Reproduced March 18 2002 with permission from Maurizio Banavage. Graphics added by Commodore.ca Nov 2018
In the 70’s there was a boom in the calculator and digital watches and although Tramiel ventured in this area in 1976 Commodore was on the edge of insolvency. Tramiel was saved by Irving Gould by lending him three million dollars and purchased MOS technologies. The acquisition was key to Tramiel’s philosophy of vertical integration. By production and distribution controlling, Commodore kept its costs very low and it’s products competitive. Commodore was again transferred to the Bahamas in order to take advantage of lower taxes, which eventually the company came on its feet again.
The headquarters and manufacturing base was in California. The idea in the 70’s was that the future of computers was in databases which were accessed via terminals. Desktop computers and affordable models were still a far reached idea. Tramiel refused to accept this. Determined as he was, in 1977 Commodore introduced the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor) which was designed by Chuck Paddle and it was sold at $795. By the time PET was put on the market there were other competitors such as Tandy TRS-80 and Apple II. Always keeping the idea of “User-Friendly” PET was composed of a Monitor, Keyboard and a Tape Drive which were housed in a plastic case.
Also in 1983 Commodore introduced the SX-64 which was a portable computer and 1984 the Plus/4 was introduced with integrated software in Rom. The Largest revolution was the Amiga 1000 with 256kB Ram. The price for this Computer was $1,200, a though competitor for the Multimedia systems. The Amiga had many features such as built-in speech and text-to-speech conversion. Also Monitor could display multiple screens at different resolutions. The Concept of home entertainment system was helped with the built in outputs for TVs and VCRs. Although Amiga 1000 had all these features it not reached the scope Tramiel wanted, as Amiga was considered as a gaming machine. Still the company went towards the billion-dollar mark. Things were not going as they should and debts increased.
In January 1984 Tramiel sold his share but his past was never filled adequately. Irving Gould was Commodore’s new reigning CEO failed to grasp important industry trends. This caused commodore in isolation. Gould and his president Mehdi.R.Ali failed to understand the true nature of computer industry. Marketing was done through word of mouth therefore consumers were never informed about Commodore’s largest innovations. Commodore 64 had no marketing plan but still it was a great success. They wanted to do the same with the Amiga but circumstances were different.
Amiga was the shining star, used by New Tek Inc’s Video Toaster a well Known video production tool. It was very much sought after by film and television studios but it was not enough to help the company back on its feet. The decline of Commodore reached its climax in 1993 with the loss of $357 Million. The Company made big efforts to keep its engineers, and keep the business running but these efforts were useless and in 1994 Commodore closed it’s doors forever.
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Alot of misinformation and fluff, Amigas were 'continuously upgraded?' NO that is what users were begging for. By 1989 or so the Amiga 500 was already long in the tooth, as PCs got VGA and Soundblaster cards. People begged for an upgraded Amiga with an enhanced 68030 or 040 CPU, a new chipset and at LEAST 4mb of RAM. We got the Amiga 600 instead. By the time the 1200 came out in 1992 it was FAR too late for Commodore, and so Mehdi Ali and Irving Gould savagely looted Commodore of it's millions in cash assets and let the company float or drown on whatever goodwill was left in the community.
It was a shameful end, and Commodore should be where Apple is today. Infact, Jack Tramiel stupidly turned down a chance to BUY Apple when Steve Jobs came begging, but got greedy at the last minute and ended up losing what would have cemented his family's name and Commodore's name in computing history instead of being all but forgotten and it's place in the industry kept alive only by knowlegable and heartbroken fans.
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