FXDDR@ALASKA.BITNET (09/23/87)
At the risk of being a grouch, I'm still not convinced of Atari's grasp of the real world is too firm. From: imagen!atari!neil@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU (Neil Harris) > Our goal is to improve the quality of the local dealers. The bulk of the >market is not made up of bit-wise folks like you. True of the market in general, but is it for ST buyers? All the ST users I know are hacker types, either hardware or software. The uninitiated first- time buyer says, "the ST sure looks nice, and the price is reasonable, but I'd be more comfortable with a big-name company for my first purchase" and they get an Apple or IBM. >If we are to achieve any >serious market penetration here in the USA, we must have good dealers and >lots of them. We cannot get those dealers until the mail order situation is >cleaned up. Period. Two problems. First, if the ST was the only game in town (pardon the expression), cutting mail order would improve dealer sales, but there are plenty of other players. If a buyer can't get an ST cheaply and conveniently (no dealer in easy driving distance) they will most likely buy brand x that does sell mail order or (if x==ibm or apple) will buy one at the brand x dealer down the street. Second, dealer hand-holding is definitely nice, but I think the support needed for market penetration goes much deeper than the dealer level. For example: up-to-date, accurate technical documentation; timely OS upgrades and bug fixes; product release schedules accurate to the nearest quarter; etc, etc. As it stands, if I was a nasty Amiga or Mac dealer and a buyer came by who was considering Atari, I'd haul out an ST, crank up ST Basic, and put it through its Bill the Cat imitation (ack, barf, gag)...then say, "they've been shipping that Basic for about two years, and as you can see it is crawling with bugs. Do you really want to buy from a company that can't even fix its Basic?" At present I'd say the ST is still the best home computer on the market, easily. It is also a good choice for a personal workstation for students and others on constrained budgets. But I'd never recommend it to a business user, at least until there is some real support beyond the little bandaids that dealers can supply. There are a couple of people here planning to buy STs mail order with research grant money. If the mail order market is gone by the time the money comes through, they will probably get cheap macs through Apple's university discount program... Don Rice FXDDR@ALASKA.BITNET
jafischer@lion.UUCP (09/24/87)
Something that directly applies to this topic: the "How Not to Run a
Computer Store" article in the Fall START. I hope someone at Atari
reads it. It's humourous ('humorous' to you folks south of the border), but
true. I can only concur that, UNLESS Atari can work miracles (hah) and
transform their dealer chain into something vastly better than the current
status quo, they'll be shooting themselves in the (pick favourite appendage).
--
- Jonathan A. Fischer
jafischer@lion.waterloo.educw1q+@andrew.cmu.edu.UUCP (10/01/87)
Maybe no one cares, and maybe I'm wasting my time, but....
I'm a second year college student and am the proud
owner of an 520 St (with a meg upgrade), 1200 baud modem, printer,
and two double-sided drives. This list of hardware should
say to most that I'm "into my computer"...I use it to my homework,
impress my friends, and entertain myself. I like it and am darn proud of
what it can do.
But as a college student, I'm also broke: I have $3.51 in my bank account,
I have to pay over $300 in bills within a week, and I've run out of places
to borrow from. But I'm a dedicated computer user/hacker. So dedicated
that I spent a large sum of money on my STeven in the face of financial ruin.
To get to the point: Atari's choice to eliminate all or part of the
mail-order
availability for their products is a poor one in my mind
(at least if they want to reach the part of the market that includes
people like myself).
Almost every piece of hardware (and software for that matter)
that I own was bought through a mail order company. And as the speaker
for my generation (under 22 and still trying to be a real hacker), my
computer system would be non-existant if not for the wonders of mail-order.
The money I "saved" when I bought my ST (ala mail-order) went into a printer
(ala mail order) and the money saved on that purchase went into a
modem ...etc., etc., etc.....
I am a dedicated ST user (and will be until someone else creates an
inexpensive
computer system that's better than my ST) and would like to remain one.
But with my budget, it's mail-order or nothing!!!
The BIG question remains:
does Atari care about the "corner of the market" that I'm sitting
in...and
if so, why're they making it harder for me to remain an ST user???
(My opinions are my own and not those of anyone else unless they're under 22
and have one foot in bankruptcy court.)