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From: cmcmanis%pepper@Sun.COM (Chuck McManis)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: upgrading graphics on only the HIGH END machines
Message-ID: <59170@sun.uucp>
Date: 7 Jul 88 17:49:30 GMT
References: <3174@louie.udel.EDU> <58591@sun.uucp> <150@quintus.UUCP> <58810@sun.uucp> <660@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu>
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In article <660@osupyr.mast.ohio-state.edu> (Vidhyanath K. Rao) writes:
> I find all this sterotyping of 500 owners offensive. ...
> Please people, be more sensitive.

Since this was a follow up to my posting about the high end machines I 
am making the assumption that I was the one not being senstive. Sorry.

There are a couple of realites though, and more importantly, a couple
of _perceptions_ in the current Amiga market, that are driving the
software developers and buyers of Amiga equipment. When I said that
the developers tended to view the typical A500 owner as a cash poor
person, I labeled it as a perception. That means that people percieve
that it is true without having any true data to back it up. The other
perception is that the Amiga 2000 isn't selling very well and thus
it is not as valuable to write high priced software for this group as
it is for the Mac II say. Again, these are perceptions.

Vidhyanath chimed in with some very valuable marketing input to Commodore
which was essentially, "I want an Amiga, I don't want to pay for stupid
PC board slots, and I have the money to buy what I want even if you don't
sell it to me." Now most marketing people go crazy when they discover that
if they just modified their product plans a bit they could "capture" those
dollars you sent to a card cage maker for the 500. What that does is suggest
a product for Commodore, (if they will go with is highly unlikely). I call
this the "Mac Plus" killer, or the Amiga 1500.

The Amiga 1500, is an Amiga family machine with the extended chip set. 
It comes with 1 Megabyte of CHIP ram on the motherboard, 512K of Kickstart
ROM, a detached keyboard, one built in 3.5" floppy and one built in 3.5" 
bay which can hold either a hard disk or additional floppy. There is a 
DMA SCSI interface built onto the motherboard. On the back are connectors 
for a parallel port, serial port, SCSI disk, RGB video, composite video 
(color), stereo audio, and the coverplate for the internal Zorro II slot. 
mouse connectors are on the side and _no_ 86 pin expansion connector. 
Design is ergonomic with a keyboard "garage" and a tilt/swivel monitor
that sits on top. (The monitor is separate but the base is designed to
sit squarely on the top of the machine.)

The base price of the system unit with one floppy is $995. A complete
two floppy system sells for $1495, the hard disk system (w/40 Meg
hard disk) sells for $1895. This includes either an RGB "standard"
monitor, or a bi-sync greyscale monitor. High resolution color monitors
would of course be extra, but not more than another $250. 

Most people will of course want to expand this thing by plugging in a
memory card to the internal slot although the possibility is left open
for any Zorro II compatible card. Note the card would be "side" mounted
to minimize the elevation of this thing.

Well Commodore, you build one, and I'll buy it, I promise.

--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.