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zabzonk 4 minutes ago [-]
> Commodore was already engaged in a cutthroat price war with Texas Instruments that almost sank the company.
Really? Selling what? The TI99 was never a serious competitor for anything.
rwallace 41 minutes ago [-]
Because they believed only a small fraction of customers would care a lot about a better Basic interpreter, whereas the vast majority would care about price. As for giving things away for free, Commodore was already engaged in a cutthroat price war with Texas Instruments that almost sank the company. They could not afford to give anything else away for free.
UncleSlacky 2 hours ago [-]
Wasn't it because Jack Tramiel was too cheap and just wanted to make use of his existing MS BASIC licence?
amichail 2 hours ago [-]
He would still have made use of the MS BASIC license, but the addition of the Simons' BASIC cartridge in the box from 1983 onward would have changed the lives of many hobby coders.
TMWNN 1 hours ago [-]
That doesn't make UncleSlacky incorrect. Tramiel was obsessed with reducing COGS and thus retail price, and bulldozed down anything standing in his way.
A more interesting possibility is the post-Tramiel Commodore including a ROM version of GEOS from 1986 onward, and selling it on cartridge form to existing customers.
Other possibilities:
* Launch Amiga 2000 and 500 in 1985 instead of 1000.
* Eschew Amiga completely, in favor of the Commodore 900 with Coherent. Instead of Amiga silicon, ship with a "VIC-III" for graphics and two SIDs for stereo 6-channel sound.
Really? Selling what? The TI99 was never a serious competitor for anything.
A more interesting possibility is the post-Tramiel Commodore including a ROM version of GEOS from 1986 onward, and selling it on cartridge form to existing customers.
Other possibilities:
* Launch Amiga 2000 and 500 in 1985 instead of 1000.
* Eschew Amiga completely, in favor of the Commodore 900 with Coherent. Instead of Amiga silicon, ship with a "VIC-III" for graphics and two SIDs for stereo 6-channel sound.