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Originally Posted by desiv
This!
And this is why I think Commodore's biggest mistake wasn't hardware or R&D cuts by management (which was dumb, but)...
It was (IMHO) not going after the education market and dislodging Apple.
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It's harder to dislodge than to get in first. In fact Commodore
was there in 1980 with the
PET, but the Apple II had color and was far more popular. By the time the Amiga came out Apple was entrenched in the educational market.
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I think the Amiga, with it's TV video compatible subsystem, was a perfect match for the education market.
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Why?
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Commodore needed to do what Apple did, but more. Discounts / support for the education market.
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A market only big enough for one player will be bad for 2 players. To dislodge Apple, Commodore would have to sink a large amount of money in it - for little benefit.
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It is the market that kept Apple relevant during their down times (well, until they got into the phone/music business).
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The education market was going PC because PCs were ubiquitous and more relevant. The Mac was only 'relevant' in higher education. It wasn't enough to carry them. Apple got into the phone business in 1997. Jobs said at that time they were 2 weeks from insolvency. In 1996 their net income was -$816 million. In 1997 it was -$1.045
billion.
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Of course, for Commodore to recognize that, they would have had to have good marketing and business awareness.
And they just wanted the next C64... Until they wanted the next PC, which was too late and not going to happen.
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Commodore didn't seem to recognize that PCs had the 'personal' computer market sewn up, and this would
never change. The C64 and A500 were successful because they filled a niche PCs couldn't. They could have cultivated that niche more than they did, but ultimately they would have to accept a shrinking market.
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I'm not as worried about the application software not being there. If you get into the schools, the software will be there. The publisher's would be smart enough to follow that market...
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The quality of educational software for schools was generally very poor, and there wasn't much money to be made from it. The real market was home users. But most developers were more interested in producing games or business apps.
Between 1991 and 1994 I was a developer in a small educational software company. Like many it was run by a teacher who developed his own software for classroom use, then attempted to market it. I wish I had started working there earlier when I could have had more impact.