Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!stanford.edu!neon.Stanford.EDU!torrie
From: torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: computer buyers
Message-ID: <1991Jun6.220223.8232@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 6 Jun 91 22:02:23 GMT
References: <55445@nigel.ee.udel.edu> <1991Jun4.195937.5973@leland.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun6.043819.23323@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun6.055911.24760@leland.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun6.165722.17304@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun6.182637.21898@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Sender: torrie@neon.Stanford.EDU (Evan James Torrie)
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Ca , USA
Lines: 35

bard@jessica.stanford.edu (David Hopper) writes:

>complexity, enough to make a difference.  How do you explain the fact
>that there are 3 million of those little 500s out there, and rising;
>they're being snapped up at a faster rate than Macs, yet the Mac is so
>much easier to deal with and has a much more aggressive ad campaign?

  3 million of those 500s in the U.S.??  Hmmm, maybe the market is not
quite the same in those places where the 500 is selling big.  Just as
an example, in my home country (New Zealand), you used to see an Amiga
ad on the TV at least once or twice per week (always selling it as a
hot games machine), whereas Apple had basically given up on television
advertising.
  Furthermore, the ubiquitous Nintendo machine isn't sold in NZ.  The
Amiga 500 is essentially the Nintendo replacement for the NZ market.
Walking into a Commodore dealer, it's almost impossible to find any
"productivity" applications for the Amiga.  That's not where the
market is in NZ.
Not surprisingly, Commodore outsells Apple in NZ...  you have this huge
number of Amiga 500s being bought as games machines, through heavy
advertising and cost of approx $1000 a machine vs $3000 for a Classic.
[Maybe the boys from actrix.gen.nz would like to comment on this].

>I would argue that a good number of those 2.5 million A500 users know
>how to deal with a startup-sequence or a CLI.  

  What's a good number?  42?  Anyone out there in dealer land like to
comment on their perception of the A500 users?


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Evan Torrie.  Stanford University, Class of 199?       torrie@cs.stanford.edu   
"If it weren't for your gumboots, where would you be?   You'd be in the
hospital, or in-firm-ary..."  F. Dagg