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- From: grimkirk@amiganet.chi.il.us (Mike Schneider)
- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
- Subject: Response to CBM re:Poor Media coverage
- Message-ID: <grimkirk.0k9x@amiganet.chi.il.us>
- Date: 15 Dec 92 02:31:29 CST
- Organization: Amiga Network Information Systems
- Lines: 146
-
- Command:Read
-
- In article <19858@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu>,
- sue@cbmvax.cbm.commodore.com (Sue West - CATS) writes:
-
- >December 3, 1992
- >
- >TO: All Amiga Users
- >FROM: Commodore Business Machines, Inc., Marketing Department
- > 1200 Wilson Drive
- > West Chester, PA 19380
- >
- >Commodore Business Machines, Inc. was recently surprised that the
- >magazine NEW MEDIA 1993 Multimedia Tool Guide (November issue date)
- >omitted covering any information on Amiga product.
- >
- >Perhaps NEW MEDIA is not aware just how many Multimedia users own
- >and respect Amiga product for their diverse uses? And . . . perhaps it
- >would be beneficial for NEW MEDIA to have our users tell them about
- >Amiga and its Multimedia capabilities.
- >
- >For comments to NEW MEDIA, you can write to:
- >
- etc....
-
- Uh, scuse me Commodore.....
-
- While it is quite appropriate for end users to let a publisher of an important
- trade magazine know when it is missing coverage of an important and viable
- product like the Amiga, and it is appreciated that you let us know about this
- slight in this very important and useful medium (Internet),
- I put this question to *you*.....
-
- Just what are you, (the Marketing Dept.), going to do about it from your end?
-
- Let me preface the rest of this by saying that I have been an Amiga user from
- practically the beginning, using it both personally as well as professionally,
- and have even spent time selling Amigas into the business community.
-
- But frankly, there is no great surprise to me (or probably the rest of my
- fellow end users) as to why few major *professional* trade mags (AV Video being
- most notable amongst them, [sorry AmigaWorld]) covers the Amiga much, if at
- all. The reason, as I believe *we* see it, is that CBM does little to promote
- professional sales. Even as an outbound sales representative for two of the
- three Amiga dealers in a major market of Chicago, IL, I found it nearly
- impossible to be taken seriously by members of the business community. CBM and
- most of its product line is seen by business professionals from a number of
- different perspectives.
-
- 1st) "CBM? Isn't that the company that makes the C64?"
-
- You are STILL fighting an 8-bit game machine image.
- Releasing a "Home Entertainment System" like the CDTV
- didn't help fight that image either.
-
- 2nd) "Amiga? machine, but there is no `real' software or support
- for it."
-
- While I can argue till I'm blue in the face with this argument,
- demonstrating the professional virtues of software like ProPage
- or PageStream vs. QuarkXpress or PageMaker, or SCALA vs.
- this-or-that package, etc.., I don't think the problem is really
- a failure of software developers to produce quality software. The
- problem seems to lie with CBM. The engineers at CBM usually do a
- bang up job (Nice work so far on the 4000 guys, but why IDE?),
- however we all know that name brand software houses won't develop
- for a platform unless the platform holds a reasonable market
- share. I know, I know, chicken or the egg syndrome. Well, no one
- is going to take the Amiga seriously until YOU (CBM) do. It may
- be your top line product, but you sure can't tell it from your
- advertising and marketing programs.
-
- 3rd) "It can't do what my <insert competitor product name here> does!"
-
- Obviously, an uneducated consumer. So educate him.....,
- keeping in mind that any box can do what any other box can do if
- you sink enough money into it (Hint: Price vs. Performance).
-
- 4th) "It's behind the times, it doesn't even have CD-ROM support!"
-
- Get with it guys.... You want to compete? Then compete. You've
- got the technology, use it. AGA was a step in the right
- direction, but don't make it difficult for the software
- developers to keep up. That includes those doing CD-ROM stuff.
- *Rumor* has it that you are *charging* developers royalties to
- use your CD-ROM format for software that supports CDTV. Keep that
- up and the there won't be any 3rd party developers. This is
- supposed to be a symbiotic relationship. Remember? Without
- titles, who needs the machine?
-
- On this topic, I can possibly understand why you may feel it
- unnecessary to add CD-ROM to the Amiga line. If CD-ROM based
- CDTV's aren't selling, then why invest $$$ adding a similar
- product to the high-end Amiga? Royalties may be the stumbling
- block for the CDTV, but the applications are already there for
- the Amiga. And with cross platform compatibility (CrossDos and
- Mac-2-Dos or AMaxII+, along with Novell compatibility) much of
- what is already available on the market is just lying there
- waiting to be accessed. Don't forget the Photo-CD format. From
- what some of the trade magazines are saying about it, it portends
- to be a highly useful and in-demand product. The possibilities
- are astounding to anyone with one good eye and a spoon full of
- brains. But that BRAIN has to have the COMMON SENSE to use the
- one good eye to see the OPPORTUNITY. And the public who knows
- what all this technology is worth have to SEE that YOU can offer
- it to them.
-
-
- Forgive me if I go on, but yes, I am passionate about the Amiga. I think it has
- the capacity to become a leader in the marketplace, but only with the
- commitment of Commodore and serious marketing dollars behind it. I don't mean
- TV ads with Little Johnny lifting the house with his A500/600, or magazine ads
- with one of the Mario Bros. pushing it. If you want an ad that will sell
- Amigas, go look at the promo tape for the A3000 roll-out. People using the
- Amiga in a real-world environment. Or call Apple and have them send you one of
- their recent product marketing tapes (I got one out of curiosity and because I
- still try to sell Amigas [even under the guise of a Toaster] into the
- marketplace and I want to know what I'm up against).
-
- NOTE: No, I am not an AUTHORIZED Amiga dealer and No, I don't greymarket
- Amigas, but I proseletize and pontificate about them every chance I get
- while trying to avoid the image of being a fanatic.
-
- Look, we all know that the Mac isn't the wondrous machine that Apple would
- have you believe. It's nothing more than a box full of components very similar
- in a LOT of ways to the Amiga. But what sets it apart is the available software
- base and the marketing techniques used to get it in the consumers faces. Amiga
- now has the software base. And it has always had the price point to compete
- AGGRESSIVELY with both Macintoshes and PC (even clones, in some respects). So
- what is left? *YOU*, not your user base, have to convince the buying public and
- businesses that this is indeed a FACT. We don't have the money to do that for
- you (you already got ours....) And they (the buying public) aren't going to
- hunt you up to find it out, either. Expecting small Mom and Pop Storefront
- operations to sell an underdog into a *seriously* competitive marketplace is
- going to do nothing but disappoint you and leave CBM holding the game machine
- trophy it won so prestigiously so many years ago.
-
- You are the ones with the Marketing degrees (I hope.) Prove it.
-
- Sincerely -
-
- Mike Schneider | Mac Quadra 900 -
- UFP Computers |
- Chicago, IL | "Dammit Jim! I'm a Mac, not an Amiga!"
- Amiga and Toaster Consultant |
- New and Used Equipment Broker |
-