Amiga.org
Amiga computer related discussion => General chat about Amiga topics => Topic started by: CU_AMiGA on February 22, 2005, 03:56:58 PM
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Hey Yo!
Here is a very small list of the rights and wrongs during Commodore's history. Fell free to add!
What is right for Commodore is to release ground breaking machines such as: PET, VIC 20, C64, Amiga
What is wrong for Commodore is to release useless machines that offer little upgrade to previous machines at an alarming rate (A500+, CDTV, CD32, A600, C16, Plus/4, C128)
What is right for Commodore is to release their computers at a good and competitive price (considering their technology)
What is wrong for Commodore is commercially failing to promote the Amiga series of computers into making it an IBM/Apple beating computer blowing away all competition.
What is right for Commodore is releasing the more powerful and user friendly Amiga computers directly against the less powerful and less user friendly IBM PC.
What is wrong for Commodore is to the Amiga not compatible with the software used for IBM and thus, lacking any dominance in the business industry.
What is right for Commodore is to buy the Amiga technology off the sinking ship that is Atari.
What is wrong for Commodore is to choose to not update their Amiga series into a new platform and instead opting to release countless small upgrades and releasing new hardware too late.
Regards,
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Commodore's biggest problem in a nutshell was the corporate in-fighting that hamstrung the company to varying degrees over the years.
For reasons best known to the Commodore departmental heads, they chose to "supplement" the successful C64 with the Plus4 and C16, which were neither cross compatible nor any significant advance in technology. The latter machines weren't exactly a runaway sales success and drained valuable R&D expenditure.
The C128 was a logical step, but again in practice Commodore must have made the machine very expensive to manufacture thanks to it's dual architecture (It was fitted with a Z80 in order to run CPM).
Then we have the Amiga debacle. Commodore scored a great coup with the Amiga purchase, but singularly failed to invest in it's future until way too late. Competing Commodore PC projects led to reduced funding for Amiga R&D, hence the various hardware botches that you can still see today on your A4000.
Utimately, those held in favour with the management did quite well if the stories of alleged fund transfers into offshore accounts just prior to collapse are to be believed.