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Author Topic: PC vs amiga pricing in the 80s and 90's. Were PC owners getting screwed?  (Read 15005 times)

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Offline the_leander

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Quote from: runequester;623767
So throughout the 80s, PC stuff was wicked expensive compared to buying an amiga. This persisted well into the 90s.


By 1994 for the price of an 040 A4000 you could pick up a PC that spanked it seven ways from sunday for the same price. Sure, the OS may well have sucked balls compared to AOS, but it got the job done.

I don't know about other markets, but by the time AGA Amigas came out, the market had already made huge strides both in terms of performance and value for money here in the UK to the degree that the Amiga really wasn't relevant any more.

Quote from: runequester;623767

I know amiga upgrades were pricey, but is there something I am missing, or was PC owners just being robbed?


New things cost more, as they become less of a niche the larger market drives costs down. Consider that you can now pick up GSM phones for £7 new in supermarkets here in the UK, to get the same capabilities 10 years ago when pay as you go cell phones first started getting popular you'd be looking at £60+.
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Alan Fisher - the_leander

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Offline the_leander

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Quote from: Khephren;624118
Well I was here in the UK, and that did not seem to be the case. Everyone I knew who owned Amigas were waiting for AGA, expecting to leap frog the PC again. It was a massive market that only dwindled after AGA, not before.


I'm not saying it didn't dwindle until after AGA's release and for sure, AGA was much anticipated by everyone within the Amiga scene. But despite the gritted teeth reviews, the fact was to anyone looking at the two platforms on their relative merits, it was blatantly clear the hardware in a PC was more than a match for the 040 A4000 and that was at launch. The 4000T only made the disparities all the clearer.

Quote from: Khephren;624118

 Magazine circulation reflects this as well. I'm pretty sure CU and AF had their biggest circulated figures in the AGA period. I'd like to hear what others in Europe think about the decline. (I know in the US Amiga was never dominant to begin with).


I've no doubt that the biggest circulation happened with the release of the A4000 and especially with the A1200. But at the same time PCs were being introduced into schools as standard, replacing mainstays such as the Acorn Archimedes in the education sector. Amiga was nowhere on the landscape by the time of the release of the CD32 as far as the wider IT industry was concerned.
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Alan Fisher - the_leander

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Offline the_leander

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Quote from: seer;624376
Betamax was more expensive then VHS, VHS won the battle because of;

longer recording time.
cheaper recorders.
more movies available.
sony trying (forcing) to set a standard with beta.


And the fact that porn was available on VHS.
Blessed Be,
Alan Fisher - the_leander

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