knudsen@ihwpt.UUCP (mike knudsen) (08/06/86)
It's interesting to see how the new Coco III fits into
the personal computer marketing niche, with respect to
Tandy's product line and its competitors.
The Coco III has 128 to 512K, graphics nearly as good as
the ST or Amiga, a serious-business 80x24 screen (WHEW!)
and a price tag ($220) well under the Commodore 128.
Tandy's line now seems to consist of a series of MS-DOS
machines for the adult/business types at the high end,
with the low end still handled by an 8-bit micro,
the Coco's 6809. Some people may be disappointed that
the Coco III is not a 68000 machine, but Tandy may be wise
to stay out of the King Kong -vs- Godzilla war between
Atari ST and Amiga -- maybe neither combatant will live
to inherit the ruins of Tokyo. Tandy has straddled the
68K home market by landing salvos on both sides of it.
Instead, the Coco III offers graphics almost as good as
the 68K boxes, plus the potential for OS9 Level II,
possibly with the memory mapping and protection that the
68K pc's lack. At a price less than half of a bare-bones ST.
Radio Shack marketing has found a nice gap in the market
and filled it pretty well -- the space between the 8-bit
home "toys" and the 68K machines (which MS-DOS users would
call "toys" too).
Commodore and Atari have tried to narrow this gap, with 128K
editions of their home computers, but
in terms of improvements over their 64K predecessors, the Coco III
is a quantum leap compared to the other 128K 8-bitters.
Of course any of these machines should have blown the Apple II
away years ago, but some things defy explanation.
Sure, the Coco III could use even more keyboard improvement
(you STILL need CTRL to get the C-language symbols, but at
least there's real CTRL key *in the ight place*), 512K tops
may seem limiting (but 6809 code is more compact than 68K binary,
I'll bet), and the RS232 is probably still bit-banger software.
But against Commodore 128s and Atari 130XEs, Coco III is heavy
competition indeed. (If you believe that $220 tag; seems too
good to be true -- I'd have guessed $400-$600 for a Tandy product).
--
Mike J Knudsen __ ...ihnp4!ihwpt!knudsen
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