CompuServe Messages

Mark, There are somewhere in the vicinity of 3 million A500's in existance, anyone who ignores that market is foolish in my opinion. As to owners investing in new hardware products for the A500…again, if their A500 does everything the owner wants… with a minor exception here and there, you bet I'd still reccomend them buying a hardware add-on. The exception would be, of course, when the add-on costs more than trading up to a newer model that includes the add-on. Personally…I wish the A500 had never seen the light of day. I thought that back when I was writing for TransAmi and said so. I've always believed that internal expansion and separated keyboards are the keys to success in professional applications. Attached external expansion units, with system-unit/keyboard in the same box (such as the A500) tend to attract an entirely different type of buyer. One who's more interested in entertainment than they are in productivity. Certainly there are exceptions…but on the whole, units like the A500 tend to attract game buyers while units like the A2000 (3000,4000) tend to attract those interested in more powerful applications. And yes, there certainly is crossover. Of course, the flip side of that coin is that the A500 may have been what kept the Amiga profitable..and thus may have allowed it to remain viable. Without the 500, there may not have been an Amiga today. Don