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From: es1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu (Ethan Solomita)
Subject: Re: Buying more market share for the Amiga
Message-ID: <1991Jun26.032640.12289@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu>
Keywords: Lotus
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References: <4193@ux.acs.umn.edu> <1991Jun24.030715.511@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu> <2279@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM>
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Date: Wed, 26 Jun 1991 03:26:40 GMT

In article <2279@tekig7.MAP.TEK.COM> brianr@tekig1.PEN.TEK.COM (Brian E Rhodefer) writes:

>And, for the past two years, I've told these people that no, the Amiga
>doesn't run Lotus 1-2-3, because neither Lotus nor Commodore believe
>that the Amiga is a credibile enough business computer to justify the
>expense of porting Lotus 1-2-3 to it.
>
>For Lotus to have this opinion is perfectly understandable, but
>Commodore's lack of faith is much less so.
>
	You are making a lot of assumptions about what Commodore
and Lotus are offering each other. We certainly have no idea what
Lotus' price is for the porting, or how much "support" they would
demand. I remember quite distinctly hearing rumors (they were
much more than rumors) about talks between CBM and Lotus,
although they apparently fell apart.

>I don't know if the figure is accurate, but the last time rumors were
>flying around as to whether Lotus would produce an Amiga port all by
>itself, the reason given for their decision not to was that it would
>require an investment of several hundreds of thousands of dollars,
>which they couldn't justify.
>
>One thing about several hundreds of thousands is that they're much, much
>less than 14 millions.  If Commodore would subsidize the porting of Lotus
>(complete with Arexx port) to the Amiga, they would sell X number of
>computers as a direct result.  And, in my opinion, X would be much larger
>than the sales generated from the "Stevie" campaign.

	If it only cost a couple of hundred thousand of dollars
then I'd agree with you, but I'd doubt it.
>
>My "market research", as woefully informal and unprofessional as it
>may be, suggests that the lack of a credible spreadsheet program for
>the Amiga is the single biggest obstacle to its acceptance by business
>people.
>
	The Amiga DOES have a "credible" spreadsheet package.
Gold Disk's Advantage comes to mind. It is a "good" program, but
it isn't high-end. It is good for what MOST Lotus users need, but
most people insist upon far more power than they need.
	-- Ethan

FF buckets of bits on the bus,	FF buckets of bits.
Take one down,			Pass it to ground,
FE buckets of bits on the bus.