Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!umd5!uvaarpa!mcnc!ncsuvx!csclea!wolf
From: wolf@csclea.ncsu.edu (Thomas Wolf)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: WHAT ATARI NEEDS TO DO...
Message-ID: <1649@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu>
Date: 2 Apr 88 00:21:38 GMT
References: <166leigh@byuvax.bitnet>
Sender: nntp@ncsuvx.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: wolf@csclea.UUCP (Thomas Wolf)
Organization: Computer Science , NCSU, Raleigh NC
Lines: 33

In article <166leigh@byuvax.bitnet> leigh@byuvax.bitnet writes:
>If Atari would like to be somewhat successful with their non-8-bit machines,
>they need to get rid of their game-machine image.  To do that, they need
>to form a new subsidiary that doesn't conspicuously bear the Atari name
>and use it to market the STs, ABAQ, and UNIX-boxes and leave the Atari name
>for the 8-bit machines and Game Systems.
>
>Chad

I hope this was meant as a joke.  The problems that Atari is having with
regards to establishing themselves as a "credible" computer company goes
deeper than just their name.  For Commodore, this strategy may have worked;
they made the Amiga name MUCH more prominent than the company's, BUT they
were successful with this because they changed their attitude towards their
customer (ie. they became more attuned to the customers' and developers' needs)
whereas Atari still treats customers & developers as they have for their
8-bit products: crummy.

I know I know, this is becoming yet another Atari-bash.  But what else can I
(or we, in general) do?  Oh we keep hearing promises from the Atari management
and the Atari guys that post to this net BUT after waiting for nearly TWO YEARS
for some of these promises to come true, I'm becoming too disillusioned to
believe in anything that Atari decides to announce.  I'll believe Atari again
when they start fulfilling some of their promises and when they "grow up" as
a company.


As usual, these are my personal opinions.  But it seems that numerous other
people share this view.

 
Tom Wolf
ARPA (I think): tw@cscosl.ncsu.edu
          or  wolf@csclea.ncsu.edu