NetNews Offline 2/NetNews Offline Volume 2.iso/news/comp/sys/amiga/misc-part1/4557

Internet Message Format | 1996-08-05 | 5.8 KB

Path: zetnet.co.uk!demon!hchworth.demon.co.uk
From: Paul Chan <paul>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: The March Amiga?
Date: Wed, 07 Feb 1996 09:19:36 GMT
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[e-mail] (Gary Alan Peake) wrote:

>The 'Surfer' will market itself (at least will sell the production that AT
>can get out in time for Xmas). I am talking about mass marketing, like
>national ads that you guys are saying you want. Advertise what? Hell, they
>can't even get demand filled yet. I have about ten emails right now, people
>looking for 1200's here in the States! That's not a lot of people, but
>consider that I don't have any access to them and have never proposed to?

OK, so you`re saying that this surfer pack will sell itself (or at least the
A1200`s that were left over from the Xmas disappointment). You may be right,
let`s look at the bright side for once. AT may be trying to get rid of the last
few A1200`s so they can have a fresh launch of the A1200Plus in April. In the
UK, I am still predicting an oversupply of Surfer Packs - especially when the
serious reviews of the IBM package go out. The truth is, there are a hell of a
lot more respected (and cheaper) Internet service providers in the UK. The
problem is, that most of them only cater for PC`s in their literature (and who
can blame them?). A few handle Macs as well but there are very few who admit to
supporting the Amiga with software (Demon is the only one, but it generally has
a bad rep. for poor service, even though its prices are very competitive).

As far as the US goes, fair enough, so you have no A1200s over there. I say
again, we seem to have TOO MANY! Do you know how depressingly bad it looks to
see A1200s lining the floors in Escom shops? My local store has now learned how
to plug them into the AT 1438S monitor, but all we see is the purple boot
screen. Very impressive against the AVI demos of Rob Roy, the Windows program,
and Word running in other PCs around the shop, NOT. :(

>
>And as far as what Paul is saying about the Amiga in England, either all the
>recent mags I just bought Sunday are dead wrong or Paul is? As he said, I
>don't live there and have no idea except for what I read and what he says -
>two divergent stories I'm afraid.

What mags are these then Gary? They don`t really reflect the truth as they are
often 6 weeks behind in their news pages, and if you`ve imported a UK mag, then
you are sadly probably much further behind. I seem to remember that sales
figuresand disappointments (like the AT UK staff debacle) were only just
reported in this month`s Amiga UK mags. The rest of the time it`s just the
usual based "optimistic" editorial and news pages that you see. Occasionally,
you see the odd column or page (notably in Amiga Format and CU Amiga) where a
few writers really get stuck into a few realities with the Amiga rather than
sticking with the usual biased magazine "Blue Peter" kid-gloves propaganda. I
tend to find myself agreeing with these columns of late.


>>GP> Why can't we wait till it gets here before we start bitchin'?

The A1200 is here (in the UK), and I`m bitching. ;)

>>I would presume that even if it was rational and constructive, my name
>>is mud with Kittel and Bourdin because of these posts, and therefore a
>>letter would be a futile effort.  Notice that Kittel hasn't responded
>>to that one message I posted three weeks ago.

I would tend to agree there, but optimistically, even if we don`t get a serious
audience with Dr P.K. I hope he`s taking some notes for later consumption ;)

>
>Maybe ... maybe not? I have no idea. But, I wouldn't be looking for gloom
>and doom if I were them. I would be looking for constructive criticisms that
>also offer some 'reasonable' alternatives.

Hey, I`ve been constructive! ;)

>> >Not yet.  That's the point.  The problem is that AT or Escom seems
>> >unwilling to put any money into marketing the Amiga.  Do you think that
>> >Manfred couldn't have put out a fax to all his stores saying "Look,
>> >this system is owned by one of our subsidiaries.  Display it properly
>> >and push it.  If you need help with it, call the Escom HQ in your
>> >country and they'll help you."?  That's virtually free marketing, but,
>> >as lots of our UK bretheren said, 1200s were languishing in boxes in
>> >Escom stores.
>
>Not 'lots' ... Paul said.

I may be only one but I`m sure a lot of UK Amigans probably think it though -
that is, if they care one jot about the Amiga any more and aren`t thinking
about what platform they should move to.

>It happens to be that Escom and Amiga Technologies are 'related' companies
>but not dependant. Sort of like Chrysler and Dodge. Two very distinct
>individual companies trying to sell two very distinct individual items.

Agreed there, but Escom really dug themselves into a hard situation with the
Amiga being a logical alternative to their own low priced PCs. If effect, if AT
was a separate company altogether from Escom, they should have been fighting
each other for low-end market share (in the UK, at least). Ultimately, I think
a higher end company might have been better off buying the Amiga, and then
using the entire range as "low-end". I know companies like Sun and SGI won`t
have bothered with the Amiga during the auction, but they would have been ideal
owners as nothing in the Amiga range costs the same as a low end Sun or Indy -
no conflict of interests - and everybody is happy.

I`d just like AT to say here how they plan to complement, rather than attack,
Escom`s own range of PCs.