Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET (Z4648252) (01/11/90)
Hello all,
After reading for months letters raking Atari for advertisements, or
the lack thereof, here is a little bit of opinion from East Texas, all
gleaned from reading mail from other nets.
The Amiga net is tough to follow. Several letters will be positive
over the national ads of six weeks ago, and, in a couple of days, those
same individuals will be scolded because they liked the ads. Those
scolding them will claim the ads didn't refer to the technical quality
and attributes of the machine and appealed to no one comparing machines.
Further moaning begins when others say that the ads didn't make that
much of a contribution in moving product. Conclusion on that particual
net was that the money used could have better been used for research, etc.
The Mac nets are also tough... sort of hard to find a Mac hacker
anymore. Apple has finally succeeded in shaping users to fit that box
instead of the other way around. Push a button, listen to it whirr. If
one has the money, then the Mac is a real nice appliance. What few hackers
are left for the Mac all question what System 7.0 *really* is, where Mac
is headed, and why constant advertisement is being done when money should
really be spent on better research to counter the IBM world. Their feelings
are that IBM is slowly becoming friendlier with an iconoclastic interface
shell and that the Mac advantage will soon be mute. National advertisement
campaigns are a waste, they say, aimed at the corporate market. In short,
they ask, "What was Apple talking about when they said: 'The computer for
the rest of us' ".
Atari..... To advertise or not? Advertise what? To buy from whom?
I am not a marketting person but I fail to see how advertising would help
in my area. I guess that there are no more than five STs within 200 miles
of me. My dealer is in Fort Worth, an ST mecca of sorts. He's small, has
two employees: himself and an electronics engineer. Makes a fortune
selling ST hardware and software...sometimes by appointment. He does his
own tv spots. He is very happy with Atari, at least he is making a nice
income. But for my area, how would a national campaign do any good? No
dealer to buy anything from.... it would be nice for me, though. I could
say to a stranger, "Yeah, I have an ST," and no one would say "whatzzat?"
So, I'm content with taking a four hour drive to Fort Worth for my ST
needs. If I had my druthers...... I'd druther drive across the street
like my Mac, IBM, and Amiga friends. But we have to look at our local
situation and go with it.
The advertisement campaign didn't really benefit Amiga, at least to
the level expected (U.S. folks want IBM [why, why, why???]). Mac
advertisements appeal more to the Yuppie (my opinion) and bank rather than
the hacker and home computerist, and that leaves Atari.
Speaking of hacking...I am disturbed that Atari engineers feel that
the home computer hacker, the guy who wants to software/hardware
hack on his machine, no longer exits as a whole. This deeply bothers
me. Did we (Apple, Atari, Commodore) lose this when we abandoned
BASIC as our interface?
Personally, in my own very biased opinion.... and sorry about cluttering
the net....: I'd rather see the ST market penetrate the schools and reps
be hired strictly for education reasons. Music departments, desktop
publishing, robotics. The ST can easily accomodate those areas in the
schools. A push of the ST, with theoretical funding earmarked for
national ads to be used for education instead, would do more in benefitting
the machine, exposing the programmer and developer, and restoring home
computing enthusiam than any national ad.
Somehow, seeing a former speaker of the house pushing a mouse button
on a glaring color tv screen does NOTHING to me in wanting to buy that
product.
If I were a 10th grader, participating in a music lab with MIDI
theory and keyboards, I think that I'd have a problem in going home..I'd
want to stay on the ST. Obviously, examples for the other disciplines
abound.
Advertisement? Well, a fine concept. It is the American way, but
examine the other systems and it will be found that advertisement just
isn't as beneficial as one would expect particularly when the money could
be used elsewhere. Sorry about the clutter and the above views are totally
and strictly my own.
Larry Rymal: |East Texas Atari 68NNNers| <Z4648252@SFAUSTIN.BITNET>