Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!think!caip!cbmvax!daveh From: daveh@cbmvax.cbm.UUCP (Dave Haynie) Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga Subject: Re: incompetent executives Message-ID: <310@cbmvax.cbmvax.cbm.UUCP> Date: Fri, 30-May-86 16:45:04 EDT Article-I.D.: cbmvax.310 Posted: Fri May 30 16:45:04 1986 Date-Received: Sat, 31-May-86 07:26:31 EDT References: <260@usl-pc.UUCP> Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 102 > > -*-text-*- > > OK. Granted, the Amiga is a great computer. And, I'm getting me one of > those suckers, because it's simply a better computer than an IBM > PEE-BRAIN or whatever else is in that price range. ... Can't argue with that, and I can't say anything pro/con marketing, as I'm not a marketing expert (though personally I feel that the new commercials are good, and the old ones were kind of stupid. From the point of view of a techie, however, not John Q. Public). > b) The hardware people should be working on low-cost hard disk drives and > RAM expansions, not modems, or should be helping 3rd parties who do > plan to bring out low-cost hard disk drives and RAM expansions (there > are none now). Well, lets see. CardCo 1 Meg expansion (aMEGA), list somewhere around $550. Parts: RAM, assuming 256Kx1 parts, is 32 * $2.20 (reasonable Japan/Honk Kong price for mass quantity) = $70.40. Add in refresh circuity, auto expansion circuitry, at least another $10-$15. Caps, resistors, etc. $1.00. PCB, $4.00. Case unit cost, $10.00. Boxes, manuals, etc. $5.00. Manufacturing and shipping, $5.00. So that's around $110.00 for cost of manufacture, thinking on the CHEAP side. That doesn't cover ANY of the development costs (a custom-made plastic case tool can cost $50K-100K, no problem, etc.). Add in advertising, manufacturer, distributer and retailer markups, etc. and your're talking $350.00 to $400.00, and that's once the product has matured. Cover some development costs and you'd probably find it around for maybe $450.00 to $475.00 on discount, initially. An expansion box mounted unit would of course be cheaper, but no one's going to sell one until we al have expansion boxes, unless they sell the box too. > Symptoms of the problems: > 1) a deal with CRAY for Amigas is being held up because of a feud > between the dealer who got CRAY interested and the local distributor > for CBM, who's mad at that dealer because the dealer got a > grey-marketer shut down and hurt the distributor's volume. > Apple or IBM would have given the dealer a medal. See how Apple coddles to the grey market these days. These are the same guys who'll be selling MAC ROMs to Amiga and Atari ST owners who want to run MAC software on their machines. > 3) We hear lots of marketing hype about Answermate modems and > Frame-grabbers and all sorts of junk like that. Well, I have news for > you. What businessmen want is > a) a cheap hard disk so that you don't have to listen to the > floppies grind and > b) cheap mungo RAM so you can calculate spreadsheets that would make > IBM folk green with envy. See above for mungo RAM. Maybe that's what business types want, though they'll as likely insist on having Lotus 1-2-3 running just as in the PeeCee so that you won't be able to take advantage of all of that RAM. And that's just business. You've forgotten about what artists, musicians, designers, engineers, broadcasters, housewives, architects, newspeople, want. Though for the most part, so has IBM, and I guess it really hasn't hurt them. There's nothing wrong with being acceptable to business. But business people [1] Are happy with IBM, and the hardcores will continue to buy only IBM. If Amiga offers nothing different, they've got no reason to look elsewhere. [2] Most large businesses don't care at all about the cost difference between a $500 hard disk and a $1500 hard disk. They bought $3000-$4000 IBM systems with expensive 20 Meg hard drives. An Amiga at $2000-$2500 with a 40 Meg hard drive and several times the power of a Pee Cee. > Where did CBM get their ad people from, Des Moines, Iowa? Well, I think some of the marketing group came from PepsiCo, and some from Apple. > So what does CBM do? Discontinue production of the C-64 a few times, once > right before Christmas 85 (hoards of anxious mothers loitered outside the > local Commodore stores wanting to buy C-64s, and not a single one was to be > found). Much of CBM's loss last year was do to writeoffs against overstocks of C64s. They did sell much better than projected for the Christmas season, much due to the release of the C128 in early fall. C64s were in demand, though not quite in the frenzy situation you describe. Still, backorders were submitted during the Christmas season, and they weren't withdrawn afterwards as they usually are in this business. > 6) A "hacker" mentality at Commodore-Amiga (e.g. "GURU MEDITATION" > instead of "SYSTEM CRASH") doesn't help CBM's professionalism image. Perhaps not. Though if you had corporate type writing the software, the system wouldn't run at all, and though I'm not in any ways a marketing professional, I believe that would damage our corporate image more. > Computing from the Bayous, > Eric Green akgua!usl!usl-pc!jpdres10 > (Snail Mail P.O. Box 92191, Lafayette, LA 70509) -- /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ Dave Haynie {caip,inhp4,allegra,seismo}!cbmvax!daveh "Let me control a planet's oxygen supply, and I don't care who makes the laws" -Great Culuthu's Starry Wisdom Band \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/