Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rphroy!cfctech!teemc!sycom!rkushner From: rkushner@sycom.UUCP (Ronald Kushner) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy Subject: Re: The Amiga's Future Message-ID: Date: 15 Jun 91 17:39:40 GMT References: ,<1991Jun15.112510.17324@news.iastate.edu><1991Jun15.115010.17684@news.iastate.edu> Organization: Michigan Information eXchange Lines: 63 taab5@isuvax.iastate.edu (Marc Barrett) writes: >a very, very good job, and the Amiga would not even exist now without >their efforts. The problem lies much higher up, in Commodore's management. >Commodore just does not have enough of these people, and the few that >they do have are being forced to work longer hours to make up for >Commodore lack of a sufficiently large develop staff for what they >are trying to do. The result is that projects (like the 32-bit chipset) >take much longer to complete than they ever should. Ah, the voice of reason...Get many death threats? > In summary, I would like to stress that I mean nothing negative to the >Commodore R&D and support people who read Usenet. I really wish the >management people read Usenet, as all of my Commodore flames are directed >at this management, which refuses to hire enough development people to >get projects like the chipset done in a more reasonable amount of time. >If I had my way, I would have Commodore invest enough in R&D to double >the salaries of the people Commodore already has, and hire enough more >people to significantly ease the workload on everyone in the department. I think letters to Commodore themselves would be alot more effective than letters to UseNet. You would be suprised in the power of a letter. How about writing up your own USER SURVEY and post it to the net, and then mail the results to Commdore? Their own survey cards kinda blow. "How would you rate Commodore as a company ( ) Excellent ( ) Good ( ) Fair ( ) Poor" Geeze, you bought their computer, your going to think of the product as Good or better, and mix this up with the company as a whole. You have to admit, for $449 for an Amiga 500, you can't beat the power/price performance. Name me any other personal computer that gives you color, a mouse, 512K of ram and multi-tasking at that price? Maybe if they were to raise the price $25, they could sink another 14 million in R&D. Or with the current volume of sale, they might have that $25 per unit now they could stick in. They think too much like Chrysler though, and the compairson around here has been made quite often. Granted Chrysler and Commodore both get alot of bang for thier bucks in R&D, but they both underfund them. The only difference is Chrysler spends $50 million a month on advertising...or 1/2 of what they spend on R&D...I am not a stockholder in Commodore though, so I don't have their figures avaiable. What really gets me, is that people on the net say Apple is investing up to $600 million this year on R&D. Thats really nuts, thats 60% of Chryslers R&D budget...There must be more profit in computers than autos...I'm no expert, but I would suggest that maintaining and engineering over 40 car lines must cost more than software/hardware development of the Macintosh. Even if Apple stops pouring money into R&D, they still have outspent Chrysler's 1981 R&D budget. Maybe Apple grew to fast too soon, and don't realize they are NOT a 38 billion dollar company. If I remember right, the Amiga was $47 million dollars to engineer originally, including hardware/software, Apple would have 6 different Amiga type computers with massive co-processors and other cool stuff, just from their current R&D budget. If I was an Apple stockholder, I would really be concerned they were building a car and not a computer.. -- C-UseNet V0.42e Ronald Kushner Life in Hell BBS +1 (313) 939-6666 P.O. Box 353 14400 USR HST V.42 & V.42bis Sterling Heights, MI 48311-0353 Complete Amiga Support UUCP: uunet!umich!vela!sycom!rkushner (We are not satanic, just NUTS!) DISCLAIMER: I say what I mean, and mean what I say.