[net.micro.amiga] Sidecar available in Germany ??

hamilton@uiucuxc.CSO.UIUC.EDU (09/14/86)

>     In regard to the flaming surrounding the upcoming sidecar, I thought I'd
>squirt a little lighter fluid over the coals.
>
>     In particular, I'm left wondering whether the folks at CA are getting out
>of the useful computer business, or just starting subsidiaries in the 1BM PC
>clone and office furniture businesses.  A month or so ago, I got to see a
>sidecar, and ask some questions about it.  The person I was talking to was
>either a CA representative, or some distributor of CA equipment.
>
>...
>
>Me:  If I were interested in a PC clone, don't you think I'd have bought one
>     in the first place?  It sounds like you guys are getting out of the Amiga
>     business, and into the PC clone business.  Only problem is, that all I'm
>     interested in is an Amiga, and not a PC clone.  What are you guys going
>     to do with the Amiga?
>
>So, youse guys at Commodore Amiga, what's the deal?  Are we in the Amiga
>business, or the PC clone business.  The Sidecar is a neat hack, but if you
>were serious about selling PC alternatives (like Amigas), you'd be introducing
>products that make the Amiga a nicer machine to work on, rather than making
>it a front end for yor competitor's architecture.  In the mean time, the only
>reasonable hard disk alternatives we've seen cost as much or more than the
>Amiga does in the first place.  It wouldn't be so bad if that were the going
>rate for hard disks, but from what I've seen on the market, it's highway
>robbery.

    i think you're over-reacting.  what are you gonna say when CBM introduces
the fabled amiga modem?  "hey cbm, are you in the modem business now, not
the amiga business?".  and when/if cbm introduces a hard disk, you'll have
to complain about that too...  as a matter of fact, cbm IS in the PC clone
business.  didn't the PC-10 and PC-20 predate amiga?
    c'mon, the sidecar (note, the pc clone gets the diminutive "side") is
an amiga _peripheral_.  it's useless by itself!  disk drives are very
important, but almost anybody can develop them for the amiga.  and several
firms have!  (marketing gripes aside; that's hardly cbm's fault.)  cbm has
concentrated, in this case, on a peripheral that requires more intimate
familiarity with the amiga.  i think this makes good sense.  if it makes
the amiga more palatable to the msdos oriented business market, there will
be more amiga sales, and a healthier market for amiga-specific products.
    as for the highway robbery, what prices are you using for comparison?
prices for PC's and clones?  you might as well complain that porsche parts
cost more than toyota parts.  try comparing amiga prices to those for, say,
dec q- and uni-bus, or multibus, or vmebus.  none of these are sold in the
same quantities as pc-bus products, and the prices are correspondingly
higher.  if you are really expecting amiga-specific hardware, sold in the
few 10's of thousands at most, to be priced like generic PC hardware, sold
in the 100's of thousands, dream on... or buy a sidecar.

	wayne hamilton
	U of Il and US Army Corps of Engineers CERL
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