Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!know!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!aplcen!haven!udel!mmdf From: BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Commodore & Universities Message-ID: <25432@snow-white.udel.EDU> Date: 24 Jul 90 02:37:01 GMT Sender: mmdf@udel.EDU Lines: 46 In message <46200104@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>, writes: > I just finished lobbying for an Amiga to be included in a grant > with no success. The end result was a request for a Mac IIfx. > Of course the biggest complaint people had with the Amiga was "it > has no software". The Amiga has no software available for it because there is no market for Amiga software. As much as I'd like to see such software as MATLAB and Mathematica ported to the Amiga, this will likely never happen. If the developers of these programs were to port them to the Amiga, they would only sell three or four copies, making it not worth the effort of these developers. Until Commodore starts getting serious with marketing the Amiga at (and to) Universities, this situation will not change. And by 'getting serious' I do not mean putting ads in a couple of school newspapers and pushing the Amiga at a couple of Universities. I mean taking the Amiga and actively showing it at every major University in the country. The reason that Apple has the market penetration that they have is because they have done (and continue to do) precisely this, and Commodore must do the same. Commodore cannot expect to enter this market by osmosis, expecting the Amiga to magically become popular as a machine for scientific and research uses with no effort. It will take hard work (and lots of it) from Commodore for this to happen. About a year ago, Iowa State University made it known (through the proper channels) that they were interested in purchasing several hundred workstation systems, and were taking bids. Nearly every workstation and PC vendor responded (from Zenith to DEC), shipping sample machines to ISU for review purposes -- except Commodore. Apple responded by shipping a beta IIfx system four months before it was introduced. Other companies made similar efforts. Eventually, the contract was awarded to DEC. But I am continually amazed that Commodore made absolutely no effort whatsoever to bid on this $5M contract. They might not have gotten it, but they could have shipped some beta A3000 systems with AmigaOS 2.0 and Amiga UNIX, to show that they are a serious company. As it is, I have seen absolutely nothing from Commodore to convince me that they are at all serious in entering markets like these. -MB-