Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!cbmvax!higgin From: higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Yet more A1000->A2000 upgrade questions Message-ID: <2398@cbmvax.UUCP> Date: Mon, 28-Sep-87 10:14:37 EDT Article-I.D.: cbmvax.2398 Posted: Mon Sep 28 10:14:37 1987 Date-Received: Tue, 29-Sep-87 06:31:44 EDT Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA Lines: 131 References: Distribution: I'm trying to be patient about the questions I'm receiving through electronic mail, but it seems that people don't read what I've been posting. The questions posted below are "as received" through the mail. Q: How much can we expect to pay for the upgrade? A: You give your A1000 plus $1000 to a participating dealer, and [s]he in return will give you an A2000. Some dealers are "re-wording" this in terms of the A1000 being a discount from the A2000's standard list price, and sometimes discounting that too, and sometimes offering you the chance to "buy back" the A1000 also. The "deviations" from our guidelines are NOT part of our policy, but obviously dealers are free to do whatever they like. Q: Are there dealers here in Hawaii that are providing this upgrade? A: This kind of questions amazes me. It assumes I know everyone of our dealers PERSONALLY. We mail the sales programs to the dealers. They are usually free to participate in whatever ones they choose. So in short, I don't know - call a few, starting with the one you bought your machine from if [s]he's still local. Q: I had an extra 1Mb of memory installed internally (I believe it was put on the motherboard). Will this invalidate the offer? A: This is up to the dealer. It seems as if it would make the machine more attractive to the dealer, but whether they will give you any additional discount for the additional memory will again, be up to them. Q: What is the time limit (if any) of the upgrade offer? A: I'm VERY GLAD THIS WAS ASKED. The offer currently ENDS October 31, 1987. [This next question is long and contains many parts despite the author starting with "I got a question..." :-) but I think they might be echoing some common sentiments. So I will insert MY comments in '[', ']' throughout the "question".] Q: I got a question on this transaction... First, most of us in the beginning of this amiga success paid the full $1800.00 for the A1000 because we felt that the A1000 will become a big success and wont be extinct. [I don't know that anyone paid $1800 for the A1000 ALONE. The original SUGGESTED LIST was $1295, and the monitor $495, which TOGETHER would be close to $1800, so if that's what you bought, let's get it straight... you paid ~$1300 for the A1000, and have a monitor that you can STILL USE on any new Amiga you might wish to buy.] Q (cont): Now that CBM is on its feet again.. they want to dump the A1000 and support the two newer one's A500 and A2000. [The MARKETPLACE is determining this. If all three Amigas were on the market, there would be too much overlap, and the customer would probably be confused. Even that's not the point. Most dealers don't want to carry THREE Amiga brand computers. The A500 and A2000 products are possible because of 2 years of research and development after the A1000 was launched, and therefore, if the A1000 were to remain on the market, it would have to be changed anyway. Those changes, if you think about it, would result in an A500 in an A1000 case. This would not distance it enough from the other two Amigas to make sense.] Q (cont): Most of us A1000 owners can't afford to dish out another 1G for the A2000 and also to trash the 256 expansion ($100 bucks) because it won't work for the A2000. [What more can we do? We've made a GOOD OFFER to upgrade. Did IBM make such an offer to its millions of current PC users when it launched the PS/2 line? Would you rather we didn't try to release any new products? How long do you think we'd last in such a volatile market? Last but not least, it's not as if the Amiga computer models are incompatible with eachother - the release our new Amiga models will spur on greater software development, which is good news for owners of any Amiga computer.] Q (cont) [the real question, I think]: My beef is that why all the fuss on the A500 ? So it cost under 1G. But it is so tightly fit that it is not really expandible ( get A2000, right ?). [I don't know what you mean. The A500 has a port that is similar to the A1000's expansion port, so I would weigh the expansion possibilities to be about the same. The "fuss" is that while in terms of features the A500 might not represent a technological quantum leap over the A1000, it is better suited to a wider audience. Lower price, no need for Kickstart diskettes, compact unit, keyboard similar to many other popular formats, twice as much basic memory, and trivial expansion to get to 1Mb.] Q (cont): Why not have commercials for all THREE amigas and let the comsumers decide. Not only will there be an assorted number of consumers with there own price ranges to buy an amiga, but also all three amigas can still live(especially the A1000). [For all the reasons stated above. Distribution, market overlap, pricing, competition.] Q (cont): To make a long story short???!!! [ :-) ] Q (cont): I prefer the A1000 because I and many many A1000 owners own software that only accessible to kickstart V1.1 and crashes on the V1.2. [So now we find out the real problem. You and many many others could contact the software companies who create such products and see if perhaps they could create a product you could upgrade to that will run under 1.2.] Q (cont): Although the A2000 have great adv's like a neat keyboard connected to the front!!! the expansion ports and the overall design... (nice!!) BUT I and only a handfull of us feel that the op sys should be software rather than hardware. [There are reasons, I grant you, why a soft o.s is nice, but since we wish to widen the appeal of our Amiga line, the ROM decision made sense. Plus, as we all know, there are so many ways to extend the o.s AFTER booting anyway, that ROM hasn't ended future expansion, and if major changes come, ROMs can be changed.] Regards to all, Paul Higginbottom Sales Support Manager