CompuServe Thread

I'm gonna have to agree with most of what Wayne has said. I was gullible enough to believe NewTek's RSN's of two years ago. I've seen the Toaster in most of its incarnations at various shows. I've had NewTek people tell me in person over a year ago that the Toaster "would be shipping in 2-3 months". In the meantime, I've spent about $20,000 on other equipment to do what the Toaster was/is supposed to do. As far as RAD goes, I'm sure that he's a very nice person, but I haven't seen anything new on this forum that adds anything to the "NewTek party line". I also wonder what the criteria is for someone on CIS to use a pseudonym. I thought you had to use your real name.

You must have mis-read the message. I was not attacking Mr. Moose – the crack about his special treatment (fictitious name allowed) was an allusion to how the old medicine show psychology is still at work in the electronic age – we tend to give the guy with the "magic" all kinds of breaks no one else gets. This is not an attack on the man with the "magic" – it is an amusing (to me) observation of how the mesmerised crowd "makes allowances". The other point you completly missed is probably one that most westerners will never get. Newton understood the principle in physics. Vedic seers and other astute observers of human nature understood it in psychic terms: the harder you push from the right, the more resitance you get from the left. So here we have NewTek (through the good offices of the Moose) pushing so very hard on the late (pun intended) great toaster, and people like Mr Forcade pushing right back with the anger of betrayal. Now, apparently they don't allow pets in the board room at NewTek, otherwise Mr. Moose would not have made the statement about "no press releases or advertisments…" as he would have known about the ads that say, "If you wnat a Toaster then get your bread ready…" and the back-to-back articles on the Toaster, one by Tim Jenison (Mr. Moose MUST know him, right?) in AVID, the Amiga Video Journal. So I've not actually attacked the Moose (I deplore hunting – its horribly inhumane and unsporting). I may have teased a little. But that is because there is this technically savvy quadruped trying to dance to the toaster tune in the marketdroid arena. The effect is not necessarily a postive one for him, NewTek or the Toaster. Let me be blunt. CBM does not discuss 1.4, ECS, the 3000 etc etc for just this reason: premature discussion INEVITABLY leads to some frustration/disallusionment in the prospective market. Therefore it is best to say nothing until the day the product hits the streets. Virtuall every company does business this way. SoftLogik did not. Look at the mess they

[ continuation ] went through with the first two releases of PageStream. Whether you are a freind of SoftLogik or not you have to admit there was incredible resentment at the way it turned out after two years of hearing about it prior to its actual release. I was also involved with a company that had a dynamite demo unit that they went to sale with before it was ready and the company is now out of business due to dashed hopes and customer frustration. NewTek has demoed but not sold the product. Frustration is building as is evident by the messages here. My point was to say, "hey, Moose, enough with the Toaster – stick to stuff that exists and is in the hands of consumers now. Let the Toaster speak for itself when it gets released." Betty, you know that a bad thought harbored has sme force. A bad thought spoken has incredible force. Not so much for the listener as the speaker. If Rad just quits talking about the Toaster, there will be less opportunity for the Mr. Forcades to vent their frustration and thus make them less likely to buy when it is released. The other point that had nothing to do with the Moose (as he is a technical type and technical types like to share too much to be good business types, right?) is the apparent NewTek strategy to keep other developers at bay in this arena by appearing to be RSN to Toaster release. It is a very basic business strategy, but one you can only get away with once. In an infant business sector like Amiga hardware/software was in '78 and '88, such posturing may have prevented, say Micro Way, or some other PC/Mac developer from comeing to the AMiga market with a similar product because the cost of beating a company that is just about to release would be to high and the venture too riskey in such a limited market. The point I was making was that what worked well to keep the competion at bay may, if strung out much longer, damage seriuosly the market NewTek is trying to save for themselves. Not only NewTek but the Amiga and its users would suffer. I thought it was worth pointing out in case it had not been a concious strategy on NewTek's part. Having a wonderful product is nice, but you still need to sell it. There are people (as one message indicated) who have given up on NewTek and gone to other platforms and suppliers. I see nothing wrong in reminding NewTek of that from time to time. At some point you have to release, even if its Toaster jr. The problem with talking and showing is that expectations get built up that make it more difficult to actually release as the product needs constant rework to meet the latest level of expectation. And hardware cannot be developed that fast! (Niether can complex software packages). I have no stake in this matter. If the Toaster came out today it would make no difference to me other than the effect it had on those who consider the Amiga a game machine. However, if they wait another year it may not be any big deal as the "other guys" may beat them to market. After all, them other guys is smart 'cause they don't genrally give advanced notice on stuff (they learned after one or two bad experiences) they just spring it on ya!! I think if you go back and read my previous message as coming from a disinterested observer (from a loss or gain point of view) perspective you will get a whole different (and the intended) meaning of the message instead of viewing it as an attack on an individual.