🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <267@gould.doc.ic.ac.uk> dcw@gould.UUCP (Duncan C White) writes:
>In article <10400@sunybcs.UUCP> leo@sunybcs.UUCP (Leo Wilson) writes:
>>In article <115@avsd.UUCP> govett@avsd.UUCP (David Govett) writes:
>>What has purchase price got to do with anything at all? "Geez, if I buy
>>this software I can save 19 man-hours per week (at $9.00/hr) for the next
>>two and a half years, but I'll pass because the initial cost is $200."
>>Makes LOTS of sense to me to pass it by...
>
>You appear to be talking, here, about BUSINESS USE of ST's.
>What about PERSONAL use - games playing, programming, music etc?
>I don't put a price on the time I spend on my HOBBY COMPUTER...
>so if I see a $200 package [for the sake of argument]
>I would want to be REALLY SURE that I was going to use it a lot.
>
>In fact, I probably wouldn't buy it - on cost grounds alone! - if it cost much
>more than 100 pounds.

And this is the reason that the ST will follow in the footsteps of the VIC-20,
TRS-80, and a slew of others.   There aren't enough computer buyers for the
number of computers trying to stay alive in this "home-computer" market. And
there certainly aren't enough ST software buyers in this market.  The ST is
relatively new "home" computer (compared to C-64, C-128 and PC Clones).  It has
a MUCH smaller installed base.  There's enough of these machines out there to
finance new software development.  Not so for the ST.

This is also the reason Atari is trying desperately to move into the "real"
computer business.   They're seeing devlopers drop off like long horns in
a snow drift.  But this brings us to the next point...

>Now, ok, the ST may be a good cheap small business machine - and Atari
>certainly seem to be targetting the desktop publishing market - but with
>the advent of cheap PC clones [Amstrad PC1512 at 400 pounds, for instance]
>the ST is going to have some stiff competition on price, to get into the
>business market.
>As many people have remarked, one of the ST's biggest problems [blocking
>its use in business] is being seen as a games machine.

Not only cheap PC clones, but what about real brand-name machines like
cheap Macs, cheap IBMs.  Atari is always advertising that the ST is so
much cheaper that IBM and Apple.  But how in the heack to they back that up?
A recent Atari Mega ST ad said that the Mega ST is "faster, more feature-rich
that a Mac SE.  For just about half the price."   How do they figure?
I'm not even a Mac fan, but realistically I'd have to say the SE has a lot
to offer compared to the Mega ST.  The SE has a real bus, with real (not
vaporware) boards I can buy today.  It has industry wide support.  It has
software that works in real world and is supportted by the vendors and the
industry.  etc. etc.   The Mega has a Atari proprietary bus that's never going
to have much hardware available for it (I' not going to hold my breath for
Atari to release something, and not too many big players in the hardware
dept. are going to develop something for an Atari computer (witness the
number of big-name software companies that have done Atari software).

Now what about the price.  I can buy a Mac SE with a 40MB hard disk for
about $2300.   If I could buy a Mega ST2, mono, it would cost me at least
$1200.  Then I need a 40MB hard disk.  Hummm... I don't see a 40MB HD on
my Atari Price list.  I guess I'll have to use a 3rd party.   (What exactly
do they mean by feature-rich?).  OK a Supra 40MB drive at my local dealer
is $995.  That makes a 40MB Mega ST2 mono. total system price of just about
$2200.  Wow a whole $100 savings over the Mac SE!  The ads always compare
list prices, but never talk about real-world prices.  Not to mention the
savings of a Mac Plus over a Mega ST!

The same comparison can be made with IBM PS-2 systems.  The Ataris aren't
really much cheaper, if at all, when you go out in the world and really
try to buy a system.

And of course the clones are usually way cheaper than an ST.  So how
does Atari back up what they claim in their ads?
-- 
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