I have to disagree that the Amiga never competed on price. It always did. Comparing it to the Spectrum/64 - still available at the A1000 introduction is unfair. You have to compare them to the 8-bit machines at the introductory price of those older machines, and to contemporary mac/pc hardware. I paid about $1500 for my 1000 in 87 or so...
The problem with the whole situation back then is that Commodore needed a drop in replacement for the Commodre 64 for mass retail, that's what retailers wanted. Something that could hold up against PC's and Nintendo... A refresh item around 87-89. Commodore never delivered one... by then the Amiga was not marketed as a MASS item. That one mistake (and many others) brought down the house of cards.
They had a sterling reputation of a runaway mass market hit... the ipod of it's day and made one critical mistake.
I've spoken to retailers and toy experts who just shake their heads in disbelief when they think about that...They had prime shelf space that YOU NEVER GIVE UP.. that's like rule #1.
