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From: force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: New Thread: What _REALLY_ makes a product successful?
Message-ID: <2472@cluster.cs.su.oz.au>
Date: 27 May 91 08:56:31 GMT
References: <Jeff_Antonio.3566@resbbs.UUCP>
Sender: news@cluster.cs.su.oz.au
Reply-To: force@minnie.cs.su.OZ.AU (Jason Henry Den Dulk)
Lines: 42

In answer to what REALLY sells a computer, i have a few answers.

1. Reputation
	The ONLY reson why people originally bought IBM PCs was because
	it was sold by IBM ("Nobody ever gets fired for bying IBM"). IBM
	itself admitted that it was only a mediocre computer, but
	everybody bought it anyway, because of IBM. Also Commodore's
	bad reputation has done it's share to dampen the sales of the
	Amiga.

2. Advertising
	Just look at the Mac. Apple has a heavy duty Ad campain that is
	spearheaded with the word "business". That's the reason for tha
	Mac's success.
	Also bad adverts (like those for the Amiga) have the reverse
	effect, giving people a bad idea of what a product is.
	I see lot's of Ads for GameBoy, but I've never even heard of the
	Atari Lynx. It's no wonder that it sells better.

3. Popularity
	If a product already has lot's of users, it will continue to
	attract more users than the not so popular ones. This is the
	main reason why people buy IBM clones. They are constantly
	swamped with info about IBM (because there are more of them
	around), but hardly ever hear about other systems, therefore
	they are more likely to buy an IBM clone.

4. Ignorance
	The above three reasons largeley depend on a person being ignorant
	of what's what. A person that doesn't know anything about computers
	is only going to find out by the above 3 channels. I have found that
	dumb suits most likely go IBM's and Macs, while those who are 'in the
	know' tend to go for computers with a more even distribution, with a
	lean towards the Amiga (only an observation, no flames please).

5. Price
	obvoius. Although the other factors can overshadow this (you're not
	going to buy a cheaper computer if you don't know that it exists).

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

				force@cs.su.oz