Conference 7.286::atarist

    From my perpsective as the head of a large Atari User group in Boston
    which generally get defecated upon by the Katzenjammer (eg. the
    Tramiels). Not only does Atari consistently miss deadlines, sometimes
    for very good legitimate reasons, mostly because of incompetence, but
    they rarely advertise (although the Portfolio has been decently
    promoted). The Northeast US which is a very large technical market was
    without an Atari Rep for over a year. Jack Tramiel, the founder of
    Commodore, and the Chairman of Atari, made many promises in front of
    the press, and then went back to California and broke most of them. 
    
    As far as the Northeast AtariFest is concerned, the only promise that
    Atari made to us is that Bob Brodie would be coming to Boston on
    October 27. The show was never an official Atari show, and Atari hos no
    real obligation to support us. However, the BCS is one of the world's
    largest computer user groups with nearly 30,000 members. We should
    expect that Atari could do more than just send Brodie empty handed.
    Although I like my ST, I quit using it for any real development several
    years ago, after my involvement in Chessmaster 2000. Probably, my next
    computer will NOT be an Atari because of the incompetent management of
    the tramiel family (eg. Sam Tramiel is the US president, and Leonard is
    kind of the Vice President of somethings technical, kind of like Pooh
    Bah). 
    
    The Stacy is an excellent laptop, but because of Atari, I am loathe to
    buy one. I will probably get a decent clone laptop. Again, I reiterate
    that I do like Atari products, but they have terrible followup, and in
    the US, they have allowed much of their third party developers to
    erode. In the Boston metro Area we only have 2 legitimate dealers, and
    one is a one man shop. The other, The Bit Bucket, is a full line dealer
    who also carries Amigas, and several clones, has only very recently
    started to push Atari. About a year ago, if one were to go there and
    ask for an Atari, they would try to steer you toward an Amiga. When we
    had the last NE AtariFest in Worcester, we had no less than 5 dealers
    in the metro area. And, every time I talk with a dealer, I get a lot of
    complaints. I wish it were different. Many people in the Atari
    community are very loyal and enthusiastic, but I don't know how long
    that will last.

    Any news on that new guy, the one from Atari France that is supposed
    to do wonders for the US market?  Last thing I saw was something about
    trying to pick a new headquarters somewhere within reasonable flight
    times to Europe.  I thought that was Jack T. trying to save the
    company from the effects of Sam & Co.  Or are they still in charge?
    
    Dave

    As I understand it, that was just a rumor that got canned. It is my
    opinion that Atari really does not care much for the US market. Maybe
    some things will change when the TT starts to ship. Who knows. Every
    year, Sam Tramiel says that there will be changes. Every year the only
    thing that changes is one group of people is replaced by another
    equally incompetent group.
    

        The rest of a company is only as good as its leader.

    Atari's VP of Sales is Bob Crouch who is one of the few marketing
    people who tells it like it is. He has been at Atari for just over 1
    year now. The normal tenure for that position has been 18 months or
    less. If He is still at Atari in January, it will be a very positive
    milestone for Atari. I think Atari's new products, the Stacy,
    Portfolio, STe, and the TT are good products hampered by the
    Katzenjammer (eg. Tramiel brothers). As my counterparts with the
    Commodore users group will attest, trying to make sense out of
    Tramiel's strategy is a waste of time. At present, I am taking a wait
    and see attitude. Each year at COMDEX, Atari has a decent booth, and
    Sam says that this is the year of Atari. Now sinceApple has finally
    made the Mac more affordable, let's see what Atari can do. I certainly
    would like to see more presence in the US market.
    

    Re .1:                                                           
    
>   In the Boston metro Area we only have 2 legitimate dealers, and one is
>   a one man shop. The other, The Bit Bucket, is a full line dealer who
>   also carries Amigas, and several clones, has only very recently started
>   to push Atari. About a year ago, if one were to go there and ask for an
>   Atari, they would try to steer you toward an Amiga.
    
    At various other times in recent history, I've seen the Bit Bucket
    steer customers from the Amiga to the ST.  (I'm an Amiga owner, so the
    symmetry of the situation isn't lost on me.)  I think this just says
    that the Bit Bucket is less loyal to our respective machines than WE
    are.  Of course, there may also be a rivalry going on among their
    employees that could mix up the Bit Bucket's message in this way.

    During the period of time when the Bit Bucket was pushing people away
    from the ST was when management, eg. Bill Blotcher, was very angry at
    Atari. Currently, there are employees that are more loyal to one brand
    over the other. What I was refering to was that through no fault of the
    BB, they were done several disservices by Atari. At that time, the
    Atari rep was Andy Bell who is an Amiga bigot, and who never liked
    Atari, and I am wondering why Andy ever decided to work for Atari. The
    following year, there was absoutely no local Atari rep. Also, during
    that period, there were a lot of failures of the mono monitors. The
    former Amiga reps, Tech Plus, who now represents Atari has worked hard
    to steer the BB away from Atari and now is trying to help the BB
    emphasize Atari. Basically, the BB is one of the better computer
    dealers in the area. Generally, there are people on staff who are
    technically knowledgable about the products they sell, in contrast to
    places like NEECO or Computerland. 
    
    When the BB was steering people away from Atari, they had some very
    legitimate gripes.

    re: .7 title "Jack Tramiel just bought Commodore"
    
    Sounds like a great rumor.  I can see it now... he bought Atari as an
    investment to help build up his fame and fortune until he had enough
    to buy Commodore out from under Irving Gould :-)
    
    re: why Andy ever decided to work for Atari
    I believe it was a case of timing.  Atari was looking for a rep, and
    Commodore had decided to directly service their dealers, so his Amiga
    job vanished.  I may be wrong, but that is my understanding of what 
    happened.
    
    Dave

    I believe at the time that tech Plus was still the Amiga rep. In any
    case it was an oportunity for Andy. Actually, Andy was somewhat
    inexperienced, and was also ardently disliked by Alan Glick who was the
    director of the BCS Atari ST group. Alan formerly worked for Apex who
    was the Atari Manufacturers rep when the ST came out. Alan's objective
    was to become the local rep. Andy was in a very difficult position.
    Even though he had some strong enemies, he did not serve the existing
    dealers very well. I am not sure whether Andy attended ABACUS meetings,
    but his one appearance at the BCS, Alan Glick made it clear that he was
    not wanted. In all fairness to Andy, he basically had a deck stacked
    against him. At the same time, Atari basically was starting to withdraw
    support from the Northeast.