Commodore....

[dwright]

responding to:

http://www.cgarchitect.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=24;t=000174;p=4

 

garethace:

 

I agree, bad management in general, politics and terrible product marketing. Commodore never targeted the business arena appropriately. If AmigaOS evolved as Linux, today they may own much of that space, they had the potential of that; a Unix like OS that run under 128k and with a full blown multitasking capability. Clearly, always assuming that AmigaOS moved to open source and multi platform.

 

Today, Tivo’s that run under a linux build could easily be evolved Amigas, again assuming that everything moved forward for Commodore. For most cases, with some few exceptions, if you are a big company you can be the 3rd to introduce a product and then take over, Commodore was always a 1st mover, as Apple is, but if the idea is not 100% new, then that unfair advantage not always works. TIVO is an exception, a first mover that worked, why? Not only that the product is good, is just one product! And still is. Commodore position themselves as 1st movers, but didn’t have smart marketing nor marketing $ to continue and improve their product adventures (such as the Commodore CDTV). They also where small and committed the big mistake of diversifying and creating too many products.

 

However, look at Apple, no matter what they do, their market share will always be very small, marketing to those that want to believe that having a mac is better and smarter, and many of its followers are very similar to the old Amiga fans (clearly, not all). Fanatics in general are not good for companies, sure that is good for sales (for some time), because they buy whatever the company puts out, but product may not get better, not necessarily. Commodore was saturated with fanatics, and that misguided marketing big-time in addition to other mentioned reasons.

 

[ September 30, 2003, 01:06 PM: Message edited by: dwright ]

[garethace]

Your'e featured by Garethace at Aceshardware David. That is a rare honour I can assure you.

[Ernest Burden III]

Commodore never targeted the business arena appropriately.

So true. I traded up from my Commodore 32 to a Commodore 64, and then to...wait, it was time to put a computer to use in my rendering work, what to do? I ditched Commodore and bought a KayPro, which HAD switched from its earlier position with CP/M to DOS and x86 architecture. With their early lead and 'fan base' both Commodore and especially Amiga should have been long-term winners. But they weren't, for the reasons you mention. Thanks for the anaysis, David.