                             Hanover Messe  -- 1986 CeBIT
                                  by Trenton Browne

               Oestringen, West  Germany.  29  March 1986.  A  little back-
          ground is appropriaye for all of you on the other side of the big
          pond.

               The Hannover Messe has been held for many years and has been
          touted   as the  world's largest industrial  fair.  The  CeBIT (a
          french   acronym for Communication  and Bureau  Information Tech-
          nologies) section was only a small part of this huge fair but now
          has grown so  large that the whole fair has  been divided in two,
          each half presented about  a month apart.  Since last year, CeBIT
          has grown  by 797 exhibitors  and 800,650 square  feet of display
          area to  2,105  exhibitors covering 2,200,000 square feed (or ap-
          proximately 35  football fields).  There is  more on display than
          could be contained in any catalog and everything is in full color
          and in  3D.  It is  hard to imagine  and I believe  impossible to
          take it  all in in  any one year.   It only lasts  seven days and
          anyone who  looks at more than  10 or 12 hours  worth of displays
          starts to take  on a glazed look that takes  about a week to wear
          off.  Enough about the fair in general.  Just to say it is BIG.

               Now to  the important stuff  -- ATARI!  Last  year my friend
          Phil and  I visited the Atari stand and  found a relatively small
          stand (maybe 1,500 sq.   ft.), 520ST prototypes, a good number of
          interested customers, a determined  Tramiel family, and a hopeful
          staff.  This  year the stand was at least   3,000 square feet, it
          was packed  with the interested,  the devoted and  the newly con-
          verted.  About half the area  was devoted to Atari proper and of-
          fices.   The other  half  was devoted  to  four-part clusters  of
          third-party software  and hardware representatives.   I would es-
          timate there  were at least  40 companies represented.   It seems
          this had  been choreographed by Sig Hartmann.   There may be dif-
          fering opinions  on this, but  my opinion is:  SUPER!  Since this
          fair is  open to the  public, what a  great opportunity to  see a
          product  running  and demonstrated  (many  times  by the  author)
          before buying.   What store could offer  this?  For the companies
          represented, it  gave them the  opportunity to exhibit  at a fair
          where the cost of a stand may have otherwise been prohibitive.

               The product  mix was probably 85 percent  16-bit and 15 per-
          cent 8-bit, with  about the same ratio of Business/Application to
          Games  (respectively).  "Clone+"  software was  the hot  theme of
          software houses.  Command and file compatible with Lxxxx 1-2-3 or
          dBxxx III and  they (of course) do more and  do it better.  I was
          surprised to see a line  of third-party hard disks on the display
          with  prices  ranging    from  about  1600DM  --  Deutsche  Marks
          ($1=2.30DM) --  for a 10 meg  to about 4400DM for  60 meg ($700 -
          $1,900).

               What for  us was noticeably absent from  the display was the
          IBM compatible  "Magic Box".   We had  an opportunity to  talk to
          Sigmund Hartmann  (Pres. Software), Shiraz Shivji (VP  of R & D),
          and Les  Player (Technical  Mngr, UK)  and asked about  the "MB".
          Obviously they  were not  ready for   public release of  even any
          detailed information.   In fact, they   seemed ready to  deny its
          existence until  my friend  Phil pulled  out his latest  issue of
          CURRENT NOTES.  If was like showing  passports to the real world.
          They were all more at ease  to talk  about it.  What I have heard
          from sources who went to the  London show a week earlier was that
          the only real hangup right now was what to offer at what price.

               I don't remember  seeing any 1040ST's, but Atari Germany has
          been selling a one meg 520ST for about six months already.  Atari
          Germany seems to  have developed many things independent of Atari
          U.S.  One being, coming out with the 520ST+ (one meg), another is
          a very strong dealer  support program.  The 520ST was voted "Com-
          puter of  the Year" by the best know  computer magazines in  Ger-
          many.  It  seems Jack  Trameil has  many followers from  his Com-
          modore days  and many  very good people  have come over  to Atari
          from  Commodore  Germany.    Unfortunately,  the  dealer  support
          program  has been  carried to  such a  degree that  Atari Germany
          neglects the customer and their independence seems to be a result
          of nationalist instead of internationalist thinking.


         [This report arrived too late to make it in the April issue
          of CURRENT NOTES.  We will print it in the May issue.
          However, since news of Hannover has been so hard to come
          by, I thought I would upload this report well before we
          have a chance to publish it.  I'm sure Atari fans are 
          anxious to get whatever news they can as soon as they can.
          Newsletter Editors: feel free to (re)print if you like.]
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