Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!zorch!mike
From: mike@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG (Mike Smithwick)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: New baseline Amiga?
Message-ID: <1991May4.193613.6143@zorch.SF-Bay.ORG>
Date: 4 May 91 19:36:13 GMT
References: <1991Apr23.115648.3059@news.iastate.edu> <58430@sequent.UUCP> <1991Apr30.225022.372@mac.cc.macalstr.edu>
Organization: SF-Bay Public-Access Unix
Lines: 78

["oh dear, I think reality is on the blink again!"]

The previous discussions on the new "baseline" Amiga have been woefully
off target. Most of the participants say things like "and it should have
an '040, and, and 10 meg, and and, uh, a built is Toaster and of course
a hyper-quantum defoobilizer....". Trouble with that line of thinking is
that when Betty and Barney Jones go looking for a new computer for Junior's
birthday, (when neither of them have a computer themselves) you will most
likely not hear them say something like "oh look dear, this computer 
has AmigaDos 2.0!! Let's get it!". What you would like to hear is, "Mr
Salesman, do you have that Amiga computer thingie. I understand it has
real jazzy graphics, great games and a fantastic Astronomy program [ <-unabashed
commercial plug]. Do you think a 10 year old would like it?".

The key to selling to knowledgeable people is price/performance. The key
to selling mass market is price/name-recognition. What Commodore needs is 
the mass market. How many IBM PeeCees have been sold merely because "IBM" 
was stamped on the side, even though it was fairly pedestrian hardware
when you could get a better deal going with a clone?

Notice that much of advertising, if not all sets out to fill one 
primary goal : Make you remember the product and/or company name 
(and too a lessor degree, buy the product even though you 
may not have planned to). That was the goal of CA's 1989 advertising 
blitz. Alot of the net.whiners complained that the commercials 
didn't explain about muli-tasking or HAM or virtual screens or a fast 
buss. They just showed a house lifting off of it's foundation, or a bunch of 
astronauts saying "ooh, look at that!". However, alot of the people
I know at work came in and told me that they saw those ads (i.e., they
REMEMBERED the product).

CDTV should help in this regard.

Since CDTV is clearly a mass-market product it can only help Commodore's
name recognition so may generate Amiga sales. So too would a cheaper
"Amiga" so people would learn that name. Trouble is that CDTV is
rather pricey, and an entirely  new concept for most people.

I still think that
an Amiga cartridge based game machine would be a winner. No keyboard or
mouse, or disk-drive, just a small, slick looking box with a cartridge
port (and possibly other ports so a person could turn it into a real
computer). It could use the CDTV IR controller to bridge the two products. 

Call it an Amiga-Something or other, and flood the market.
There is tons of software available already. Both games and possibly simple
productivity software that could be used if you have the keyboard (Nintindo
is marketing keyboards now for their machine). Sell it for <$200 bucks.
Current Amiga software developers will love it. It will also generate
loads of new interest in more mainstream software houses. While
current Amiga owners will cry "foul!" and complain that it makes their
computer look merely like a game-machine once again, packaging it in a very 
professional case like the CDTV would avoid that kind of stigma. Look how 
cheap the Nintendo boxes appear, they look like toys so how could anyone 
take a PC made by Ninteno seriously. 

The next step up could then be the A500 (include A500 advertising literature
in the Amiga-Cartridge box, rebate coupons, etc.). Send out direct mailers 
to the owners encouraging them to consider buying a full-fledged Amiga : 

   "Not only will this play the same great Amiga-Cartidge software
    you know and love preseving your investment, but it will help 
    Johnny with his homework as well!" 

Also encourage educational software houses to publish edu. titles for
the cartridge machine to get them in the schools. So now if little Johnny 
has an "Amiga" in his classroom, mom and dad would be tempted to buy him one 
for home.

Commodore still has it's "game machine" image from people who may
vaguely remember the C-64. So why not play upon that, and change
people's minds as to what a real "game machine" is like. 


-- 
"There is no problem to big that can't be solved with high explosives"-Rush

Mike Smithwick - ames!zorch!mike