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/vr/ - Retro Games

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4525186 No.4525186 [Reply] [Original]

Why did the Atari 8-bit line and the Commadore family fail to really break into the business market? Was it that neither were capable out of the box of displaying 80 columns?

>> No.4525201

>>4525186
it certainly didn't help that Commodore executives siphoned millions of dollars for themselves

>> No.4525306

>>4525186
What’s with all the computer threads lately? I’m not complaining, it’s better than endless fifth gen reposts. Anyways even at the time the Commadore and Atari computers were mainly used for games and occasionally some more “personal” computing, like basic word processing. The Apple II had the good fortune to get a killer app only a year after being released, and that coupled with its intense business/education marketing made it essentially the face of computers, and that image persisted and endured long after Atari Shock

>> No.4525689

Atari intended the 8-bit line to target Apple, but management rejected the idea of expansions slots. As for Commodore, the PET was successful as a business machine in Europe, but not the US and after the PET, they completely fucked up their chance at the business market.

>> No.4525696

Z80 and CP/M capability was important to succeeding in the business computer market back then. Apple IIs could be equipped with a CP/M card and the other machines weren't.

>> No.4525920

>>4525186
So did the Apple II line.
The scientific and publishing use was a niche compared to PC.

>> No.4525925

>>4525920
The Apple IIs were quite dominant in the business/scientific/engineering market up to about the mid-80s after which PCs gradually displaced them.

>> No.4525939

>>4525186
Both the Atari and Commodore 8-bit line was mostly focused on home users.
Commodore was literary all about a computer into every home for cheap.

So yeah, kind of makes sense, don't it?

>> No.4527418

>>4525939
Actually they still had their CBM-II line that was geared toward for business uses. Unfortunately for them it just bombed.

>> No.4527598

>>4527418
Their business machines never sold even close to their home variants, they knew that and focused on the home variants.
That's the whole point.

>> No.4527724

>>4525925
They were also in most schools back in the 80s thru the early 90s. In 10th grade I took intro to computers and they were still using Apple IIe computers and this was 91.

>> No.4527960

Why are Apple computers always such garbage?

>> No.4527964

>>4527960
Why are you such a fucking faggot?

>> No.4527965

>>4527964
Isn't Apple the one for faggots?

>> No.4528021 [DELETED] 
File: 290 KB, 640x640, 7565762024_0537b2823f_z.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
4528021

>>4527965
No Macs and modern Apple products are for idiots. Who want to pay triple the price for a subpar product. All cause it is from Apple.

>> No.4528026

>>4528021
not retro, fuck off back to /g/ please

>> No.4528668

>>4525186
The Apple II came first and had VisiCalc and CP/M compatibility. Then IBM and clones entered the market and it was game over for everyone else.

>> No.4528672

>>4528668
It also had graphics that made it possible to do things like pie charts. Most computers at that time just had green monochrome text with no bitmap graphics.

>> No.4528676

>>4528672
True, and another important thing I forgot to mention was modularity. It was easy to make Apple II expansion boards for extra RAM, specialized hardware, networking, etc., which was a really big deal for business use.