What would have kept Commodore alive? Tough question. I think its a range of things
1. Not having paid so much for Amiga. I know, we all love Amiga and are probably happy that they got the money per share they got. But Commodore should have known they were in a weak position. They didnt have the money to pay Atari and were about to lose their work. They did not have to pay so much for Amiga which would have left more money for advertising which is something that would have helped more more product as well as for further development post aquisition.
2. Not sitting on development while other companies are moving forward around you. Amiga 1000, 500/2000, 3000 all are not a large change from the 1000. The 3000 timeframe should have have been when the 1200/4000 were released. Histories seem to show that they could have been released in that timeframe but mismanagement caused delays. 1200/4000 in the 3000 timeframe could have put the AAA machines in the 1200/4000 timeframe and Hombre/move to standardizided PCI type hardware in the bankruptcy timeframe. Not sitting on the original Jay Miner group chipset for so long would have kept Amiga competitive and ahead of Mac/PC for a much longer time.
3. Don't compete with people with lowest install base. The fighting with Atari was a fight for last place. Winning against the person at the back of the race still puts you at the back. Amiga 1000 should have been positioned against the Mac at a minimum (color and multitasking vs black and white and single tasking) not the IIGS and STs which were on life support from their birth.
4. Don't cancell things that will sell! When your own people are already getting orders for the LCD which is not on sale yet it shows there is a market hungry for it. Don't decide based on a competitor not to bother selling it when you already have spent to make it and almost have it ready for market.
5. Don't compete against yourself. C64 vs Plus/4, Amiga 2500 vs 3000, 500 vs 600. They should have been more carefull not to position products in the same market for the same price, and not even waste time developing products that would end up if released in the same price point and market C65 vs 500. It confuses customers and a confused customer is free to go elsewhere.
6. Educate your customers. "an educated consumer is our best customer". Don't assume people will realize what good multimedia, multitasking, Object Oriented Programming (Amiga Vision) etc is. Teach them what these things are and why they need it, and that your competition doesn't have it. Don't just expect the word to sell your product for you.
