Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!seismo!gatech!bloom-beacon!oberon!cit-vax!ucla-cs!zen!ucbvax!certes.UUCP!doug From: doug@certes.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: LIVE paleontology Message-ID: <8707110358.AA14188@unisoft.UNISOFT> Date: Fri, 10-Jul-87 19:40:00 EDT Article-I.D.: unisoft.8707110358.AA14188 Posted: Fri Jul 10 19:40:00 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 12-Jul-87 14:13:45 EDT Sender: uucp@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Lines: 65 Summary: LIVE-- enquiring minds want to know, and Commodore *does* seem to have a death wish (ack! Pournelle was right!) In article <8707081106.AA14611@unisoft.UNISOFT> doug@certes.UUCP writes: $ A-Squared designed $it, and sold the manufacturing rights to Commodore, who then sat on it and $apparently refused (?) to make and ship the d*mn things. In article <2086@cbmvax.UUCP> higgin@cbmvax.UUCP (Paul Higginbottom SALES) writes: >I am not at liberty to discuss this matter in depth, but I would like you >all to remember that this represents ONE side of the story only, and that >you should not comment on this unless you know the whole story. > Let's all try to keep the traffic down :-) Sorry, I don't buy this. I have been trying to find out what the story is, that's all. The LIVE digitizer is the most atrocious case of vaporware yet seen on the Amiga, always promised to be available Real Soon Now, but always encountering yet another delay. Most recently A-squared actually announced that they were taking orders, and passed out an 800 number for the purpose, but that was bogus too. I think that announcing vaporware is a dirty trick to play on people, and I think we all deserve an explanation. And an apology. I don't actually *expect* this, but it does seem to be called for. Considering that there are many, many people who are dying to buy one, and that it would fit very well into the "Amiga-as-desktop-video" marketing concept, I cannot understand why Commodore hasn't bent over backwards to get this thing on the streets long since. Besides a tremendous amount of lost revenues that could have come from the LIVE itself, there are certainly lost Amiga sales as well! Just based on the above obvious points, its clear that *someone* has been real stupid about this. A rude comment? In this case, simply the truth! Now, as for me passing on the rumor that Commodore was the one to blame, I fully intended to be provocative in the hopes of hearing the *other* side of the story. Perhaps for legal reasons you can't comment, and perhaps that's why A-Squared has been reluctant to comment as well. But that's not *our* problem. Our problem is *vaporware*. So it's just plain silly for you to say that people who don't know both sides of the story shouldn't say anything about it. The people who *do* know won't talk! Besides which, on reviewing my article, the *only* inaccuracy in it was my saying that Commodore "refused" to ship LIVE, and I put a question mark after that word. Everything else I said is just fact: A-Squared designed it and sold the rights to Commodore. Commodore did not ship it. A-Squared re-acquired the rights and then entered into an agreement with GRAB, but it still isn't shipping. Commodore has established a track record for lengthy delays, anyway, as witness the Genlock, Transformer 1.2, Sidecar, and U.S. sales of the 500 and 2000. This is both frustrating to us Amiga fans, and also costs Commodore a *lot* of lost revenues. Perhaps Rattigan is to blame for everything? Impossible...if so, he should have been fired much, much earlier. Since he wasn't, the blame for his actions must be shared by the Commodore board of directors, for *allowing* him to lose Commodore millions, perhaps tens of millions, of dollars. As I pointed out above, it is *stupid* for Commodore to have not shipped LIVE, regardless of the (mysterious & unknown) reason. Look at what the LaserWriter has done for the Mac! Doug Merritt ucbvax!unisoft!certes!doug