jww@sdcsvax.UUCP (Joel West) (08/14/85)
> >> I hate to dampen the Amiga fire, but the Amiga is a doomed machine. > >> How can I say this before 1 Amiga is sold? Simple, this is history > >> repeating it self, all over again. > Just as the C-64/Atari/Apple ][ have a different market than the IBM PC-AT, The Apple II and C-64 market rarely overlapped, in either price or capabilities. The II was a home/business machine (also a home-business machine) and the C-64 was the best game machine at the best price. > I hope that the Atari ST and the Amiga both > do well. It is the MAC that will really suffer as a result of these two > machines. As usual, Apple will be selling less machine for more money. It's quite obvious that the market for home computers, let alone expensive high-priced home computers, is finite. The Mac has made only a small penetration into the general office market recently, primarily for chart- and slide-making (one per groups, vs. one IBM PC per user). The Atari will not have a business impact; the Amiga, because of its distribution and the not-hidden-enough name ("Commodore") will have a negligible impact, primarily in some graphics and video applications. The 1986 open Mac will likely put any corporate Mac owners back off the fence and into Apple's camp, should they be tempted now by Amiga. I'm not saying the Amiga doesn't have better hardware (I've never seen one. Have you?), but software, distribution, marketting, and even market psychology are far more important to success. So, getting back to the original question: which 2 computers will survive in the home market? The Mac be one, because it already has a foothold, software, and a fanatic group of owners. The Amiga vs. ST? The last battle obviously went to the C64. Which do you bet on, the company (Commodore) or its president (Tramiel, now with Atari.) Both companies are in precarious positions, so I suspect that this year's Christmas sales will probably decide the war. Joel West CACI, Inc. - Federal (c/o UC San Diego) {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww jww@SDCSVAX.ARPA "A Macintosh owner at any price!"
kev@voder.UUCP (Kevin Hoskins) (08/16/85)
> ....The 1986 open Mac will likely put any corporate Mac owners back off > the fence and into Apple's camp, should they be tempted now by Amiga. > > Joel West CACI, Inc. - Federal (c/o UC San Diego) > {ucbvax,decvax,ihnp4}!sdcsvax!jww > jww@SDCSVAX.ARPA > > "A Macintosh owner at any price!" Okay, I'll bite. What the heck is an "open Mac" and why will it push corporate Mac owners off the fence?