doug@certes.UUCP (07/11/87)
Summary: Commodore fan club? I appreciate the interaction of Commodore folks on the net; they are very helpful, and it makes comp.sys.amiga a great place to hang out. Commodore's public relations policies in other areas however, sometimes seem to be much less enlightened. My last posting pointed out that boondoggles with products like LIVE, Sidecar, Transformer 1.2, Genlock, and U.S. sales of the 500 and 2000 can be alienating. Certainly companies can have engineering and other difficulties, but it's not smart to get a reputation for such. And there are other issues as well... Everyone who is an Amiga fan would love to be a Commodore fan, too, but it is much more difficult. Commodore executives should be studying Apple intently; why are there so many people who are such utter fanatics about Apple as a company, in addition to loving their MacIntoshes? Simple: Apple is always doing things that give their users a warm fuzzy feeling. Certainly Apple has alienated people from time to time, but on the whole their batting average is quite good. Apple put a lot of effort into third party programs that resulted in an abundance of hardware and software. You buy a MacIntosh, you *naturally* get MacWrite and MacPaint. I bought an Amiga, and bought Deluxe Paint, but where's the equivalent of MacWrite? I'm *still* looking for it! And for a HAM mode paint program, for that matter. There are lots of other examples of things that Apple has done that made people feel like Apple was working *with* them, and that they could count on Apple to come through with things. Commodore has done a lot of good things, too, but somehow there seems to be something missing. Perhaps it's because it's not just *what* you do, but also *how* you do it. (To be fair, Commodore is already much friendlier in aspect than some companies. I get the impression that Atari, for instance, is pretty good at alienating their customers. Settling for a position midway between Atari and Apple is probably not ideal, though.) It would be hard for me to defend individual examples of Apple public relations versus Commodore, but I think that it is undeniable that Apple as a company is much, much more popular with their customers than Commodore as a company is with theirs. Just based on that, I would hope that Commodore would start emulating Apple in some respects. Or at least make it a point to appear as friendly as possible. There are marketing consulting companies that specialize in this kind of thing; when in doubt, go to an expert. Perhaps I am misperceiving things, and perhaps I'm the *only* one who is. If so, feel free to flame me: Doug Merritt ucbvax!unisoft!cer> Diencod
ali@rocky.STANFORD.EDU (Ali Ozer) (07/11/87)
In article <8707110358.AA14196@unisoft.UNISOFT> doug@certes.UUCP writes: >Commodore's public relations policies in other areas however, sometimes seem >to be much less enlightened. My last posting pointed out that boondoggles >with products like LIVE, Sidecar, Transformer 1.2, Genlock, and U.S. sales >of the 500 and 2000 can be alienating... Was 500 really all that much delayed? It became available at the end of June --- That's just a few weeks (or maybe a month) later than what was originally speculated. About Live! --- Didn't Commodore let go of the product a long while back? Thus they have no control over what happens to it (especially right now). And maybe they gave it up for something better? >... You buy a MacIntosh, you *naturally* get MacWrite and MacPaint. ... These days it's "you buy a Macintosh and you go pirate MacWrite and MacPaint off of your friends." I don't think these two programs are bundled with the machine anymore; they are seperate products. They must be among the most pirated programs in existence. (As most people seem to feel they have a right to these programs...) Ali Ozer, ali@rocky.stanford.edu
jmpiazza@sunybcs.uucp (Joseph M. Piazza) (07/12/87)
In article <8707110358.AA14196@unisoft.UNISOFT> doug@certes.UUCP writes: >Summary: Commodore fan club? > ... >Commodore's public relations policies in other areas however, sometimes seem >to be much less enlightened. My last posting pointed out that boondoggles >with products like LIVE, Sidecar, Transformer 1.2, Genlock, and U.S. sales >of the 500 and 2000 can be alienating. Certainly companies can have engineering >and other difficulties, but it's not smart to get a reputation for such. >And there are other issues as well... [etc., etc.] >... Apple put a lot of effort into third party programs that resulted in >an abundance of hardware and software. You buy a MacIntosh, you *naturally* >get MacWrite and MacPaint. Where have you been? They stopped doing that over a year ago. But otherwise, yes. Commodore has much room for improvement. By the way, I'm still eager for someone to enlighten me with the dirty details of what happened in Commodore's screw-up in the calculator market back in the 70's. How many people remember (or even heard about) when Commodore unleashed the killer PC Clone: the PC-10 (or whatever it's called) back in Feb(?). It has been doing fine in Europe for a few years but in the American market it's a very sad, displaced, wimpy machine. I can easily be off base as to the details -- please fell free to correct them. Hopefully those who spawned -- make that "approved" -- of this brilliant idea of "Gee! If it's doing so well in Europe, let's sell it over here in the USA!" felt the axe of Commodore's recent ... restructuring? >Perhaps I am misperceiving things, and perhaps I'm the *only* one who is? ... I wish you were ... Flip side, joe piazza --- Cogito ergo equus sum. CS Dept. SUNY at Buffalo 14260 UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!jmpiazza CS: jmpiazza@cs.buffalo.edu BI: jmpiazza@sunybcs
peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) (07/18/87)
> way, I'm still eager for someone to enlighten me with the dirty details of what > happened in Commodore's screw-up in the calculator market back in the 70's. Yeh. The first time I ever heard of C= was this truly amazing calculator they did with 4 functions on each key, programming, numerical integration, all sorts of stuff built in. What did happen? -- -- Peter da Silva `-_-' ...!seismo!soma!uhnix1!sugar!peter (I said, NO PHOTOS!)