European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 12, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes cafes explains Amiga computer decision i in reference to it. Col. Charlie White s he cafes Europe answer to a writer s plea for the Amiga 500, White spoke without knowledge concerning the Avail ability of High profile software. Perhaps he asked he Apple sales representative i there arc in Cal Many hundreds of excellent commercially produced programs for the several Amiga models in existence. On top of this Here Are thou Sands of useful Public Domain programs written for this High . Having recently arrived Here from the United Stales 1 assure you thai there Are hundreds of Amiga users groups nationwide and excellent availability of software from to forefront and mail order suppliers t Welcome the Opportunity to provide cafes with the multiple Page listings i be received. While i agree that Commodore has an abysmal marketing plan cafes clearly limits computer selection Here and in the United states. Capt Keenan Kline Wiesbaden West Germany i am president of the Commodore computer users group Heidelberg. A recent letter requested information about when cafes planned on carrying the Amiga computer by Commodore. The answer was based on erroneous in formation. One Point made was that the Amiga computer did not have a measurable Market share in the United states. Commodore has currently sold More computers than any other computer company in the world bar none. This year alone according to Commodore s financial report its third financial Quarter resulted in sales of sioo.3 million. That is with a profit of $9.6 million. For the first three quarters Commodore sales amounted to s6ss.9 million with profits of 143,6 Mil lion t realize that this also includes sates of the c64 and the c128 but Commodore s ceo Irving Gould pointed out that the Amiga accounted for 45 percent of Commodore s sales. With the cafes base Price of an Amiga 500 at $579 with 512 Kab ram a Speed of 7.16, full size keyboard with numeric Keypad mouse built in operating sys tem built in 3.5 drive and some of the Best color graphics available on a Home computer this is one of the Best buys in the Home computer Market today. Obviously cafes customers feel that it is a Good buy also. If la col. White would Check with the exchanges that have carried the Amiga 500 and 2000 so far he would find that it is hard to keep them in Slock because they sell out so fast. In fact the Only software problem Amiga owners have Here in Europe is the Lack of software available through cafes. When pressured the Heidelberg sight and sound Center admitted that it had some software in the asked Why it was t put out for the customer the answer was. Well we Don t have the computer in Slock yet so we re not Gonna put out the unfortunately what happens is thai when the software is finally put on the shelf it is old and All the Amiga owners have already mail ordered it from the United Stales. Another problem is that most sight and sound centers Don t put the Amiga software in any specific area. Dennis l. No president Commodore computer users group the december Issue of Amiga world listed 665 different software titles. This included High profile software such As databases spreadsheets desktop pub Lishing word processing including word perfect and productivity packages Tor business applications. Doz ens of new programs have been released since then. Geoffrey m. Chandler Heidelberg West Germany is it just me or does someone in the cafes Europe pen pals system not like Commodore computers i seems that the Supply of Commodore computers other than the c64 is very limited compared to other brands for example the Apple and the ism clone currently sold by cafes Europe. Yes the Supply of Amiga software is limited compared to that of ism and Apple but then again the Amiga is a much younger system. In the july 88 Issue of Amiga world there Are nearly 700 disks of Public Domain software available plus numerous other sources for entertainment financial management word processing cad software Etc. If Amiga computers produced by Commodore do not have i measurable Market share in the United states Why Are they planning to introduce three new Amiga systems in he near future Commodore also makes a very Good ism pc it compatible the Commodore Colt. Cafes Berlin received five of these computers. They went on Sale on a thursday and by saturday morning the last one was sold. Even though none of the Amiga 300 and 2000s was received by the Berlin store it should be obvious that there is a Market for Amiga and Colts in cafes europ. Why can t the cafes Supply system keep up with this demand there never seems to be a shortage of he very expensive ism clones and Apple computers but you have to hit it just right to get a Good More reason ably priced Commodore computer. After Reading several information articles and As Sessing my own needs i have decided to buy the Amiga 2000.1 now have the Money and i will get the computer thai i want. Unfortunately since cafes does t seem to be Able to meet he demand for this product and because the Berlin store never received the computers we were told they would 1 will be purchasing my computer from another source. Cafes will have lost another Large Sale. Tech. Sgt. Christopher f. Reynolds Berlin. The response stated that the Amiga line would be distributed on a trial basis at several cafes exchanges throughout Europe including Berlin there s Onty one Smair problem none is available