Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!microsoft!w-edwinh
From: w-edwinh@microsoft.UUCP (Edwin HOOGERBEETS)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Microsoft products
Message-ID: <55162@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jun 90 05:10:09 GMT
References: <04206.AA04206@sosaria.imp.com> <1990May29.212202.10871@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <795@sagpd1.UUCP> <55014@microsoft.UUCP> <1897@corpane.UUCP>
Reply-To: w-edwinh@microsoft.UUCP (Edwin HOOGERBEETS)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 42

In article <1897@corpane.UUCP> sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) writes:
%w-edwinh@microsoft.UUCP (Edwin HOOGERBEETS) writes:
%>But, businesses tend to buy more than one package: let's say the owner
%>now wants to automate his accounting with his nifty new Amiga, so he
%>goes out to buy some flashy Amiga spreadsheet... 
%
%>... but now MS has just lost a sale of Excel!
%Er, that doesn't wash Edwin. How did they lose a sale?

Well, you're right. I didn't really make my point that clear.

I'll try again. Which machine the owner buys depends on what runs on
that machine.

In the story                      the way it is
------------                      -------------
owner buys an Amiga based         owner buys a PC based on the availability
  on the availablility of Word      of Word
owner buys Word                   owner buys Word (WinWord, whatever)

And then:

owner buys flashy amiga           owner could buy Excel
  spreadsheet
owner buys F18 or some such       owner could buy MS Flight Simulator
  flight simulator              
owner buys networking             owner could buy LanMan
  software

etc..

The point was that to not loose the [potential] sales of other products,
MS would have to port everything, OR port nothing, provided the decision 
to buy the machine was based on one or a few `productivity' programs.
(reasonable assumption for most business PCs)

`Nothing' is the easier and cheaper choice. 

The loss of sales from all the current Amiga owners is very small
compared to the cost of porting everything at once.

Edwin