Amiga VS Atari sales in the U.S

[mjnurney]

i remember a friend of mine going to california in, erm 1989 probably and this was the height of the Amiga in Europe. The A500 was every where. TV adds, newspapers, magazines - the future was indeed here!

but my friend noticed when he came back that not once in a two weeks holiday did see an Amiga or a commodore for sale or advertised at all.

The PC was in control then.

but was it the same for the Atari ST ? As Jack was in control i would expect so, he said many times when at Commodore that they could sell every unit in Europe and at a higher price than in the U.S...so why bother with the U.S?

a big mistake in the long run.

So was the Atari sold / advertised in the U.S or was it another toy when compared to the Apple / IBM machines.

mike.

---------- Post added at 08:39 ---------- Previous post was at 08:37 ----------

http://jeremyreimer.com/postman/node/329

sales figures

http://www.amigahistory.co.uk/sales.html

 

[quarkx]

Simple really, In Canada, which took most of our TV from the US, there really was NO Atari ST advertising what so ever. I really can't remember one Amiga ad at the time either. Atari had to rely on word of mouth Advertising or a magazine write-up and of course the dealers selling the units.
I remember seeing the Atari ST and XE computers in stores like Woolco and K-Marts, but they usually were locked up in some glass display case like the Amiga. Nothing actually running that you could see.
What is really funny, is I don't remember seeing at the time, one 7800 unit or ad.
Now Atari did pump a lot for advertising in the Jaguar and Lynx. Probably because they we gaming systems and therefore could be pumped on Saturday Morning cartoon spots.

---------- Post added at 06:04 ---------- Previous post was at 05:51 ----------

I would also argue that your sales figures are no where near accurate. Between 1985 and 1990, the race for the 8 bit market should be between the C64 and the TSR 80 Color Computer. Radio Shack had a store in every mall, strip mall and almost on every street back in the '80s. They also sold multiple computers under the TSR-80 brand. The CoCo (all 3 models) sat most of their retail life at under $200, and for years, the CoCo 3 sat at $99. So it was very compelling for parents to buy a 128K CoCo 3 at $99 Compared to a $99 C64 at 64K of ram, especially when Radio Shack was often giving away casette software for a buck or 2. Radio Shack did advertise also, quite heavily infact. Weekly flyers and always the Catalogue, and radio and TV ads.

 

[SaviorX]

interestingly, in BC, in the Vancouver areas where we grew up, no one i knew EVER had a CoCo, despite a Radio Shack in every mall....more people i knew actually had TI99s...everyone else had an C64 or the odd Atari (a LOT at least 'aspired' to having an Apple II, since we were all walking around with copied game disks that we passed around on the schools machines.....but at a minimum of at least $700 for a clone....)

and although i do remember a few people who had Atari STs, or Amigas, they weren't very big, apart from 'hearing' about animation studios favoring Amigas , and Midi producers favoring Atari's, i think largely people went from their old 8-bit systems right to Macs and PCs (and in fact i recall many people still using their 8-bits right into the 90s)

 

[quarkx]

interestingly, in BC, in the Vancouver areas where we grew up, no one i knew EVER had a CoCo, despite a Radio Shack in every mall....more people i knew actually had TI99s...everyone else had an C64 or the odd Atari (a LOT at least 'aspired' to having an Apple II, since we were all walking around with copied game disks that we passed around on the schools machines.....but at a minimum of at least $700 for a clone....)

Yea, that was the scene here in about '83-84, before the CoCo and C64 caught on. Most of us didn't have any computers at home and all the Schools had PETS or Apple ]['s, I had a ton of floppies for the Apple, and PET. Interesting, all the schools did have floppy drives, not one tape deck, it was only the "Home" users that had Tape Decks.

 

[mjnurney]

not my figures but thergister.com industry figures i think

http://www.reghardware.com/2012/01/19/asymco_blogger_charts_rise_and_fall_of_the_personal_computer/

i can't comment on the 'other side of the pond as the UK and Europe where in their own little bubble for a number of years. We didn't get many Apple machines or IBM clones until well in to the early 90's. I did see the CoCo / trs80 in one computer shop near me and it was an electric store too - so very possibly Tandy. We didn't get the Apple ii and saw very few Apples until the coloured iMac invasion.

My school years were all BBC computers (school computer program) and as i left in '87 the Amiga and ST wars were just starting , having said that i was using a C64 at that time and my first disk drive, the 1541 mk2.

i think its fair to say we paid a lot more for computers and still do. the expection being the very naff sinclair stuff but everything else was the same in £ that the U.S paid in $ more or less.

We even had the second coming of the Amiga via Escom , i don't know if they ever shipped to the U.S, i would imagine not.

 

[Bootay]

I don't recall ever seeing an Atari ST ad. I do remember one Amiga ad back when the A500 first came out. I remember the ad showing Dragons Lair and me thinking "Holy crap...it looks just like the arcade!! I want one of those." Amigas were also at some of the computer shops like Babbages. But shortly after I got myself one they disappeared into obscurity and today if you ask most US residents if they ever heard of an Amiga they will say no. If you say Commodore they will remember the C64 but not Amiga. It's a shame.

 

[desiv]

I don't remember Amiga commercials on television until the "Stevie" ads...
There were print ads and such that I remember.

I can't actually remember seeing an AtariST commercial.
I might have, but I can't remember..

Not sure if it's because I was on the West Coast or not, but I don't even remember knowing anyone with an Atari ST..

I "politely discussed" things with AtariST owners on FidoNET back then. I knew there were ST owners, but the people I knew were 8-bit (mostly C64, but some Atari and Apple) or Mac/Amiga/PC.
(I knew several Atari 8-bit guys who didn't go ST, but stayed Atari 8-bit as long as I knew them...)

Except for seeing the ST in a few stores, I didn't actually see it around much...

I'm guessing it did much better in the MidWest and farther East?
(Because if I didn't see it, it must not have sold to anyone around the West Coast.. ;-) )

That's how it felt to me at the time...

desiv