stuart@rochester.ARPA (10/03/86)
From: Stuart Friedberg <stuart>
I have had a monochrome 1040ST on order through my local dealer since
the end of July. From reading this newsgroup it was clear that 1040's
are scarce all over, so I refrained from flaming Atari or flaming my
dealer. I simply assumed that production could not keep up with
demand.
However, my dealer got fed up with having a machine on order for two
and a half months. In addition to my machine, the store paid for 20
machines and received none of them. 520's are coming in months after
being paid for. 1040's aren't coming in at all. For this reason, the
two store managers and the branch manager had a full day "chat" with
the appropriate Atari representative. They were unhappy and the rep
left, ah, uncomfortable. The statements in this paragraph are facts.
I am now going to relate some statements that I can not confirm
personally. Treat them as rumor, but notice that I have signed this
message. There are no 1040's in the warehouse. There are no 1040's in
production. Atari has been accepting orders, and payment, in order to
build up liquid assets. I have heard two conjectured motivations:
(1) build up capital for production facilities, and (2) buy Commodore.
I choose not to speculate, but these statements are consistent with
the observed facts.
In my opinion, the ST is an extremely competent machine at an
unbeatable price. However, it doesn't make any difference what the
price is, if no machines are available. Whether the statements of the
preceding paragraph are true or false, it remains true that the dealer
has my money, and Atari has the dealer's money, and Atari is not
delivering. This is not responsive and borders on irresponsible.
Stu Friedberg {seismo, allegra}!rochester!stuart stuart@rochesterbraner@batcomputer.TN.CORNELL.EDU (braner) (10/03/86)
[] Obviously, Atari cannot meet the demand for 1040's. (the machines, not the forms :-) And it IS trying to raise capital (e.g. the "going public"). But to hold on to peoples' money is not only immoral (illegal?) but also against Atari's interest. I assume they 1040's sold were sold at a profit. I also assume the factories involved still exist. So the only thing gained by the (rumored) witholding of that production capacity is bad PR. Osborne went belly-up because of the early announcment of the Osborne 2, prompting consumers to wait and avoid buying the 1. Atari has announced the 2080 and 4160. Are they trying to discontinue the 1040? Are they trying to FORCE the consumers to wait for those? I think that would be a grave mistake: There IS a market for the 1040, obviously! 1 megabyte is enough for a LOT of uses, and the larger RAM chips are going to be very expensive for some time to come. 512K is NOT enough for any sort of development work, as the demand for upgrades proves. And by 'development' I mean 'programming', not necessarily commercial. The "nobody programs besides the professionals" myth has been shattered by the sale of hundreds of thousands of copies of Turbo Pascal. Please, Atari: let us have 1040's! - Moshe Braner
rb@cci632.UUCP (Rex Ballard) (10/04/86)
Much of this has to do with the dealer. One dealer here took prepaid orders of many times their agreed on allocation schedule. Other dealers have been taking no back-orders and are still selling them as they come in. The dealer that took the back-orders was trying to corner the local market (which would be easy to do here). Atari has had the wisdom to protect the supply to other dealers. Without that protection, the ST's would ONLY be available mail-order. Not the best choice.
jhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA (10/05/86)
I have also heard rumor (2) (Buy Commodore) from another source. -John Sangster jhs@mitre-bedford.arpa
neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) (10/06/86)
In article <21269@rochester.ARPA>, stuart@rochester.ARPA writes: > I am now going to relate some statements that I can not confirm > personally. Treat them as rumor, but notice that I have signed this > message. There are no 1040's in the warehouse. There are no 1040's in > production. Atari has been accepting orders, and payment, in order to > build up liquid assets. I have heard two conjectured motivations: > (1) build up capital for production facilities, and (2) buy Commodore. > I choose not to speculate, but these statements are consistent with > the observed facts. The 1040ST's are in production and on their way. We sold out due to a spectacular Summer. Accepting money for a product which cannot be shipped does not build up assets -- there is a liability added to the books for each undelivered machine. And the shortage is a situation which will be cleared up momentarily. -- --->Neil @ Atari ...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil BIX: neilharris CIS: 70007,1135 Delphi: NEILHARRIS GENIE: nharris WELL: neil Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308 US Mail: Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 "I'm a 20th century man but I don't want to die here." -- Ray Davies
neil@atari.UUcp (Neil Harris) (10/06/86)
In article <8610042253.AA18728@mitre-bedford.ARPA>, jhs@MITRE-BEDFORD.ARPA writes: > I have also heard rumor (2) (Buy Commodore) from another source. God forbid! I had a nightmare last year about Atari buying Commodore. We had to go back there and clean up the mess! No thank you. -- --->Neil @ Atari ...{hoptoad, lll-lcc, pyramid, imagen, sun}!atari!neil BIX: neilharris CIS: 70007,1135 Delphi: NEILHARRIS GENIE: nharris WELL: neil Atari Corp. BBS 408-745-5308 US Mail: Atari Corp. 1196 Borregas Ave. Sunnyvale, CA 94086 "I'm a 20th century man but I don't want to die here." -- Ray Davies
uh@exunido.UUCP (10/12/86)
Interesting,
in Germany Atari has dropped the prices for the 1040 last week (Oct 1st)
from former DM 3298,-- ($ 1650,--) to DM 2498,-- ($ 1250,--). The rumor was
that the 1040 was sold only very bad. The new price is about DM 400,--
($ 200) below a 520 with same specs only in more parts and with separate
power supplies. The price for 520 and 260 has NOT been dropped!!!
Uwe Hoch
Computer Science Department, University of Dortmund
4600 Dortmund 50, P.O. Box 500500, W.-Germany
E-mail address: uh@exunido.uucp, uh@exunido.bitnetview3b5@ihlpl.UUCP (Pruitt) (10/14/86)
> in Germany Atari has dropped the prices for the 1040 last week (Oct 1st) > from former DM 3298,-- ($ 1650,--) to DM 2498,-- ($ 1250,--). The rumor was > that the 1040 was sold only very bad. The new price is about DM 400,-- > ($ 200) below a 520 with same specs only in more parts and with separate > power supplies. The price for 520 and 260 has NOT been dropped!!! > > Uwe Hoch According to rumors I have heard (I believe they come from CompuServe), Toys 'R Us will be selling the 520ST with ss disk drive around Christmas time for $250. This doesn't include monitor but since the new 520ST's have an RF modulator, you can use a TV set until you rebuild your savings account (:-)). It would certainly make an excellent starter setup. Kit Kimes AT&T-ISL Naperville, IL ...ihnp4!iwvae!kimes
casper@targon.UUCP (Casper Jansen) (10/15/86)
In a message it was said that the drop in price of the 1040 could be due to the very bad sales. This I know not to be true. One of the main reasons for the 1040 to drop in price both in Holland as in Germany is that official dealers had (have?) a lot of competition from non-dealers, who imported the machine 'illegaly' (outside Atari channels). They would sell it for a few hundred bucks under de official Atari price. Aparently, this was the solution to the problem. The 1040 sells very well (at least in Holland it does). Casper Jansen Holland ....!mcvax!targon!casper
uh@exunido.UUCP (10/19/86)
>The 1040 sells very well (at least in Holland it does).
As I have heard from our dealer not in Germany. But now it should be
best-selling.
uh@unido