Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!mcnc!uvaarpa!murdoch!astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU!gl8f From: gl8f@astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st Subject: Re: Atari Financial condition Message-ID: <1990Mar25.184244.7530@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> Date: 25 Mar 90 18:42:44 GMT References: <5780002@acf5.NYU.EDU> <28271@cup.portal.com> Sender: news@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU Reply-To: gl8f@astsun9.astro.Virginia.EDU (Greg Lindahl) Organization: Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia Lines: 33 In article <28271@cup.portal.com> Bob_BobR_Retelle@cup.portal.com writes: >The Portfolio may be selling well (by whose standards?) to people who have >a lot of money to spend on toys of limited usefulness, but I'd like to see >some sales-figures comparisons between the Portfolio and truly useful >mini-sized MS-DOS compatibles like the Toshiba line. You might note that Radio Shack just released a $400 "palm-top" machine which is much more limited than the Portfolio. It seems that several companies think that there's a market here, and Atari has the nicest package. Also, the only MS-DOS compatible that's as small as the Portfolio is the Poquet, which is $2000. The Toshiba is a pig next to either of them. The Atari (and Radio Shack) gamble is that there is a market among people who don't want to lug around some huge laptop. Damn, those Poquets are nice, too. It seems that lots of people have a lot of money to spend on that toy, when they could spend 1/3 as much to get the same thing, only heavier and with a better keyboard and a real floppy drive. >As for the comment that "it seems clear that Atari is entering a new >product cycle"... Atari is *ALWAYS* entering a "new product cycle".. >Real Soon Now, Second Quarter, by the End of the Year... perhaps >Wall Street has caught onto Atari's "Boy who cried Wolf" tactics..? Yes, but this time they delivered new products (STe, Lynx, Portfolio) and revenues and income are rising instead of falling. A new product cycle isn't something a company announces, it's something you can see in the financial figures. And the financial figures say that revenues are up. Greg Lindahl gl8f@virginia.edu I gave my lunch for space-sickness research.