in Berlin. I be done some checking and have found that a sizable Quantity was delivered to cafes Europe but none made it Here despite the fact that the Berlin Exchange was on the list As a test store to determine customer response. In fact the Hahn Exchange received both the Amiga 500 and 2000 even though it was not on the 11st Why one reason Given for the test marketing concept was that sales figures showed that the Amiga was receiving a rather lukewarm response from the Amer ican consumer May i ask then Why was there not a test marketing of Floc Cordata ism compatible to Tell the truth i had never heard of Cordata before seeing it in my Exchange. Was it locked just to satisfy the Call for an ism compatible if so then Why effectively duplicate the Stock with the Tandy ism compatible even i can see the logic in being hesitant to Slock a product that May or May not be accepted by the consumer. However the Amiga 500 was selected As the editor s Choice Best new Low Cost computer in the december 1987 edition of com Pulcer can the Cordata or the Tandy boast the same claim. It appears that cafes is a victim of false information. I Don t know where cafes Europe gets it. But it need Onty ask its counterparts cafes conus and cafes far East. The demand for the Amiga is so great they can t keep it in Stock the pulse of Floc Market is found in the consumer not the seller. Richard a. Basrak Berlin since cafes started stocking the Amiga line at selected locations it is unable to keep up with Cus Tomer demand. This fact is borne out by multiple trips throughout Germany by our members trying to obtain hardware and software. The most common answer to our futile visits is we had some but we re sold out now. We should be getting More some Here at shape in our club alone there arc 30amiga owners. You slated in your answer that your test will last two months. It is ridiculous to attempt to ascertain a demand in such a Short period. We feel that such a Short attempt could potentially scare off customers because you May not continue to support what you arc Selling. Currently we have Only two sources for the Amiga line cafes Germany and unreliable mail order. Aren t you committed to providing the scr inc member with the Best service available make a solid commitment to support the Amiga. The demand is there. Sgt Douglas g. On shaped Belgium Amiga users croup editor s note it. Cd. Charlie White pub Lic affairs officer he makes Europe replies please allow me to set the record straight. Currently leg of Amiga occupy less than 2 percent of he Market share in the United states. There ii no doubt Amiga accounted for 45 percent of Commodore s sales but Hen Commodore did not ship lot of its products other than Amiga in the last part of 1987 and the first part of 988. Concerning . Market shares ism delivered More than 1 million personal computers last year. Compaq Tandy Kipro Ordala and others delivered Mart than 1 million units Apple is estimated id have delivered at least 700,000, but actual figures it not available. In addition. Atari Commodore and other producers delivered a Large number of computers hut not a significant amount of the total Market share. There is software available for the Amiga ind cafes Europe can Supply most of what is available. The fact is when compared to the availability of Apple or ism software the lilt of what is available for the Amiga is limited. For example the Catalon of Apple ii programs is about 2 inches thick listing thousands of programs. The Catalon of ism software is even larger. The programs which serve As a Benchmark for qual Ity arc simply not available for the Amiga. These in clude Lotus base Iii Microsoft word symphony Milt male and others. We stand by our statement that there is Little High profile software for he am lab at the present time. Right now cafes is the Only mass merchandiser or Large department store that carries the Amiga. Mast lire sold through Small chains and specially shops. Sales do Well where then is � user group in the area to promote and encourage the use of the product. The largest group we Are aware of h in Lowry fab Colo. Cafes Europe elected to carry the Cordate computers to fill a demand forms Dos. This system is the one used by ism and ism compatible computers. Our current shortage of the Amiga 500 Sterns from the fact that some stores went ahead and ordered the system even though they were not included in the test program. The Amiga series does have some interesting tech Nical features. These features contributed to the makes decision to offer these two items. It is much too Early to evaluate the demand for this product since there is limited sales history available in cafes Europe As previously stated if there is a sufficient de Mand for this Brand and Model cafes will is with any other product continue to offer the item. In the Long run the customer decides what will be continued in our facilities. If customers show they like an item by purchasing it we will continue id Stock the product. I a ept ii Artim Wold i Uit u Rud a puck Wail Myrr in to Incani Irun. Or Nulyn spam i Fern 9 ind i in uric. Ming. Rudig Nugio Nii handwriting twi. Erny Tut quiz Doutt $11111, m in Juda my rum in your pan Peri Duran. I Wou dirt in Virji fran in net a world am f. Nccornb2gnoiii5l do mail the p i i. Dot 121omwuf. All. 3503 1 would pin Pitt my Houm in singing pm a Kwh Inisi Mif Ngi ii pkwy poit Urdi ind pm pit. I Ilo of to ten move i. Witch of melt to and fed. 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