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From: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Commodore & Universities
Message-ID: <1990Jul27.210627.2397@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Date: 27 Jul 90 21:06:27 GMT
References: <25432@snow-white.udel.EDU> <46200106@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Sender: news@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (The Daily News)
Reply-To: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Organization: Columbia University
Lines: 71

In article <46200106@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> ragg0270@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>
>[personal opinion on:]
>This is all wrong. Faculty are going to be the hardest people to sell Amiga's
>to on the whole campus. Faculty use the machines they used as students (be
>it Macs or IBMs) and are only looking to move up to Suns or SGIs. You will
>have a hard time selling them a different machine that does not offer a 
>significant increase in computing power.
>An advantage the Amiga has (irregardless of all the current debate on the
>subject) is price. A faculty member doesn't much care if he writes a proposal
>asking for
>$10,000 for a Mac system vs. $4000 for an Amiga system. It's all the same
>to him or her.  
>But to students, every dollar counts for something. If you can get today's
>students using Amigas, they'll want to use Amigas when they leave school. And
>tomorrow's faculty are today's students. Get Amiga's in the hands of students
>(esp. grad students if you want to get into the educational market) today and
>it will pay off big in the future.
>[end slightly biased opinion from a grad student]

	I disagree strongly (so what's new? 8). There are several
factors that you aren't considering. Being a student at Columbia
trying desperately to get Amigas into the campus, the obstacles
are enormous.
	First off, the vast majority of students who buy
computers want word processing, games and compatibility. These
people haven't heard of the Amiga. Most of their friends are
buying Macs and the Macintosh is OHHHH so easy to use (or so they
think). The IBM is cheaper but harder to learn, but at least it
is standard.
	These people don't want to learn another system which no
one else is using. There are also the technical students, but in
general they are going where the engineering software is: the IBM
and Mac. Compatibility is still a major issue. And yes, there is
AMax and the BB, but you'd be surprised how inflexible people
are.
	And of course, the final problem is getting the students
to know about the Amiga in the first place. The school computer
centers don't want to have anything to do with you at all. They
find every possible excuse to exclude you from the campus. So how
do you get the word across?
	As far as I see it, the way to start is to get one
faculty member interested. Start attracting interest in one
segment and then they'll help you spread the word. Students are
considered irrelevant to the univerity beauracracies. They don't
start listening to what people are saying until they hear a
faculty member or a dean start asking questions.
	Also you say that $4,000 and $10,000 are of no difference
to the faculty member. These days universities are not swimming
in surplus money. If the money is grant money, then you don't
have a choice as to which machine you buy anyway! Otherwise it is
coming from a departmental budget. That $6,000 difference may
mean the difference between getting your option approved or
rejected. And finally, you could always take the $4,000 Amiga
setup and spend another $6,000 on laser discs, scanners, laser
printers and all sorts of other fun toys!
	Finally, Commodore doesn't have the man power to go after
students. What they are doing (apparently) is going after schools
where there is already some pro-Amiga group, whether it be a
users group or a faculty member. They do only have 27 people in
the education dept. at CBM, at least for now.

>Richard


	-- Ethan

Ethan Solomita: es1@cunixb.cc.columbia.edu

"If Commodore had to market sushi they'd call it `raw cold fish'"
		-- The Bandito, inevitably stolen from someone else