Re: World-wide 8-bit computer sales (all-time)?

["Sam Gillett" <samgillett@msn.com>]

Exegete wrote ...

>Well, Richard, for corresponence and school papers, a daisywheel is far
>superior to a DMP, esp. one as poor as Commodore offered with the C-64.

Well, I'll have to admit that the print quality of the bottom of the line
Commodore printers left a lot to be desired.  Commodore did sell a
daisywheel printer, but it was priced a bit on the high side.  There were
third party daisywheels for Commodore at reasonable prices.  The brand name
"Blue Chip" seems to come to mind.

And Star sold an excellent NLQ dot matrix with a builtin Commodore interface

>I'm not saying the C-64 was junk, not at all. Coleco simply had a great
>idea, at a great price, and failed to impliment it properly. They were a
>toy company trying to make it in the low cost home computer market
>(where even IBM failed - remember Junior?)

As I remember, the only advantage the PC Junior had over lower priced
systems was the IBM name on a decal.  Most people wanting a home computer
went with the lower cost of Atari, Commodore, and on the other side of the
pond, Sinclair.

Meanwhile, those wanting a small business computer bypassed the Junior in
favor of the XT Clones selling at about the same price as the Junior.  Some
small business owners, of course, opted for the Apple II.

The Coleco Adam did make it to market.  But, most potential buyers connected
the name Coleco with the word toy.  They stayed away from it in droves!  The
connection may have been what killed the Adam.

Just as people chose The Atari 2600 over Intellivision(sp?).  The name
connection.  Mattel was a _toy_ company, not an _electronics_ company.

>Consumer's Reports went with the Atari over CoCo, C-64, and ADAM, for
>two reasons: the Atari printer (1027 I think) and AtariWriter. But they
>did the comparision because of the ADAM. It was a new idea in that market.

A manufacturer offering a package was a new idea.  Retailers were already
offering complete "home computer" packages featuring Atari and Commodore
computers.  And I'm sure English retailers offered Sinclair package deals.

Best regards,

Sam Gillett aka Mars Probe @ Starship Intrepid 1-972-221-4088
     Last 8-bit BBS in the Dallas area.  Commodore lives!