Open Letter to CBM
7 messages in this thread
Charles, AMEN! I was hoping someone else would see the stupidity of an
"integrated" software package for Amiga! What you end up with is the worst
of all choices, not the best. Let the user decide what he needs. This is
a multitasking computer, no need to be saddled with what someone else
thinks is "good enuf".
-sja
Steve,
In your reply to Charles Hill, you agreed with him that Amiga doesn't truly
need an integrated software package like MS-Works because our Amy
multitasks. Here's the problem:
1. Customers want MS Works. What customers? Customers with million
dollar budgets, i.e. the Indiana Department of Education amongst others. Is
this bad? Read on.
2. The job of marketing is two-fold:
a. Act as liaison for the company in sensing what customers want and
then helping the company in its strategy of obtaining greater market share.
b. Shaping the marketplace through information (advertising) and other
product awareness strategies. We know what advertising is, but what are
other strategies? Remember the genesis of microwave ovens? Amana spent
millions selling microwaves at 85% of their cost to manufacture in order to
grow the market. They spent time and money on training a professional
RETAIL sales force, i.e. the distribution channel. The invested in cooking
schools for training new owners. (Unfortnately, Japan waxed Amana. It
went from an early lead of 65% market share to almost nil in a few years).
3. Brand awareness can have spill-over effects. People may have a neutral
attitude to Commodore and a PC Clone maker. They may have positive
feelings toward Microsoft. They may ask a question like, "Can I buy MS
Works for the Amiga. for the PC?" Charles and Steve, this really does
happen more times than I'd like to remember.
I respect where you're coming from but understand that in the scheme of
things, it is the marketplace that determines the right course.
Hal Grigdesby, Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University
– via Whap!
Excellent points. It's so easy to say "But we have better hardware", but
without a base of recognized "heat-shrink" products, the system doesn't
compete.
Commodore has 2 areas where they can compete:
1. Home (entertainment) PC's…
2. Video PC's for video production.
In Europe most of the disk based entertainment $$$ goes to Amiga.
I wish the US organization stopped worrying about productivity software and
went after the home market (and also a seperate effort to the Video
market).
William Volk
I wouldn't worry about it. They haven't started being concerned about real
software yet, they must be light years from being concerned about games.
:^)
CBM != marketing.
–Ben
Harold, If customers want MicroSoft Works on an Amiga they have no idea at
all what the Amiga is all about. Positive feelings about MicroSoft? Not
in the real world. All you have to do is look at AmigaBasic, Windows, etc.
In a multitasking system you put together your own "integrated" environment
based upon your needs, not someone's else's idea of what you need.
-sja
Steve,
About MS Works, my customers must come from a different world than you,
Steve. Oops, there goes my sense of humor again. Sorry.
Hal Grigdesby, Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University
– via Whap!
NO! It is not the marketplace the determines the "right course". It's is
the marketplace that put MSDOS up as the leader, arguably a terrible thing
to do. Face it: The marketplace is sheep, in large general terms.
Odds are extremely good that the right course will not be followed, and
that's exactly what you're talking about here. Works on the Amiga is like a
feedbag on a motorcar. We don't NEED that old stuff; if the farmer doesn't
think the car will run very long without a feedbag, the farmer is wrong,
and is not determining the "right course". He's ignorant, and *somebody*
ought to tell him he needs gas, not oats.
You, as someone who is in marketing, exemplify the problem. Your goal isn't
related to moving forward, doing things better. You want works because
there is a perception there that you want to meet, in order to satisfy a
completely erroneous perception, rather than fix the perception.
Works is completely out-powered by existing Amiga software, and
out-integrated, too. The Amiga market should not need it. The only reason
it does is because the consumer isn't clued in, and no one has been
able/willing to clue them in.
Even if such a product were to be written for the Amiga, the exact same
product mind you, it would be separate programs, because that's the right
way to do it.
MSS's Platinum Works is a case in point. MSS is, at best, known as a
mediocre company with mediocre products. It is to be expected that a
product like Platinum Works would emit from there. But look CLOSE at
Platinum works. Separate programs, that use the Amiga's clipboard facility
to cut/paste/etc data between the modules. That's how to do it. Not with
some humongous fudge-up of one big program, IE MS Works.
Arghh. Double Arggh.
–Ben