#Australia Upbeat!
Hi Allan, good to hear from you.
You have hit the nail on the head with your observation re the
generally poor displays in some retail stores. I agree that it does
not leave a good impression to see a computer that is not working
properly. But you have to agree that this problem is not limited to
the Amiga.
I have seen many PC's in terrible condition for display…and yes,
even the 'upmarket' Mac is not invulnerable to this type of neglect.
The guys in the store know that this is not on… after all, they
have to sell them…so they do try to ensure that stock is displayed
in a proper condition. However, if it is busy, the staff have an
obligation to look after customers first. They may fix the computer
after hours or when they get time, get it into working condition, put
demos on again etc. only to have some kid stuff it up first thing
next morning. If it is a busy day, that means the computer is in
poor condition for the rest of the day.
Overall, I am happy with the display quality here. It could be better
but I would much rather have the occasional poorly displayed Amiga
than no Amiga at all in these stores.
How to stop this display problem? The easy answer is to kill all
children<g>
As to the user groups leaving demos etc…I do that now. I make sure
they are installed and the sales staff are very appreciative. But
two weeks later…the disk has gone…the hard drive has been
formatted…the mouse has been stolen…etc.
As to software availability…I saw Amiga software support dwindle to
almost nothing over time. It has improved a lot and I am seeing a
lot more now than I did six months ago. The trouble is that the
software we are seeing is mostly games. What we need are some of the
more serious applications. But I would rather see games than nothing
at all.
As to feeling upbeat… Commodore have an excellent reputation in the
major retail marketplace in Queensland for great service and saleable
product. We are ranked equal with IBM and Apple in these
categories. I'm proud of that. Sure, there are some individual
stores who have staff that simply are not interested in the Amiga and
there are one or two who still say that Commodore sucks as a
company. But as I mentioned before…there is no one platform (or
company) that enjoys across the board enthusiasm.
Hey!…It could be worse! We could be Amstrad!<g>
As to WOC 94…I don't know.
Dallas