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From: marksv%t1d@uk.ac.man.cs
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Acorn S&M (was Re: Acorn Compters Ltd. (to the rescue!))
Message-ID: <1991Feb14.163652.1456@cns.umist.ac.uk>
Date: 14 Feb 91 16:36:52 GMT
References: <1991Feb10.221355.22525@watdragon.waterloo.edu> <1991Feb11.140700.3322@maths.tcd.ie> <2776@krafla.rhi.hi.is>
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Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Manchester UK
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In article <2776@krafla.rhi.hi.is> kvj@rhi.hi.is (Kristjan Valur Jonsson) writes:

>But is seems that the problem stems from Acorn
>themselves.  How utterly ridiculous.  Those who own Arcs here are usually
>old BBC hackers who understood the merit of the BBC micro and upgraded when
>the Arc came along.  Nothing has been done recruit new users, so only a few
>chosen souls know about the Arc.  If it is Acorn's policy to concentrate on 
>the BBC (micro) established markets then I they must be very narrow minded.
>It namely concerns the user very much whether his machine is commonly owned
>or at least commonly known about or not.  Acorn surey has a lot to catch up
>with on the PR side of matters.

	How very sad, but true. I am continually amazed at how a company can
manufacture such excellent, first rate hardware, and still not sell it! What
marketing strategy exists is frankly not effective.
	The educational market was already captured, and the decision to
maintain backwards compatability with the BBC was (in *my* opinion) a bad
decision. BBC users were well catered for with a good BBC Emulator. I think
Acorn should have started from scratch with the Arc, surely even the
"technophobic teachers" can cope with a few new OS Concepts every decade or
so :-).
	I think Arc should have taken on the likes of the Am*ga, ST etc in the
leisure market *and won*. It didn't, and personally, I think the overall
software support for the Arc is appaling! A small buch of companies with a
vested interest or a few old BBC Hacks' is not what the Arc deserves. I feel
that the 540 is a serious (UN*X) "Workstation" market contender but I doubt
it will ever sell to any great degree, due to Acorns complete lack of
credibility in the business market. People will continue to buy inferior
equipment at inflated prices until Acorn marketing is vastly improved (along
with some software support).

Acorn marketing division:

"A bunch of mindless jerks who were first against the wall when the
 revolution came" - Douglas Adams (Paraphrased :-)




    ______________________________________________________________
   /     __        __        __   __  ___________________________
  /  / /__/ /  / /    /__/ /__/ /  / /    Vaughan Marks         /
 /  / /  / /  / / __ /  / /  / /  / /   Secretary SSCC         /
/__/ /  / /__/ /__/ /  / /  / /  / /   marksv@uk.ac.man.cs.p4 /
________________________________/ /__________________________/