rtb@ihlpm.UUCP (Todd) (01/10/86)
Unfortunately, its worse than ST's being sold in K-MART stores. They are being sold by JS&A mail order. These are the people that also sell ionizers and other such nonsense. Price for the CPU with mouse is 299. Color monitor 399 mono monitor 199 disk drive 199. I saw the ad in the Jan 13 Newsweek. I think that this is an absoulutely stupid marketing move on Atari's part. I had faith in Mr T., but now I think the 5 year old down the block has more marketing sense than he does. I don't know how any future machines ( including the 32 bit work stations announced in the Electronic Engineering times) will get any respect at all. If I was the head of Commadore I couldn't ask for a better break at this time. Time will tell what impact this has on us ST owners. We can always hope for good software from Europe where the ST seems to get more respect. R.T Bradstrum
knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (01/10/86)
> Unfortunately, its worse than ST's being sold in K-MART stores. They > are being sold by JS&A mail order. These are the people that also > sell ionizers and other such nonsense. Price for the CPU with mouse is > 299. Color monitor 399 mono monitor 199 disk drive 199. I saw the ad > in the Jan 13 Newsweek. I think that this is an absoulutely stupid > marketing move on Atari's part. I had faith in Mr T., but now I think > the 5 year old down the block has more marketing sense than he does. > I don't know how any future machines ( including the 32 bit work stations > announced in the Electronic Engineering times) will get any respect > at all. If I was the head of Commadore I couldn't ask for a better > break at this time. Time will tell what impact this has on us ST owners. > > R.T Bradstrum On the contrary, I think that Mr T's "error" is not in undercutting the computer stores by going to KMart and mailorder, but in bothering with the computer stores in the first place. Computer stores are essentially useless institutions whose salespeople know what we'd learn in an hour of pushing the mouse and reading the manuals (horrors!). I'd rather read Netnews, see a demo at a club meeting or a friend's house, then buy the pieces of the system in sealed boxes from Toys R Us or thru the mail. Really. However, Mr Bradstrum does hint at a valid point: the IMAGE, or "respect" that a machine acquires. This WOULD be helped by the potted-palm computer stores. We netnews sophisticates must remember that the unwashed masses respond strongly to image. The Atari 800 and Radio Shack COlor COmputer were hurt just by their brand names, while a dull 8088 PC was sold by 3 little letters. On the other hand, I don't think the C64 got hurt by moving from computer stores to toy stores. Politicians would rather have votes than respect, and Mr T will gladly trade respect for lots more sales. So should software developers (think about it...). mike k PS: JS & A's monitor prices are $50 higher than my guesstimates in yesterday's posting!
uh@unido.UUCP (01/12/86)
>... >We can always hope for good software from Europe where the ST seems to >get more respect. I think you are right, especially when reading news on the net. Here in Europe are no diskussions like that in the USA "520ST vs. AMIGA" or "ATARI ST vs. C128". Silly things. Here in Germany the 520ST sells fine (no Amiga until Spring/Summer 86) and many professional program packages (wordprocessors, databases, an specialised commercial software for the german market) are availible. Go on diskussing, we will have fun in the meantime (:-)). Here at the University of Dortmund we bought only in November and December last year about 30 ST's (all with 1 MB) and they work really fine and they are in great demand. Uwe Hoch Computer Science Department, University of Dortmund 4600 Dortmund 50, P.O. Box 500500, W.-Germany E-mail address UUCP: ...seismo!unido!uh