Xref: utzoo comp.sys.atari.st:12454 comp.sys.amiga:25275
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: How is Atari doing in Germany?
Message-ID: <5246@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 15 Nov 88 18:21:26 GMT
References: <429@bdt.UUCP>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 47

in article <429@bdt.UUCP>, david@bdt.UUCP (David Beckemeyer) says:
> Keywords: Amiga, Atari, Germany
> Xref: cbmvax comp.sys.atari.st:13231 comp.sys.amiga:27487

> It was more like: "See even companies that originally were very dedicated
> to the Atari ST are being forced to move on and expand their horizons..."
> But at the same time I think it makes a pretty strong statement about 
> Atari's position in the marketplace.

Without commenting directly on this particular situation, I just though I'd 
point out that expanding into other markets isn't necessarily a bad thing.
Sure, one reason to move from Computer A  to Computer B is that Computer A's
sales are slow, and you're not making your fortune don it alone.  So Computer
B's here, and a port of your application may require a small amount of work
relative to what it took to get stuff running on Computer A, especially if
they're both based on CPU X.  You spend 1/4 the original work and double, or
better, your market.  Maybe now you can pay the bills.

But different circumstances can lead a company to exactly the same
decision.  This company is selling a product for Computer A, and doing
quite well.  They'd even like to expand, maybe with some new products. 
Perhaps they spend lots of time and write another program for Computer
A, and it takes off too.  But pretty soon sales for Computer A start to
drop off or at least settle down.  So for the next product, they notice
that Computer B sitting there has as many potential customers for their
product as Computer A, and the work to port their program(s) to Computer
B is less than the work to develop a brand new application for Computer
A.  Now they've doubled their market. 

I don't know any details on whether Antic's move into the Amiga market
was a survival move or an expansion move.  In either case, if they can
sell a successful product for Amigas, the decision was the correct one
for them to make.  Regardless of how strongly they are dedicated to the
Atari ST, it would be foolish for them to let brand loyalty drag down
the potential of their company.  Hardware companies like Commodore,
Atari, Apple, IBM, whatever, are smart to consider each other "the
competition".  But if you're a software company, you competition isn't
Commodore, Atari, Apple, or IBM; it's MicroSoft, WordPerfect, or Lotus,
etc. 


> David Beckemeyer (david@bdt.UUCP) | "Lester Moore - Four slugs from a .44

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The 32 Bit Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
              Amiga -- It's not just a job, it's an obsession