How did Commodore go to market in your locale?

[dlfrsilver]

In France, Commodore did absolute shit with the Amiga. That's why we were the only country in Europe where the Amiga was outsold by the Atari ST.

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by TCD

Apparently Commodore did. You don't update your base model three times within 12 months if you don't.

Apparently not, otherwise:-

1. They wouldn't have 'updated the base model three times within 12 months'

2. They would have made more of them.

Commodore was well aware that time was running out for the A500. They actually expected sales to drop off sooner than they did, which is why they didn't make enough of them and had to put A500+s in A500 boxes!

Oh and if you look at the numbers you present properly you might figure out that your conclusion that the A600 sold similar numbers that the A500 did 'during its lifetime' isn't quite adding up.

1,081,000 / 5 = 216,200 per year on average, not far off the 193,000 A600s sold in a little over a year (with the main sales window being only 8 months).

The real problem Commodore had wasn't declining sales, it was too much debt. This was compounded by spending too much in the early Amiga days, then introducing models that were loss makers (A3000, CDTV). The PC sales slump in 1990-1991 didn't help either. By 1992 they were running on empty with suppliers demanding cash up front, so they weren't able to produce enough Amigas to meet demand.

Nevertheless that didn't stop Commodore subsidiaries from airing Amiga ads like the one above right until the end. These adverts were needed to get their products into the minds of the public. Otherwise nobody apart from existing Amiga fans (who were not the target market) wouldn't know what they were offering.

Amiga fans fail to realize this. They look at the A600 and think what a piece of shit why would I buy that, when they probably weren't going to buy another Amiga anyway. A few would upgrade to the A1200, but most sales needed to come from new users if Commodore was to maintain a presence in the marketplace. That meant the A600 concept was good one, because it was cheap enough to be bought as a 'toy' (as was the A1200). The only mistake they made was setting the price too high to begin with (should have been a lot cheaper than the A500+).

But even if they did everything right from 1992 onward that mountain of debt was still set to crush them - it was only a matter of time. The seeds of their destruction were sown way back in 1985 when they took the Amiga onboard.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

1,081,000 / 5 = 216,200 per year on average, not far off the 193,000 A600s sold in a little over a year (with the main sales window being only 8 months).

Didn't you say they sold nearly a million A500 in 1991 alone?

Originally Posted by Bruce Abbott

But even if they did everything right from 1992 onward that mountain of debt was still set to crush them - it was only a matter of time. The seeds of their destruction were sown way back in 1985 when they took the Amiga onboard.

So it wasn't piracy or 'being attacked from all sides' that killed Commodore then?

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by TCD

Didn't you say they sold nearly a million A500 in 1991 alone?

That's the cumulative number for Germany. Global figures are patchy and less reliable so I used Germany as a proxy. UK figures are probably similar, US rather different, others smaller and less relevant. Anyway that's not as important as the fact that Commodore sold all the A600s they produced in a relatively short period of time despite it purportedly being a 'huge flop', which suggests the adverts were effective.

So it wasn't piracy or 'being attacked from all sides' that killed Commodore then?

Obviously those things were factors that would eventually eventually kill the Amiga (as we know it), but the lack of finances was a constant drag and the proximate cause of their demise. As to whether acquiring the Amiga at all was a mistake, I'm inclined to think not since their PC division didn't do any better.

The real problem was spending too much on poor advertising of the A1000 and developing products that were loss makers. There were other factors too of course, but Commodore's financials were always the elephant in the room. Amiga fans don't realize this because they weren't investors so the stock market price and dividends weren't important to them.

Reading articles discussing Commodore's financial state over the years gives you a better idea of how bad it was. Pundits were predicting Commodore's imminent demise in 1985. Two years later it didn't look any better, until the A500 took off. But of course that wouldn't last. Rattigan (who favored low-end machines) tried to take over the board and got kicked out instead. Then the engineers proceeded with their dream of turning the Amiga into a high-workstation, which predictably failed. The CDTV was a risky venture that also failed (to be fair, Philips and Sony got burned a lot more by CD-i). By this time Commodore was in serious need of pruning to convince investors that it was sound, but that limited what development it could do.

Commodore could have done better even under those conditions if they did everything right and were lucky, but neither was likely. Had they not wasted so much on the A1000 and A3000 they could have afforded to be less than perfect later on. I'm not complaining though because under different circumstances we probably wouldn't have gotten such interesting machines.

[dreadnought]

Amiga was like a cat, or a game with a trainer. Had so many lives: you could kill it with this and you could kill it with that, but finally only Commodore could really kill it dead.

But Amiga fans don't know that because they're basically dog people, who don't appreciate cats much. Always ungrateful and expecting too much from different species.

