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From: net@uwmacc.UUCP (jeff kesselman)
Newsgroups: net.micro.amiga
Subject: Re: (actually cheap hard disks)
Message-ID: <425@uwmacc.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 27-Oct-86 15:38:30 EST
Article-I.D.: uwmacc.425
Posted: Mon Oct 27 15:38:30 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 27-Oct-86 22:36:45 EST
References: <1982@well.UUCP>
Reply-To: net@uwmacc.UUCP (jeff kesselman)
Organization: UWisconsin-Madison Academic Comp Center
Lines: 48

In article <1982@well.UUCP> spencer@well.UUCP (Randal Spencer) writes:
>
>Anybody want to know why the Amiga isn't selling up to it's potential?
>Anybody think that it might have anything to do with all the mis-under-
>standing the general public has about the machine?  Anybody wonder where
>it comes from?  Anybody looked at the "What if the Mac had color?" article
>in Mac World?  Notice where it says to use hi-res on the Amiga you have to
>go to Black&White.  Says you have to also get a different screen...
>Sounds like somebody is refering to the ATARI, no?
>
>Now, isn't Mac World and Amiga World put out by the same people?  Hmm...
>The guy who wrote the article is _Chairman_ of Mac World, whatever
>that means.  (boy, I tell you!)
>
>Randy Spencer
>Unemployeed (and broke) Dec/Amiga consultant

I think he's right about the problem being one of lack of 8and/or mis-) 
information on the part of the public, but the reason for it is, I believe,
a little subtler. At least around here, users know basicly four concepts:
CPU, clockspeed, RAM/ROM, and bitplanes. Even  the slightly more knowledgable
ones don't understand how much more there is to a computer. Yes, if you
limit your discussion to only these four points (by clock speed, I'm
talking clocking of the CPU, which is the only way these peoiple understand
it), then the Amiga is an ST with an extra bitplane. Of course, this is absurd,
but try to explain system architecture to a neophyte, or worse a near neophyte
who thinks he's an expert! I'm in the process of writing a refutation to
an article about the ST that appeared in our local computing center's
newsletter that made just this mistake.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that an Amiga is too sophisticated to 
explain in full to the majority of the buying piblic, who are not CS people.
(An excellent example- My advisor and I are trying to get one for the Art
department. Just when we almost had them convinced, the Apple salesman

showed up with a IIgs. Now I am going to have to educate them to the point
where they can understand that  buying IIgs's would get them half the
graphic potential for twice the money. And I know I'll hear "But its apple
compatable......" at least once!). The best features of the Amiga are things
like its solution to bus contention, something most purchasers don't even
know to think about!

If I were a commodore salesman, I think I'd be giving low end technical
talks to art and TV production people, where the Amiga is a clear winner, ratheer
then trying to sell into a closed IBM market like business use.


Jeff Kesselman