Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!cbmvax!daveh
From: daveh@cbmvax.UUCP (Dave Haynie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: "Units sold" numbers?
Message-ID: <4142@cbmvax.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jun 88 14:48:02 GMT
References: <2899@tekig5.TEK.COM>
Organization: Commodore Technology, West Chester, PA
Lines: 49

in article <2899@tekig5.TEK.COM>, wayneck@tekig5.TEK.COM (Wayne Knapp) says:
> Keywords: Amiga sales, //GS sales

> In article <350@pedro.UUCP>, pete_ashdown@pedro.UUCP (Pete Ashdown) writes:

> My hunch is that the current Amiga's and Atari's will never catch up to the
> PC and Mac market.  

I expect there are somewhere around 12 million PC[lone] machines.  I wouldn't 
expect Amiga, Atari, Mac, or even C64/C128 (currently in second place) to catch
up, given the likely PC market over the next few decades.  Just goes to show
you, you really can fool most of the people most of the time, if you're big
enough.

> Maybe some new machines might, but right now the PC market
> seem to be doing great, and the Mac has very, very strong WORLD WIDE interest!

When I was last in Japan, about all you saw anywhere were Japanese PC[lones].
In all of Aki-Habara, no C64s, no Ataris, one place had a lone Mac.  Our Commodore 
people there couldn't get any C64 software in Japan.  Game software was mainly for 
the Nintendo "Family Computer", which is basically the Nintendo video game that's 
in the states these days.  IBM was trying really hard, and had one or two Japan-only
versions of their PC (the one I saw came with 3.5" disks, this back in '85 or so).  
I expect Macs are really catching up by now, just because they can handle Kanji and 
other Japansese character sets better than PCs.  And because Apple's put the effort 
into making software really work with these sets.  For the same reason, last I was 
in Taiwan, it really looked like Macs were making a dent in the PC market, at least 
by all outward appearances.

> If the Amiga is going to survive my bet is that it will be Amiga 2000 and 
> better machines.  The Amiga 500 and Atari ST both have the same problem of
> being not quite enough and a little hard to expend. (Hard means $$$)  And
> neither company has Apple's marketing.  Everyone has heard of Apple and
> IBM, can't say that for anyone else.  

A recent poll in West Germany, something on the order of "When you think of 
computers, who comes to mind", had the name "Commodore" come out on top.  On
the other hand, the 68000 based Mac costs more than a low-end Sun in West Germany,
and is really only gaining ground in France (possibly helped by it's built-in
monitor -- France uses Secam instead of PAL video).  Of course, you'll see the
Commodore name everywhere in Germany, too.  Anyone who watches European soccer
will probably notice this.

>                                       Wayne Knapp

-- 
Dave Haynie  "The 32 Bit Guy"     Commodore-Amiga  "The Crew That Never Rests"
   {ihnp4|uunet|rutgers}!cbmvax!daveh      PLINK: D-DAVE H     BIX: hazy
		"I can't relax, 'cause I'm a Boinger!"