Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!sundc!pitstop!sun!pepper!cmcmanis From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: upgrading graphics on only the HIGH END machines Message-ID: <58591@sun.uucp> Date: 30 Jun 88 18:14:34 GMT References: <3174@louie.udel.EDU> Sender: news@sun.uucp Reply-To: cmcmanis@sun.UUCP (Chuck McManis) Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mountain View Lines: 62 In a previous article I wrote : >The original suggestion though bears repeating, lets get more colors >even if it is only in the 'high end' machines. In article <3174@louie.udel.EDU> jedi@clark-emh.arpa commented: > Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the amiga?? Have all these nice > capibilities in a 'LOW END' machine??? That's one of the reasons that > I'm sure many people picked it. I know that I did. And the answer in my opinion is no. There is a fundamental tradeoff in the industry between features/price. You or I can easily name a computer and a price that are impossible to meet. Unfortunately, many computer users don't realize when they have done this. If had a nickel for every time someone said "All I want is 16 colors on a 1K by 1K screen for under $2000." not realizing that 19" monitors that can do 16 colors in a 1K by 1K format *cost* $2000, I could buy an A500 by now. Add the computer and you are looking at another two to four kilobucks. Amigas are the same way. Commodore puts the most it can into an Amiga 500 and sells it for the least it can and still provide enough income to fund a relatively small amount of R&D. (Relative to most other computer companies) If they were a 'PC clone' maker they wouldn't need *any* software people because all of the software R&D is "free" from IBM and others. They could beef up their R&D staff if they had some high margin products generating the income, yet they can't get away with charging the prices that Apple charges so they are kind of stuck no? So the basis for my original statement above is as follows. Commodore is driven by low-end users. That is their big market and they cannot ignore it. But they also have a small base of "high end" users who are willing to pay $2,000 to $4,000 for a system if it provides the power they need to stay with the Amiga. So take the following senario; Commodore develops a 'dual Denise' that is part original Denise and part RAMDAC. This pair of chips can be plugged into an Amiga and give it 256 out of 16,000,000 colors (THIS IS ALL HYPOTHETICAL). The cost of this chipset to the end user will be $300. "Acack! Pthpft!" you say, because you only paid $600 for the entire computer ! "I'd never pay that!" you say. Well that seems to be the way Commodore thinks, but they don't take into account that *I WILL* pay that to get more colors. I'm not a starving college student and will continue to invest in my Amiga(s) as long as Commodore is willing to carry them to where I want them to go. (At least one branch of them) So my plea to Commodore to not ignore us high-end users who aren't cheap and are willing to pay the price (within reason) to make our systems as powerful as possible. If I were to guess, I would say this is the *only* thing holding back the Commodore 68020 board. Or more succinctly, Commodore saying to itself "Gee, we're going to need to sell this board for $2000 for it to be any sort of success, and yet most of what we are selling are Amiga 500's for under $1000. Who's going to buy this thing?" And the answer is the power users out there, those people who want to show the Mac II folks what an Amiga can do when similarly equipped, and wipe the smug look clean off their face. This is of course a product marketing issue and Commodore has been rather poor in doing any sort of product marketing. Hopefully, that will improve. Something must be working as their stock was over $13 a share yesterday. --Chuck McManis uucp: {anywhere}!sun!cmcmanis BIX: cmcmanis ARPAnet: cmcmanis@sun.com These opinions are my own and no one elses, but you knew that didn't you.