[BigD]

Originally Posted by giantclam

I was searching for an old Australian teevee ad (Mrs Marsh, Colgate, "But mummy, the tooth is crying!" ....bounty offered =), and I came across this, presented by the Valvoline toting John Laws, and I realized how 'stark' the marketing campaign here in AU was.

[ Show youtube player ]

Did C= carry on the same where you live?

The independent game shops used to set up Amigas and demo them. I remember seeing Walker and Simon the Sorcerer and being blown away! Individuals knew that comparative marketing would work in an era of Dos PCs and balck and white Macs but Commodore struggled.

[grelbfarlk]

Michael Jackson had a very special primetime event at 8PM on Thursday night where he was saying Only Amiga can transform me into a panther in my music video with the powerful chipset and show me as my true self as a predator.
Then something happened in 1993 and they stopped airing it.
Madonna had a sixty minute documentary about laying out her coffee table book in 1992 with Pagestream. Because of this a scanned version showed up on all of the BBS sites in IFF HAM8 format in a convenient to download .lha and it was quickly deleted.

[AF2013]

Brave AI gave ya the answers

How come AMIGA became rich then bankrupt next and who fault was it?

Amiga, a personal computer company, became rich in the 1980s and 1990s due to its innovative technology and popularity among gamers and enthusiasts. The company’s Amiga 1000, released in 1985, was a groundbreaking computer that offered advanced graphics and sound capabilities, making it a favorite among developers and gamers. The Amiga 500, released in 1987, further solidified the company’s position in the market.

Bankruptcy

However, Amiga’s financial struggles began when Commodore International, the company that acquired Amiga in 1984, filed for bankruptcy in 1994. This was due to a combination of factors, including:

Poor management: Commodore’s management made several strategic mistakes, such as failing to adapt to changing market trends and neglecting to invest in research and development.
Increased competition: The rise of IBM-compatible PCs and the introduction of Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 further eroded Amiga’s market share.
Financial mismanagement: Commodore’s financial situation was precarious, with high debts and low cash reserves.
After Commodore’s Bankruptcy

After Commodore's bankruptcy, the Amiga brand changed hands several times, with various companies attempting to revive the brand. However, none of these efforts were successful, and the Amiga brand eventually became a relic of the past.

Who was to Blame?

It is difficult to pinpoint a single entity as solely responsible for Amiga’s downfall. However, Commodore's poor management and financial mismanagement played a significant role in the company’s demise. Additionally, the rise of IBM-compatible PCs and the introduction of Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 further eroded Amiga’s market share.

Lessons Learned

Amiga’s story serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of adaptability, strategic planning, and financial prudence in the rapidly changing technology industry.

[giantclam]

Originally Posted by AF2013

Brave AI gave ya the answers

How come AMIGA became rich then bankrupt next and who fault was it?

Amiga, a personal computer company, became rich in the 1980s and 1990s due to its innovative technology and popularity among gamers and enthusiasts. The company’s Amiga 1000, released in 1985, was a groundbreaking computer that offered advanced graphics and sound capabilities, making it a favorite among developers and gamers. The Amiga 500, released in 1987, further solidified the company’s position in the market.

Bankruptcy

However, Amiga’s financial struggles began when Commodore International, the company that acquired Amiga in 1984, filed for bankruptcy in 1994. This was due to a combination of factors, including:

Poor management: Commodore’s management made several strategic mistakes, such as failing to adapt to changing market trends and neglecting to invest in research and development.
Increased competition: The rise of IBM-compatible PCs and the introduction of Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 further eroded Amiga’s market share.
Financial mismanagement: Commodore’s financial situation was precarious, with high debts and low cash reserves.
After Commodore’s Bankruptcy

After Commodore's bankruptcy, the Amiga brand changed hands several times, with various companies attempting to revive the brand. However, none of these efforts were successful, and the Amiga brand eventually became a relic of the past.

Who was to Blame?

It is difficult to pinpoint a single entity as solely responsible for Amiga’s downfall. However, Commodore's poor management and financial mismanagement played a significant role in the company’s demise. Additionally, the rise of IBM-compatible PCs and the introduction of Windows 3.0 and Windows 95 further eroded Amiga’s market share.

Lessons Learned

Amiga’s story serves as a cautionary tale about the importance of adaptability, strategic planning, and financial prudence in the rapidly changing technology industry.

And not a word of this relates to topic.... totally useless..... it's akin to Deep Thought's answer of "42"....and you didn't ask the right question...

[Bruce Abbott]

Originally Posted by AF2013

Brave AI gave ya the answers

How come AMIGA became rich then bankrupt next and who fault was it?

<snip>

ai;dr