Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ihnp4!upba!eecae!conklin From: conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin) Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.8bit Subject: Comdex report Summary: Just great... Keywords: 8bits Comdex none Message-ID: <8254@eecae.UUCP> Date: 12 May 88 15:39:34 GMT Reply-To: conklin@eecae.UUCP (Terry Conklin) Organization: Michigan State Univ., Engineering, E. Lansing Lines: 39 Well after 2 days at Comdex, we got our work done early and came home so I thought you might be interested at what was news. Atari was there, on the floor with a relatively large booth. This is a very serious attempt at marketing because even a small 10 x 10 booth will cost a company upwards of $40,000 to put up, and Atari's booth was about 40 x 40. The Atari booth had Mega ST's everywhere. Almost every display was a Mega, except for an occasional 1040. After searching the entire booth, I finally asked and found that Atari did not have a _single_ 8 bit on display. On the other hand, Atari did have a '286 AT compatible on display, and a couple of the Atai Laserprinters. I didn't notice them in operation but I was very busy at the time. Neil Harris was there, and so I asked about his presence on the net. His presence or lack of is simply a matter of time. He logs on to things about 4 (?) times a week these days. He did mention that several people in engineering log on, so ifyou guys are out there, please speak up. As for products at the show? I wasn't really looking. I just kept thinking about the thousands of people back home with 8bits. But we've gotten to the point where millions count. One thing that Neil Harris did mention that I thought was interesting. 8 bits still account for a meaningful amount of sales, largely because they are being sold to (suprise!) Poland now. I think something like 100,000 units sold in Poland or such. Interesting. Such was excitement. Sorry I don't have more, but Comdex is a big show and the few minutes I spent at the Atari booth was probably the most I spent at any single vendor. Terry Conklin ihnp4!msudoc!conklin (517) 372-3131 3/12/2400 (313) 334-8877 3/1200