ptavoly@cs.ruu.nl (Peter Tavoly) (02/25/91)
This is a straight translation of an article in the March issue of the
German 'Amiga Magazin' (pp. 9/12), which is the largest (and best) mag on
this side of the pond. It is the second interview with Helmut Jost, General
Manager of Commodore Germany, in retrospect to a previous interview in the
August issue (10/90).
Disclaimer: I am in no way associated with M&T other than reading their
excellent magazine. Nor did I have any authorization to republish this
article, but I do not expect to be sued :-)
Copyright (c) 1991 by Markt & Technik Verlag AG as well as by Ulrich Brieden
who wrote the article.
Translation by Thomas Tavoly, but who cares? My own comments are contained
within square brackets, please disregard them :^).
Interview
_________
COMMODORE
[there is a picture with Helmut Jost and Ulrich Brieden (I presume)]
Jost in front
[Bold typeface]
In August (see AMIGA 10/90) we interviewed Helmut Jost and questioned him
for his plans. Now, after six months, it is time, to make up the balance.
[Intro]
Since April 1990 he is General Manager with Commodore Germany, at the end of
1990 he was elected 'Vice President' of the company. Helmut Jost has provided
a fresh wind - and he is still planning some things for the next few months.
How does it look like for Commodore after nine months of his reign? Where does
the way lead for the company? And before all: What technological innovations
are to be expected by Amiga users?
AMIGA: How well is it going for Commodore Germany?
Jost: Commodore Germany has been doing very well again. Looking at the
developments, we are almost again on old road of success, as we have known
it in the past. I am very pleased with the developments.
AMIGA: What figures can you mention?
Jost: Exact numbers for the current business year (beginning with July '90)
are not yet available; we have only closed the second quarter as yet. What I
can say: We have been sold out in December already over the entire product
palette.
In the past business year 1989/90, we have sold 160,000 Amigas and 180,000
C64s. [That's only Germany, not Europe] only in the first half of the current
business year 90/91 about 175,000 C64s were sold - around 40 percent in
East-Germany. In case of the Amiga we probe a number of 140,000 for the first
six months of 90/91.
[the sudden (unexpected) revival of the C64 (I got mine in '84 :) can be
explained as the result of the German unification, many people have been
casting their eyes on the C64, but had no access to it before the Wall fell;
however, the sharp rise of sales of Amigas cannot be accounted for this way,
since it is somewhat less known in eastern Germany and maybe a bit too
expensive as well. Personally, I still don't have enough for an A3000...]
AMIGA: How are plans for the new factory in Braunschweig getting along?
Jost: The Braunschweig factory should be in the building stage by now. A
delay has manifested itself, as they want to include some other building
measures [This is an obvious sign of change for the better, expansion seems
necessary in order to cater for the rise in demand]. However, a start of
the actual building process is to be counted with in 1991, so that we have
the most important establishment next to the ones in the USA and the Far-East
here in Europe.
The developers in Braunschweig are going to limit themselves to peripherals
in the future, as we have concentrated the main development segments (PC
and Amiga) in the USA, to exploit the know-how of our company in all fields
over here as well. [The last part of the sentence seems somewhat meaningless;
this was probably done in order to limit clashes of the the development teams
in West Chester and Braunschweig, like wasting time with working on the same
computer and getting one design rejected]
[Caption]
''CDTV will be available from May '91 for 1500 Marks (~1000 US$)''
AMIGA: What is happening in America anyway, especially concerning personnel;
some people have been fired, right? What happened to Harry Copperman, who
was president up till now?
Jost: Harry Copperman has accepted an other job within the company; he is in
the Division Multimedia - a preparatory field. The sales department has been
taken over by Jim Dion, a member of the workforce, who has been with the
company for eleven years.
It is correct, that people have been fired in the American division, but
only in the production process...
...They have created somewhat of a superfluency here. We have reduced the
size of the operation to a level, where the company is profitable.
AMIGA: Apple will introduce a new computer shortly: with 68020 processor and
a high graphical resolution; for about 3000 Marks (=approximately 2000 US$).
What is your answer?
Jost: We are not depressed by the developments. This shows, that this
manufacturer apparently cannot find enough to fish anymore in its own
customary fields to survive - and moves in the direction of Commodore.
[A funny thing happens here, as you turn the page while reading the previous
sentence, instead of page 10, the article continues on page 12. Guess what's
in between? Two full pages (one in colour) of an Apple advertisement... This
happened to me when I was reading the article on the train back to Utrecht
from a day out to Amsterdam. I burst out in tears from laughing, my fellow
passengers did not know what hit me.. :^) The left page depicts an old
'distinguished grey' man taking off his glasses while smiling. The other
page contains some marketing hype and a (colour) picture of a Mac LC.
Apart from the irony, this is together with ads from large tobacco
manufacturers like Philip Morris (Marlboro) (p.17), banks like Sparkasse
(p.31) and others a very good sign.]
That is good: The more people are making fuss about this market, the greater
it will become. On the other hand, in our opinion, we have a solid position
in this field and we are extending it while we speak.
AMIGA: Apropos extending - what does your model policy look like? What new
Amigas will there be?
Jost: As I have said it in the past: The Amiga 3000 is only the entry product
into a new series of Amiga products, which will of course evolve upwards.
And I think the market will be surprised here - Commodore surely has some
things in reserve.
AMIGA: Which concretely means?
Jost: The development of the Amiga is given by the processor type, and we all
know that we employ the 68030 in the Amiga 3000, plus that the 68040 exists
in this processor family. And Commodore will surely base its further
developments of the Amiga line of products on this processor class.
[Ergo, C= is working on the A4000]
AMIGA: When can we count with UNIX?
