Rumor Update
11 messages in this thread
>> >>"Is it needed ? Does anyone really care ?"
>> I care for reasons I am not completely sure of! Perhaps I'm taking it
>> personally, or perhaps I'm REALLY tired of technically more advanced
>> things getting pelted by marketing hype and consumer ignorance.
>> The "professional" image seems to have an important bearing in the
>> computer market place. Maybe that's why lots of Amiga users get upset
>> when their computer is called "that game machine!"
It's not so bad that our computer gets sneered at by others. We are guilty of
the same offense. However, when a computer has a rep of being "only a game
machine". The developers of productivity softeware tend to give it short
shrift. If a Clone user thinks my machine is beneath him/her, I could care
less. When Borland, Lotus, Word Perfect, Aldus, and Autodesk think my computer
is beneath them, then it hurts.
"When Borland, Lotus, Word Perfect, Aldus, and Autodesk think my computer
is beneath them, then it hurts."
I don't think that any of those companies believe that the Amiga is
beneath them. They are marketing monsters and nothing else. If there were
60 million Amiga's out there in the hands of user's, I could guarantee we
would have Lotus 123, WordPerfect, MicroSoft Word, etc. But there is not,
never will be, and we have to make due with what we have already. There is
some very nice Amiga software out there, and just because it's not made by
WordPerfect make it any less powerful or useful.
// John (Speeding on the Information Superhighway)
\X/ Mercury@ins.infonet.net
> There is some very nice Amiga software out there, and just because
> it's not made by WordPerfect make it any less powerful or useful.
It's true that it doesn't make Amiga software any less useful. But remember
that WordPerfect and Microsoft have the resources to put in complex features.
Features that the typical home owner might not need, but that many business and
professional people do.
Because Microsoft and Wordperfect are battling for a market worth hundreds of
millions of dollars a year, they are each trying to out do each other. They
can afford to dedicate many independant teams working on different features.
A small-time Amiga developer may be constrained by how many people he can
afford to hire. If he wants three new features he will have to choose which
single feature he will do for this release rather than getting all three.
MicroSofts feature mania leads to negatives also. Code bloat, bugs as software
is rushed to market, etc.
I happen to only need a simple word proccesor, but many of my co-workers would
shrival up and die, if they didn't have these fancy nifty features.
Don't knock the effect software has on computer buyers. People buy computers
for the software, not the hardware. I have a problem to solve and if I belive
that MicroShaft has the solution, I have to buy a computer that runs it. The
Apple II was _made_ by people who had to get VisiCalc. they did not care what
brand computer it was, they lusted after this new "spreadsheet" thing.
—– Andrew
Remember that Word Perfect and Microsoft are spending much more on trying to
compete with each other in marketing terms than they are on the relative merits
of their respective software products.
Lee Bosch
I'd be willing to be that either Word or WP has more active, full-time
programmers on that single program than there are active full-time
programmers dedicated to all Amiga applications combined.
So who cares whether they spend more on marketing or features? They're
still spending a lot on features.
Note, however, that most single Amiga programmers are about 10 times as
productive as most of those PC programmers. In part because the people
who choose the Amiga tended to be a little brighter (if possessed of less
business-sense 🙂 and in part because we don't have to worry about
issues brought on by 1970s processor technology, or compatibility with
4300 different video, I/O and other cards, or lack of a real OS.
—
Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
>>Wordperfect and Microsoft have the resources to put in complex features
/\
||_Have you checked out Final Writer by Softwood? It has the features to
match the best of PC software…
**Amiga AutoPilot engaged, ejecting IBM and MAC waste**
Nathan Jones (the ALIEN)
Oh no. Not this again.
Put simply, Word or WP beats the living crap out of Final Writer. I have
WP on my OS/2 PC (used to have Word), but that is for my girlfriend. I
choose to use Final Writer out of stubborness, not out of any superiority
of FW over any current high-powered word processors on other platforms.
—
Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing
Marketing monsters, eh?
These are public companies, John, that have responsibilities to their
shareholders. Allocating R&D resources to doing Amiga versions of their
packages would be irrational. All of these companies need all the resources
they can muster just to remain competitive in the PC and Mac markets. Borland,
if you hadn't noticed, is close to bankruptcy. Some marketing monster. Aldus
is in the process of being acquired by Adobe. Lotus is riding high with Notes
in particular, which would be completely inappropriate for the Amiga. Lotus
has also stopped all Macintosh development because they even view that market
as too small and that market is 3 times the size of the Amiga market in total
numbers, and a zillion times bigger in terms of the percentage of machines used
by businesses. WordPerfect already had a go (albeit a strange go) at the Amiga
market. And finally, there's AutoDesk. This company would probably have been
the most likely to do an Amiga product given its graphical slant, but again, I
guess they saw the market potential as too small.
These companies aren't marketing monsters, John, they're making the best
business decisions they know how to. If you hadn't noticed, there are NO
publicly traded Amiga third party vendors. That's not to say that they made a
bad decision by developing for the Amiga. Of course a bunch of companies have
grown in the Amiga market, many from nothing. This is great. But large
vendors have to stick with mainstream vendors.
Did you hear the rumor about the secret Microsoft marketing plan code-named
"Scorched Earth"? After Chicago hits, they release a $99 CDROM containing
ready-to-run versions of Word, Excel, Access, and Bookshelf. Low price,
copy-protected by the CDROM, no hard disk space needed. Borland, Lotus and WP
roll over and die within months… 🙂
John,
Egads! Must be a really good rumor! Unfortunately, my role here prevents me
from expressing my opinion on the idea.
Regards,
John Chang
Technical Support Manager
Scala, Inc.
Seems expected. Effective price of PC software keeps comming down and
down. Most people can get Word or WordPerfect for $99 now, so in a year
or two, Word + other software for $99 seems reasonable.
Borland, Lotus and WP probably don't roll over and die as a result. $99
doesn't get you tech support (at least, not at a reasonable level), nor
does it overcome investment you might have in 1-2-3 macros or similar ties
to other software. So Borland, Lotus and WP probably start offering a
base CD-ROM bundle without support or docs, too, and continue to sell to
corporate America at the same old price.
—
Dale L. Larson, Intangible Assets Manufacturing