Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!rochester!udel!gatech!hao!oddjob!uwvax!uwslh!lishka From: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Bundled Software Message-ID: <248@uwslh.UUCP> Date: Wed, 5-Aug-87 12:06:14 EDT Article-I.D.: uwslh.248 Posted: Wed Aug 5 12:06:14 1987 Date-Received: Sat, 8-Aug-87 02:31:02 EDT References: <17701UH2@PSUVM> <1583@ulowell.cs.ulowell.edu> <18543@cca.CCA.COM> <19938@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <1822@xanth.UUCP> Reply-To: lishka@uwslh.UUCP (Christopher Lishka) Distribution: na Organization: U of Wisconsin-Madison, State Hygiene Lab Lines: 119 It seems to me that the opponents to Commodore's short Bundled Software plans are over-reacting a little bit. As information posted to the net from a Commodore person has shown, this is an *extremely* limited offer. Moreover, you have to belong to a User Group to get the deal in the first place. Now, suppose you are someone like me, who is interested enough in the Amiga (I have been following it since the very first machines came out, with several of my friends being either associated with major Amiga magazines as well as owning some of the FIRST development systems out there) but, being a student, do not have enough money YET to buy one (although I am scraping the bottom of my barrel to buy an A500 soon). Also, since I am a student without an Amiga, I have not yet officially JOINED a user-group, even though I have been to meetings of the local one. However, I have read the net (because of the good discussions on the machine) for quite a while now, just to keep up on the good and bad points, and because I like to know what Commodore is up to (I own a c64 and a very old VIC20). Looking at these bundled software packages I say "WOW! that is a really good deal!" However, I can not get one, since I am not associated officially with any user group. ***ONLY*** those in user groups will be offered the deal, and ***ONLY*** if they buy an A500 within the next 75 days (pretty limiting). But who is in these user groups right now? People who already own other Amigas, mostly 1000's I would assume. Now, it seems to me that what Commodore may be doing is giving those with an A1000 an excuse to go out and save a lot of money by converting to an A500 and getting a lot of nearly free software that would otherwise be rather expensive. Look at the math: -Point: user group member already has an A1000, so has no reason to buy an A500 -Fact: Commodore comes up with this nifty bundled software pasckage, something like what follows: 1) Pay ~$100, get ~$600 worth of popular software 2) Must buy an A500 to get this deal. So, the user group member can figure on the following: -if he buys an A500, he will be *more* compatible with Commodore's future machines ('cause we all seem to believe that there will soon be a LOT of A500's out there) -Now this user group member can get a great savings on software as well as have an excuse to upgrade to the (soon to be) most popular Amiga model for the same price (approx.) that he would otherwise spend on the machine alone: Without bundled software With bundled software ------------------------ --------------------- A500 = about $600 A500 = about $600 software = about $600 software = about $100 Total -------- Total ------ $1200 $700 It looks to me like the user group member has a really good excuse to upgrade (downgrade?) to an A500, because it would would cost him as much as all that software he wanted to buy anyway. Note that the user group member also has ALL of the periferals needed, because he probably has an A1000 with those periferals, so he has no need to buy any extra equipment. Also note that he gets an even BETTER savings with package number two, which is only ~$200 (I used package number one above). So where does that leave everybody? Well, for the normal, non-user group member like myself, we still need to go buy the A500 at normal cost, and we get no discounts on software. For the user group member with an A100, he can now upgrade to the A500 and get a good amount of software real cheap, all for the price of an A500 alone. For Commodore, they now have quite a few more A500 owners out there, and can focus on the A500 as the new mass-market machine (bye-bye c64, and maybe even A100). For the developers I don't see that much of a problem (although I am not a developer). Sure, a lot of user group members will now have the same pieces of software, but then again there will be a lot more machines out there (i.e. A500's). So the developer can concentrate on getting his stuff to work primarily on the A500, without having to worry that much about incompatibilites with the A1000 (although a good product will work the same on both machines). And in all honesty, some of those programs aren't that hot. I've have used Aegis Animator on a room-mate's system for many hours, and it really isn't all that hot. The new video programs will probably do a LOT more than Aegis Animator. Marble Madness may be a good game, but I've gotten bored playing my friend's version for only a few hours (now, if they bundled either Starglider or Faery Tale Adventure, THAT would be something!). Textcraft is nice, but I would be more worried about all those Wordperfects going out in bundle number 2; then again, I have not seen a really *AMAZING* word processor on the Amiga yet, so I think that there is much room for improvement (although Wordperfect just may be that word processor). From what people have told me, Pagesetter is already the pinnacle of page layout programs, and has the market well sewn up without the bundling. As for the other software, I do have any experience with it, so I can't comment there. The real thing that worries me is the downfall of the A1000, which seems to me is sort of happening here. I still prefer it over the A500 and A2000, but it seems that Commodore wants to move on and slowly phase out the A1000 (even though it is compatible with the other machines). It seems that this deal is an effort to do just that. I am faced with the choice of buying a friend's A1000 (he is upgrading to an A2000) or getting a new A500. I would like the A1000, but I think (unfortunately) that the A500 is the way to go (especially considering how many of them will be out there soon). One final comment: the bundled software with the Apple Macintosh was available to everyone, so that puts it in a different league than Commodore's limited A500 software bundling. Comparing the seems to me like comparing watermelons and walnuts. Sorry about the length...I just got carried away again. I've got my flame-proof BVD's on now, so go ahead and fry me to a singe about what I wrote above. All included above is just speculation, and there is always the possiblity that I am completely and undeniably wrong [how is that for a disclaimer? :-) ] -- Chris Lishka /lishka@uwslh.uucp Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene <-lishka%uwslh.uucp@rsch.wisc.edu \{seismo, harvard,topaz,...}!uwvax!uwslh!lishka