Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!cunixf.cc.columbia.edu!cunixb.cc.columbia.edu!wlj1
From: wlj1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Wayne L Jebian)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore & Universities
Message-ID: <1990Jul26.214524.15664@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 26 Jul 90 21:45:24 GMT
References: <25432@snow-white.udel.EDU>
Sender: news@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (The Daily News)
Reply-To: wlj1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Wayne L Jebian)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 48

In article <25432@snow-white.udel.EDU> BARRETT@owl.ecil.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes:

>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.

I hate it when I enter Columbia's bookstore and see some kind of loan program 
to purchase a ps/2 system, or a Mac system when I want an Amiga. its frustratin
that despite the lower prices of the amiga, I can't afford one. I7d love to see
commodore do what IBM and Apple are doing but in addition to the Ed. Disc. I 
wish they could supply loans like the way IBM and Apple do. I remember showing
a friend of a friend a picture of the A3000 on BYTE magazine and I said "This 
is what I want" and he said "But it can't run macintosh programs." <see what I
have to deal with @ columbia? heh> 

then again, columbia U doesnt exactly encourage using computers much since they
charge students $35/semester for an account here and you get <wow> 1/2 meg. 
<no flames please since I'm sure some places charge also, I just think most 
engineering schools should not charge their students for use of the system.>


my $0.02 and shall we get back on the topic?

-Mark Dolengo