ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer) (07/20/87)
[---------------]
First, a question... Is Abel's still alive and running? A friend of
mine called them up several hundred times in the last three days and got the
busy signal every time. (Except once, at 2 am, but then no one answered...)
Poor guy, he was ready to dish out $400 for a 2 Meg board, but he can't get
anyone to take his money.
Next, a little trivia quiz for you people. All questions and answers
taken from Abel's July 2nd price list. (The price list was online,
and nicely formatted, so it took no time to create a database and come up
with some silly queries... Other than this convenience, and buying from them
twice, I have no relation to Abel's. I also have no idea how accurate the
information in their list is...)
There are ^L's between the questions and answers, hopefully that won't
screw anything up for anyone... Also, you must note that Abel's
doesn't carry everything... I'm just using their price list because it
was convenient. They have a total of 568 products listed, 367 software
(all Amiga specific), 79 hardware (almost all Amiga specific), 61 books
(mostly Amiga specific), and 61 accessory items (some Amiga specific)...
Ok, here it goes:
What is the most expensive software product Abel's sells?
Station Manager (Associated Computer Serv.) $995.00/$536.55
(Prices are List Price/Abel's Price)
Most expensive hardware product?
If you said the A2000, you're wrong... And if you said
something about the Turbo Amiga, well, they don't carry it...
So, you can guess again ---
PAL W/43Meg Drive (Byte By Byte) $3995.00/$2951.99
(Is that thing really list priced that high? I though it was more like $3000)
The next two most expensive hardware items?
Amega 150-Meg Hard Drive W/Controller (C Ltd.) $3100.00/$2639.00
PAL W/20Meg Drive (Byte By Byte) $3195.00/$2360.85
The least expensive software?
Workbench 1.2 (Enhancer) (Commodore-Amiga, Inc.) $14.95/$10.30
(Yeah for Commodore!)
Most heavily discounted program?
Textcraft (Commodore Business Mach.) $99.95/$28.32 --- 71.7% discount
Next most heavily discounted program? (Hint: We're talking NOT OUT yet)
Wordperfect (Wordperfect Corporation) $395.00/$179.39 --- 54.6% discount
Most heavily discounted hardware item?
A1020 5 1/4" Drive W/Transformer (Commodore Amiga) $395.00/$168.18 --- 57.4%
(Actually Omega 80 300/1200 Modem (Anchor Automation) $199.95/$85.00 is
discounted a bit more heavily (57.5%) but it's not really an Amiga specific
product...)
The least expensive item Abel's sells?
Sony 3.5" Disks SS/DD (Bulk) (Sony) $1.95/$1.15
Percentage of software items priced under $50 (list)?
Percentage of software items priced $50 or above, and under $100 (list)?
58.7%
27.1%
Number of programs put out or distributed by Electronic Arts?
46 programs out of 367
Number of different companies listed?
188.
This number may be somewhat off. I tried checking out the different "company"
values, except there were a lot differently spelled of listings for the same
company --- Commodore, Commodore-Amiga, Comdodore, etc... So I went through
by hand and tried to collapse the names, but I might've missed a bundle. Also,
of course, not all of these companies make Amiga stuff --- Accessory (disks,
modems) makers are included here also.
A more interesting question is, what is the number of different companies
putting out Amiga software?
118.
Same warnings as above apply...
Average software list price? Average hardware list price?
$77.99 average software price
$688.30 average hardware price
Well, that's it. If you got all questions right, then bravo! Call up Abel's,
or go to your nearest dealer, and treat yourself to a 2 Meg board. Your Amiga
will love you! (But you'll have to pay for it, this is a cheap trivia quiz.)
Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.eduali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer) (07/20/87)
In article <432@rocky.STANFORD.EDU> I wrote: >... They have a total of 568 products listed, 367 software >(all Amiga specific), 79 hardware (almost all Amiga specific) ... Looking through Amazing Computing, I see that almost every second ad is for a product not listed in Abel's product list. A friend of mine also pointed out that Abel's has some products that they are not in the list... So don't take the "367" figure as the number of programs out there for the Amiga. I imagine we're looking at, what, probably 1000 commercial programs for the Amiga, no? Any more-accurate figures, anyone? And we should remember that there is so much high quality PD stuff out there (Emacs, mCad, VDraw, VT100+Kermit, Draco, VD0:, DME, ...). Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu
hrlaser@pnet02.CTS.COM (Harv Laser) (07/22/87)
Abel is simply suffering from a malady that a lot of new startup mail order
retailers wish they'd also contract: it's called "Having more business than
you can possibly handle." At this point in time it might be worth your while
to locate a competitor who would be willing to meet/beet Abel's prices and
wouldn't put you through the same ordering delays. Yes, such companies exist.
Some of them run magazine advertising, some don't. Abel was just the first in
the Amiga market to do what he did (offer a BBS for ordering and offer
outrageously [compartively] low prices) and so his business built quickly, the
results being the delays you are seeing now. BTW, There is no "Mr. Abel", the
name Abel is just a marketing trick to get their company up near the top of
the alphabet so they'd receive product sooner from mfr's who ship to their
retailers in alphabetical order! Sort of like calling yourself "AAA Acme
Plumbing" to get on the first page of the phone book.
Harv
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