[Coco] Re: [Color Computer] end of discussion!

Keith Krehbiel redsilo at pldi.net
Wed Apr 27 14:53:21 EDT 2005


James the Animal Tamer wrote:
> 
>>I am not saying that Microsoft has better products.
> 
> 
> Mm, now I have to cleverly say something that's on-topic.
> Okay...
> 
> Development partly drove the market, and partly vice-versa.  Gates & Co 
> supplied the BASIC computer language for a lot of microcomputers, 
> because microcomputer manufacturers were asking for it.
> 
> Q: When people stopped asking for BASIC, Microsoft went into another 
> area of software, eh?  Or, did Microsoft go into another area of 
> business, and thus be less available for making BASIC?  
> A: a bit of both
> 
> Q: Did Microsoft make products that would ensure a greater future 
> income?
> A: You bet.
> 
> Now, applying this to the CoCo!
> 
> Tandy made CoCo1, an original computer.
> There was enough consumer demand so that making the CoCo II made sense 
> (just think, cutting off that aftermarket keyboard add-on at its 
> knees!).
> 
> But apparently there wasn't enough demand for the CoCo II to justify 
> making a good 68000 successor.  I don't know why they made the CoCo 
> III -- there must have been someone who thought it'd be more profitable 
> than not making it.

Hopefully this will squeak by as on topic.  I seem to recall that there 
was someone in the Tandy organization that championed the coco long 
after most of the company had given up on it.  I do not remember his 
name.  Apparantly he had enough whiskers and rank to be taken seriously.
I always suspected that the final demise of the coco happened after he 
retired but that is only a supposition.  I never heard anything to that 
effect.
> 
> Now, you know that the market is also strange, and the best product 
> doesn't always sell the best.

Even a good product can benefit from aggressive marketing - something 
the coco really never had.

> 
> So far as the CoCo is concerned, it's largely moot now.  Pretty much 
> the only market for "successors" to the CoCo is the existing userbase 
> and nostalgia freaks like me.
> 
> 
Thanks for your kind indulgence
kk
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Brought to you by the 6809, the 6803 and their cousins! 
> Yahoo! Groups Links
> 
> 
> 
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 




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