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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
- Path: sparky!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!hobbes.physics.uiowa.edu!news.iastate.edu!barrett
- From: barrett@iastate.edu (Marc N. Barrett)
- Subject: Amiga -- NOT CDTV -- CD-ROM
- Message-ID: <BzwHLy.Ao@news.iastate.edu>
- Sender: news@news.iastate.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: Iowa State University, Ames, IA
- References: <199226.4247.24454@dosgate>
- Distribution: comp
- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 1992 04:25:09 GMT
- Lines: 47
-
- In article <199226.4247.24454@dosgate> "grant robinson" <grant.robinson@canrem.com> writes:
- >-> >C= is going to come out with CD-Rom so the whole point is really
- >-> moot.
- >-> Is it? Commodore has been very quiet on the isuue of **AMIGA** (not
- >-> CDTV)
- >
- >Yes! Yes! Oh Yes! Oh Yes!......YES! I was assured repeatedly at the
- >WOCA when speaking with more than one C= employee that was indeed the
- >case. They said that given the level of growth of CD-Rom in the MS Dos
- >world C= will follow suit such that CD-Rom is accessable to Amiga's
- >across the board. There is no clearer answer than that.
-
- That still leaves the question unanswered as to whether or not we can
- expect any Amigas with CD-ROM drives as standard hardware.
-
- Everybody knows that the CDTV is an A500 with CD-ROM drive. In the same
- way, CDTV titles are "A500 CD-ROM software". Commodore could have left the
- market for A500 CD-ROM hardware and software entirely up to the third-party
- companies, the way they have left the market for high-end and mid-range
- Amiga CD-ROM software entirely to third-party companies. But how many A500
- CD-ROM titles (AKA CDTV titles) would have been developed if Commdoore had
- done this, and not developed the CDTV? Probably, none. At most a very tiny
- few. But by developing the CDTV, Commodore unified the third-party companies,
- gave them focus, and revolutionized the A500 CD-ROM market. The result is
- 150 CDTV titles, about 50 times more than would have been developed for
- A500 CD-ROM had Commodore left everything to the third-parties and had not
- developed the CDTV.
-
- I basically want Commodore to do the same for A4000 CD-ROM that they did
- for A500 CD-ROM. Develop an A4000/030 to with CD-ROM drive as standard
- hardware, to compete directly with the Tandy Sensation. If they did so, the
- third-party companies would again be unified and given focus, and many times
- more uniquely-Amiga CD-ROM software products would be written.
-
- I think Tandy has the right idea by hitting the low-end and high-end
- CD-ROM markets at once with the VIS and the Sensation. But Commodore could
- do it better. Commodore could kill both the Sensation and VIS fairly
- easily, and it would not require the development of any new technologies.
- All Commodore would have to do is bundle CD-ROM drives with the A1200 and
- A4000, and develop some CD-ROM software for each. The hardware of the
- A1200 would require minor modifications to make it into a "CDTV II" to
- compete with the VIS, but the A4000 would require none to compete with the
- Sensation.
-
- ---
- | Marc Barrett -MB- | email: barrett@iastate.edu
- --------------------------------------------------
-