Amigaman Speaks Out

Fueled by rumors of the impending death of the Amiga in the North American
market spread by doom and gloomers, the president of the large Amiga mail
order firm Amigaman (Computer Basics, Inc.) has released the following 
statement of Commodore's position.

2/9/94
The long road back:

There seems to be a lot to moan about these days in the Amiga community.
Everywhere you turn, you read or hear rumors and critics complaining of
Commodore's troubles. Commodore indeed has been immersed in turmoil and
pessimistic predictions.  In the last eight months, there have been shortages
of equipment and spare parts and a lack of visibility.  Calling Commodore's
US office only gets you an answering machine.  The seeming lack of any
effort here in the US is attributed entirely to one frustrating fact
... the lack of operating capital at Commodore.  After a loss of $350
million last year, Commodore has had a real struggle meeting its financial
responsibilities to vendors and lenders. This has caused Commodore to 
concentrate on other priorities and to focus their money and efforts
where they create the best return.   

Consider these facts:
1. Commodore sells more computers in a month in the UK than they sell in the
   US in a year.  
2. Commodore makes more profit on the units sold in Europe than they do on
   units here.
3. The North American market requires Commodore to build a special NTSC
   version of their computers. 
4. One of the keys to Commodore's success is the CD³².
5. This past fall, Commodore concentrated their production resources on the
   CD³².  There have been no NTSC Amiga 1200s made since September, which has
   drained stock levels down to zero.
6. From September through Christmas, Commodore sold over 100,000 CD³²'s and
   almost 200,000 A1200 computers in Europe. This compared to less than
   10,000 computers here in North America. 
7. The success in Europe this fall has defined Commodore's road to success
   and currently takes most of Commodore's resources to support and maintain.
 
As you can see, Commodore has had very little incentive to support the meager
North American market at this time. In January, there seemed to be a lot of
concern by those in the Amiga business community that Commodore may desert
the North American market altogether.

But, all is not lost.  Commodore knows that the North American market is the
largest in the world and overall success for Commodore will be defined by
the success of the CD³² in the US. Commodore's efforts this fall in Europe
have been an exercise in preparing for an all out push of the CD³² in
the US in 1994.
  
Several positive signs have surfaced here in the first weeks of February:
1. February 1 was a magic date for CBM with some of their lenders and they
   have made it past that date.

2. Commodore has scheduled their long awaited stockholders meeting for
   March 2.  

3. Commodore has agreed to build up to 5000 A1200s for the North American
   distributors. A1200s should be back in good supply in March, but
   customers should be prepared to pay a little more. In the mid $400, I
   suspect.

4. Commodore has several middle tier chain stores interested in the CD³²
   and it looks like they are prepared to release it to the US market in
   March.  Release through normal dealer channels will follow.  The dealer
   channel will also get the soon to be released CD³² compatable drive
   for the A1200.

5. The A4000 tower is reportedly in production as we speak and should show
   up here in the US by early March.  (Remember it's a long boat
   ride over here.)  Best of all, it will be priced just a few hundred
   dollars above the current desk top unit.  Also, soon to be released
   is a less expensive desktop A4000 with an 030 processor.

6. Monitors remain a problem for Commodore, but several distributors are
   moving to bring alternatives into the market.

Despite all the difficulties this winter, demand for Amiga equipment
remains high.  The CD³² is a marvelous machine, far superior in
price-performance to anything else available now.  Because of its success
in Europe, software for it is already flowing very fast.  Limited supplies
of units here as well as the Full Motion Video Module  (which has been
shipping for about 3 weeks)  have been quickly bought up.  There is
nothing like watching a CD VIDEO with its movie theater-like stereo sound.

As Commodore moves to position the CD³² in the North American market, things
will continue to be tight for the traditional Amiga computer channel.  But
if Commodore can carve out a substantial market share for the CD³² in
1994, especially in the Christmas quarter, I think you will find the US
market embracing the Amiga computer like it never has before.  

Remember that in front of the name of every CD³² sold is the word
AMIGA. 

Bill Smith, President
Computer Basics/AMIGAMAN