neil@atari.UUCP (Neil Harris) (10/05/87)
Since none of my replies seem to make the transition from Usenet to Bitnet
(email advice on how to overcome this will be appreciated), here's a reply
to Scott Udell.
First his letter:
From: <ames!rutgers!NDSUVM1.RUTGERS.EDU!UD140469>
Subject: Re: Mega-ST Pricing
To: <ames!atari!neil>
Status: R
Is it really going to be $1700 for a Mega-2 Monochrome? What happened to
$1299? Is Atari really shipping Megas? A friend of mine who's a dealer in
Texas keeps telling me that their local Atari rep has staunchly refused to
release any pricing or shipping dates until Oct. 9th. Do you know why? If
you could post replies to the net I'd appreciate it--several times before when
I've asked you questions, I've never gotten a response (must be this blasted
IBM mainframe/BITNET I'm running on...).
Scott Udell
UD140469@NDSUVM1.BITNET
And the reply:
Yes, the pricing is accurate. Any earlier prices were speculations. I
apologize if anyone thought otherwise, since I was guilty of speculating
also.
The pricing is higher than you may have expected. This relates to a change
in the dealer margin structure rather than one at wholesale, but I really
can't get into details in a public forum. The rationale, though, is that we
need to get into higher quality dealers, and low margins have been a major
obstacle.
October 9th is the first of a series of "rollouts", which are events taking
place throughout the U.S.A. to officially release the Mega computers. The
first event will take place in Worcester, MA. It's there then because there
is a major Atari Fair occurring on the 10th and 11th there also, sponsored
by the BCS.
The rollout is a dealer and press event only. The public is welcome to come
to the fair itself, which should be a humdinger.
--
--->Neil Harris, Director of Marketing Communications, Atari Corporation
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