.)  dialing up his mainframe account
	3.)  learning some programming
	4.)  (yes) playing games
I thought about it for a while, then took a gamble (read that: "followed my
heart") and recommended an Amiga.  I got one too, to show that I wasn't
taking him for a ride :-).  Now, with hindsight, I would STILL make that
decision.
	BUT, (and this is my point), it hasn't exactly been a honeymoon.  
This computer is really rewarding, but it has a high learning curve, and 
there's not a lot of help to be found.  The Amiga community is great, what 
there is of it, but it's hard to find people who know the Amiga.  Most of
the people I talk to at University (I'm referring to the CS dept, too!),
think of the Amiga as a toy computer, like the C64.  
	What would really help is if C= were to continue it's educational
discounts, and even more, if it were PUSH for the college market.  The
Amiga practically sells itself, if someone is so much as EXPOSED to it.
Commodore needs a college -presence-, like IBM and Apple have.  Reps
visiting campuses, to show off the computer (and the software, especially
the academic stuff, math packages, word processing stuff, etc).  Show
people on campus that the Amiga -is- a viable alternative.  Make the
educational discounts -known of-.  I haven't heard a thing about them off
of the Usenet, and anybody who doesn't already own an Amiga isn't likely
to be reading c.s.amiga, is he?
	I think with a little help from it's friends, C= could walk away
with the college market.  Face it, most people who SEE an Amiga want one,
and it's NOT that expensive.  You can put together an A500 with 1meg,
external floppy, 2400 baud modem, and letter quality printer for what,
maybe $1300?  I'm basing that on CBM's college discounts, which are about
to become unavailable, TOO SOON.  Before practically anyone outside the
Amiga users community even knows about them.  I stumbled accross the Amiga
by chance, and I bought one.  If that hadn't happened, I would have made an
"IBM or Mac" decision.  I would have got an IBM so I could hack. My friend 
would have bought a Mac for the GUI.  That happens to -how many- people, who
have simply never heard of the Amiga?  Or worse, have heard that it is a
toy computer, and have never -seen- one, so as to know better.
	Oh, well, I'm sure people have been railing at CBM about this for 
years.  What bothers me is that the Amiga is an eminently "sell-able"
product, it practically does all the work itself, if it is just SEEN.
I would love to see the Amiga succeed in a big way, because I like 
mine immensely, and I know they could sell them like hotcakes and get
the -rest- of the college community using these great machines instead
of the ones made by "those other companies".  :-)

						Steve S.

-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-
/     "They seem oblivious to a soft spring rain, like an English           \
|       rain;  so light, yet endless, from a leaden sky..."     - Rush       |
\      v061q3x6@ubvmsa.bitnet      |     swann@autarch.acsu.buffalo.edu     /
-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-=#=-