[Amigajay]

Originally Posted by rare_j

People at the time didn't want an A500 with a cd rom any more than they wanted a megadrive with a cd rom.
It turns out what they really wanted was a playstation.

Yeah i remember wanting a Playstation in 1992

Originally Posted by Korodny

Yeah, but at that time, Commodore was already desperately trying to get rid of its CDTV stock, since it was a massive commercial failure.

Not in early 1992 when they u-turned and rebranded as the Amiga CDTV, they were still pushing it, after Xmas 1992 then yeah they knew the writing was on the wall.

Originally Posted by Korodny

And I don't think Amiga CDs were common in 1992? The way I remember it, CDs only became popular - mostly as PD collections initially, i.e. Frozen Fish, then Aminet - after Commodore was gone. I probably would have taken the A500/600 in 1992

They weren’t that common in 1992 no, but after Commodore was gone as you say in 1994 they were all over the place. The collection discs were the best value so i guess thats why they became the most popular.

Originally Posted by Korodny

My source is Bagnall's "The Final Years", according to which the announced US launch price for the CD-i was $700, while the CDTV launched at $1000 - and since it cost Commodore nearly $490 to make, they were expecting to loose money with each unit sold at that price point.

Sorry but he is wrong with that the US CD-i launch price, do a bit of searching online through old newspapers/mags will show the launch price of $999, plus Philips released a press release a year later stating a price drop from that launch price ‘Effective August 17, 1992, Philips reduce price of CD-i from $999 to $699’
The net is full of sites with misinformation, wikipedia being one of them, one site even states the CD-i 450 player came out in 1991 for $699! The fact it came out in 1994 for $399 shows you they did no research at all!

Originally Posted by Korodny

The high price is the reason they immediately started the CDTV-CR ("Cost Reduced") project, even before the CDTV's actual full scale launch.

Most companies look at cost reduction of the same machine often before they have launched the first model.

Originally Posted by Korodny

The UK launch price is given as £699, the CD-1500 expansion kit (mouse, keyboard, disk drive) shipped for £200.

Again he is wrong on the price, the UK launch price was £599, you can check plenty of UK adverts at time of launch which show the price.
https://archive.org/details/cdtv_20191230/page/n3