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Yes, the A1200 was to blame.
Let's compare the specs of the Falcon to the A1200, which was released at the same time in competition with it.
CPU:
Falcon - 16MHz 68030.
A1200 - 14MHz 68EC020 (effectively only 7MHz due to slow ChipRAM).
FPU:
Falcon - socket for 68881 or 68882.
A1200 - none.
DSP:
Falcon - Motorola 56001 clocked at 32MHz (16 mips).
A1200 - none.
Onboard RAM:
Falcon - up to 14MB.
A1200 2MB of slow ChipRAM only, not expandable.
RAM bus speed:
Falcon - 16MHz.
A1200 - 7MHz.
Screen modes:
Falcon - up to 16 bit chunky at 640x480 VGA.
A1200 - no chunky.
Blitter:
Falcon - 16MHz.
A1200 - 7MHz. Blocks CPU when in operation.
PCM Sound:
Falcon - 16-bit input and output at up to 50 kHz - 8 stereo channels
A1200 - 8-bit output only up to 28kHz (56kHz in some screen modes), 4 channels
Synth Sound:
Falcon - Yamaha YM2149.
A1200 - none.
Floppy disk:
Falcon - 1.44MB HD drive.
A1200 - 720k DD drive (880k in proprietary Amiga format only).
Hard drive interfaces:
Falcon - internal IDE and external SCSI-II with DMA.
A1200 - Internal IDE only - slow PIO mode only.
Serial Ports:
Falcon - 2
A1200 - 1 (unbuffered, doesn't work reliably above 9,600bd)
MIDI:
Falcon - yes.
A1200 - no.
ROM cartridge port:
Falcon - yes.
A1200 - no.
Network:
Falcon - LocalTalk-compatible LAN port
A1200 - none
To be fair, the A1200 did have a PCMCIA port which theoretically could be used for ROM carts or network cards, but ROM cards were rare and expensive and the slot wasn't compatible with standard PC cards. So it was pretty much useless.
As you can see, the Atari Falcon beat the A1200 hands down in practically every department, providing all the things Commodore should have put in the A1200 but was too incompetent to do so (to the disappointment of Amiga fans everywhere).
With the Falcon having such awesome specs, who would buy an A1200? 100,000 brainwashed Amiga fans, that's who. Despite its clear superiority only ~14,000 Falcons were sold. This is totally the fault of the A1200 - and Commodore of course. They downplayed the A1200's numerous flaws, lied about what it could do and tricked people into buying it with fancy box artwork and a low price. Those who were suckered into buying one soon regretted it, but by that time it was too late for the Falcon.
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