Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cunixf.cc.columbia.edu!cunixb.cc.columbia.edu!es1
From: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga pessimism
Message-ID: <1990Mar28.064155.13307@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 28 Mar 90 06:41:55 GMT
References: <5526@jarthur.Claremont.EDU>
Sender: usenet@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (The Network News)
Reply-To: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 45

In article <5526@jarthur.Claremont.EDU> bgribble@jarthur.Claremont.EDU (Bill Gribble) writes:
>I'm a faithful Amiga owner - I've had mine for over 3 years, and have
>  been happy all the time.  I invested an additional $500 for expansion
>  about 2 weeks ago without hesitation - and 500 smacks is a *lot* of
>  money to a starving college student.  But I've been reading all this - 
>  to put it mildly - pessimistic stuff about the Amiga's future, and   
>  I'm beginning to  wonder, too.  

	Bill, I ask you to take a look at all these pessimistic
message and ask yourself: how many people are spouting pessimism? One
person, Marc Barrett, is spouting 95% of it. Some people are agreeing
on some points. I agree that the Amiga has a catch up job to play.
However, take a look at most of the replies: they are all telling Marc
where to put his stupid comments. Please, take a look at the comments
being espoused and try to find the substances: I can't.
	Commodore's largest problem is an image problem. It has
nothing to do with the quality of the machine, simply public
perception of Commodore. Until recently, Commodore has been run as a
low costs/high profit company, with as little expenditure as possible.
This has all been turned around by Harry Copperman. Commodore is the
ONLY computer company doing large scale hiring. Most companies are
firing. The educational division used to be two people, there are now
around 10 I believe and it is going to around 27. All the right people
are being hired, most of them from Apple, including the COO of CBM US,
the marketing specialist, the education head, ... Commodore really has
to turn around, and one year (which is how long Copperman has been
around so far) is not enough to really begin to show results.
	I think the best signs for the future are as follows: Sales
continue to grow. At AmiExpo, there were representatives from
companies not normally associated with Commodore, such as Sharp, Canon
and AV/Video magazine. The Amiga HAS been covered much more in the
past two months than it had been the whole year before, with articles
in most major video magazines. Commodore has been INVITED by AT&T to
be in their booths whereever AT&T shows unix publically.
	Also, lastly, remember: we are seeing a very limited
perspective. Imagine how different things are in Europe. Especially
Germany. According to the annual report, 80% of all home computers
sold in Germany are Amigas and CBM is second only to IBM in business
machines sold in Germany.
	-- Ethan

Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu

"If Commodore had to market sushi they'd call it `raw cold fish'"
		-- The Bandito, inevitably stolen from someone else