[As you all know, the A3000UX has been released by now, you must take into
consideration the arbitrary time lag inherent to a printed magazine]
Jost: We can count with UNIX on a short notice. The beta tests have been
concluded. We have the version System V, Release 4 marketing ready, so that
we can begin shipping these products in the next four to six weeks.
AMIGA: What happens to the proven models Amiga 2000 and Amiga 500?
Jost: We are continuously working on improvements. We also consider what new
models we can introduce, what markets we can reach with these products. On
the other hand, it should be said, that we have set standards especially with
the models A500 and A2000, and we are selling these products so well, as we
have never done before. It may perhaps not be that good if we change products
too often here.
Of course, we surely work on keeping the standards and bringing improvements.
AMIGA: The standards, especially the graphic standards, that the Amiga has
set, have by now been reached or superseded by other machines - think of VGA
and Super-VGA [or the new XGA]. How does Commodre react?
Jost: It is too early, to say something about our plans. The A500 and the
A2000 are proven products; the Amiga is by nature so graphically agile, so
innovative that there is no need there.
We are certainly watching other trends in other fields. We also need Amigas
with a higher resolution and more colours for applications like CAD/CAM and
in the video business or for television. Such improvements are going to be
topical this year already.
AMIGA: In August, you promised some things - what became of those? What
professional software has been developed? What shall we see in the near
future?
Jost: Here are various products, that are being pushed hard. As you know:
such products need time, till they are ready for marketing.
A complete software library for the professional Amiga domain is being worked
on here, that will for the largest part be completed on short notice. With
the first products in this direction can be counted within two months - first
of course only in English, but the adaptation into German will be quite easy.
AMIGA: What firms are we talking about?
Jost: Things like Oracle, databases... Business Graphics Applications,
wordprocessors, DTP protgrams etc.
AMIGA: You cannot comment on companies as yet?
Jost: Hardly... [WP, Lotus and Microsoft have been rumoured.. but don't quote
me on that]
AMIGA: What will become of the professional DTP solution for the A3000?
Jost: We have found very strong partners here in the software field, who
will commit themselves to high-end Amiga products, and we are certain, that
we can bring corresponding products shortly - or support these software
houses then and guide them into the market.
[Caption]
''Amiga models with the 68040 processor are in the works''
[Caption]
''UNIX will be the dominating OS in the next few years''
AMIGA: We are talking now about the big firms - what is with the small ones?
You spoken of Commodore wanting to do something like a developers-pool. What
progress has been made?
Jost: The development-pools have been crystallised so far in that we have our
ACCs in our professional Amiga model marketing structure, the Amiga
Competence Centers, and we guide these developers to our ACCs.
The ACCs are the support in the development base; they are the props in the
creativity of software; and also the pillars in the know-how domain and the
support of subsequent dealers. These ACCs are there to utilise the
development pools in the software domain as well and filter them accordingly
- under the guiding hand of Commodore -, so that here the software is created
which is demanded by the market, and so that the wheel is not reinvented
five times here in the development domain and so that everyone employs his
resources, so that afterwards it becomes a commercial success as well.
[I agree, this is an ugly sentence, but it conveys the information]
AMIGA: Catchword CDTV, quasi the Amiga 500 with Laserdisk [I am sure the
author meant 'with Compact Disc']: Can you give our readers the latest info
on the new system?
Jost: CDTV will be pushed very hard and be a product at which today we cannot
even recognize the multitude of applications. Every day new applications
will arise , and that will be a certain highlight in the future.
AMIGA: What highlights are you bringing to the CeBIT? [A large show in
Hannover, Germany, held between the 13th and 20th of March]
Jost: I am not going to comment on that yet. You should expect us to bring
a large number of highlights.
AMIGA: Commodore is doing well - how well is Helmut Jost doing at Commodore?
Jost: Helmut Jost is doing very well at Commodore. I feel again very well
within the Commodore ranks. I must append to that, that it was the right
decision to come back, although I had not planned it, as I wanted to go solo.
I am really satisfied allround.
AMIGA: Do you still have the freedom that you need (see last interview
AMIGA 10/90)?
Jost: I do. The freedom has even been massively extended, because of the
success, that we have within the company here in Germany. And I must say,
in that field, because of the success that we have here, I have also reached
the goals to exercise considerable influence on the worldwide structure,
which has been acknowledged in that Commodore elected Helmut Jost to Vice
President.
AMIGA: What are your greatest successes?
Jost: Surely, that the staff is again representing the company motivated to
the outside world. I have found a base of good workers, who are motivated
- today motivated again - and have had a very high part in achieving success.
A further victory is, that products that were said to dead by the market are
back in a larger than life way.
AMIGA: You mean the C64?
Jost: C64, A500 [????], A2000 [id.] - the entire Amiga line in general.
[The Amiga dead?? What a ridiculous idea! No smiley!!]
AMIGA: Did the market pronounce the Amiga dead?
Jost: Not the Amiga 500 - I would like to say, that the Amiga 2000 was
nearly gone, also the C64, our low-end PCs, of which we are again selling
numbers of which everybody thought this market cannot exist any more.
On the other hand, we have found a large acceptance in the professional
dealer organization. Vendors want to market Commodore again; they are
finding us somewhat more credible again.
Commodore again has an Image as it has had in the past.
[I don't know whether that's good or bad..]
I believe, that Commodore will also play a very strong part in the industry
again. In an industry, that of course has become somewhat common. The
glamourous times of the IT have passed; here the name of the game is keeping
and cornering new market shares, it's all about ousting from the market.
I believe, that we have the opportunities to achieve more with a company
Commodore that is built on several pillars, than companies that are leaning
on one pillar only. We must exploit our advantage and take it to battle.
---
-Thomas.
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