CompuServe Messages

Ben, We are definitely talking about two different markets right now. The market which you are most comfortable with is the personal computer market. The market which I'm describing is the personal workstation market. The hardware and software needs today definitely diverge one from the other. A few years ago, a C64 was sufficient for my computing needs. Later, I got an Amiga 1000 (1.5MB Ram, Sidecar, 30MB HD). A year ago, I got my Amiga 3000 (105mb HD, 14MB Ram, AMAX-II, XETEC CD-ROM, etc, Framebuffer, ad nauseum). I believe a trend exists. Either I am preoccupied with Amiga toys, my reliance on software tools is growing as life becomes more frantic, or all of the above. Here's my thesis: The trend is much more powerful computers are entering homes every year. This is a fact that is lost on IBM. Their approach to home computing is providing of subset of office capabilities in a home machine, aka PS/1 or PS/1.5. I believe consumers are smarter than that. Most folks who purchase a computer these days have used one at the office. They want to use the same software at home. It is important for them to take their floppy (5.25", 3.5", 360K, 720K, 1.2MB, 1.44MB) to and from work without data translation gyrations. IBM's principle strategy has been to play off the first time buyer's fear of computing. In the PS/1 literature, a very strong theme surfaces. Sell Big Blues image of standing behind the end user. Make service channels responsive and readily available (many locations over a large geographical area). With Sears as a vendor, they got half of the strategy right. The problem is: the first time buyer today is more sophisticated than the first time buyer of 10 years ago. Chances are, these consumers now know what criteria (hardware/software) to look for. They often consult friends who have machines. (The "safety in numbers" mentality is often a significant entry barrier for Amiga salespeople to overcome). Your idea of a standard bridgeboard is wonderful. Let's add VGA graphics [ MORE ]