Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!unido!pcsbst!jkh From: jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Why is the Amiga 3000 so damned expensive in Europe? Message-ID: Date: 17 Jul 90 18:21:55 GMT Sender: news@pcsbst.pcs.com Distribution: comp Organization: PCS Computer Systems, GmbH Lines: 51 Ok, I'll admit that I haven't shopped for one in every European country so far, but if Germany and England can be judged adequate mid-to-low points in the European cost spectrum, then the Amiga is still grossly overpriced here. A typical 25Mhz, 40MB configuration here in Munich, for instance, will run you a cool DM8000 or more. That's about $4800 USD at current rates of exchange. The cost is about the same in London, given the current Pounds <-> USD exchange rate (a little more, actually). My only question is "WHY?". Aren't they making them over here? If not, why not? We've got loads of Eager East Germans that would love to build the suckers! If not the east germans, why not the Poles, or the Czechs? There's also Ireland and Scotland, though the tax advantages might not be as nice (if someone can show me that Irish labour + Tax laws are a significant competitor to their eastern european counterparts, I'll gladly eat those words). In any case, the bottom line is a reasonably priced 3000 and I just don't see it. As a contrast, a 500 can be bought in Germany for as little as DM850, or a 2000 (both stock) for DM1700. I think that both of those prices are more than competetive with the US rates (I've heard that 2000's are actually MORE expensive in the U.S, figure that). Note that by "reasonably priced" I'm not talking 5 for a dollar, I'm merely asking for something that meets (or, heh heh, beats) current average prices in the U.S. While we're in flame mode, how 'bout somebody tells the German distributors that NOT EVERYONE wants a german %$#%#$!! keyboard! For typing in personal correspondence to your Tante Ingrid in Frankfurt with umlauts and all, it's fine. For writing C code, or programming in general, it sucks. Yet when I tried to get a Munich distributor to order a 3000 for me with a US keyboard, or even a British one (I can live with a "pound" over the 3), they said it simply "was not possible". It was, in fact, this rejection that lead me to starting looking at possible U.S. ordering alternatives and thus exposing the price differential. At this point, I'd pretty much be willing to pay the extra, but not to live with a German keyboard. Remap it, you say? Sure, I can remap it. On my 500 I've remapped it. However, I still sometimes forget where a certain key is and I'd like to have the keycaps agree with what I'm typing 90% of the time. I'm funny that way. If someone can recommend some sort of relabeling scheme that doesn't make the keys feel funny, I'm open to suggestions for the 500, but for what they're charging for the 3000, I'm damn well gonna get the keyboard I want! For DM900 I can live with a bad keyboard, for DM8000, no way. Jordan [ spleen vented, core dumped.. ] -- PCS Computer Systeme GmbH, Munich, West Germany UUCP: pyramid!pcsbst!jkh jkh@meepmeep.pcs.com EUNET: unido!pcsbst!jkh ARPA: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu or hubbard@decwrl.dec.com