I seem to recall a picture of a Mac something sitting next to an Amiga something. The Mac had less memory, a black and white screen and lower quality sound compared to the Amiga. Or something like that.
The question posed was why did Apple become a success and the Amiga became a lost system only a relatively few people know much about. Not sure what the answer is/was.
All I know is in my own little way, I helped launch two marketplace hits. Hindsight reveals many mistakes on my part and had I done just one or two things differently, my world might be much different today.
Amiga was a killer.
The OS used a double-chained pointer system and it wouldn't lose files like other OSes at the time. Result of the one of big universities in the UK with a huge grad student staff really pushing the envelope for small computers.
Few realize the tremendous impact that the UK has had on computing, and for the longest time, we were mere pikers in comparison.
The Amiga failure was - in my opinion back then - a confluence of fails.
First - Apple not only had the anemic Mac, that little Mac had Microsoft Word and Paint on it - and Lotus 1-2-3.
After taking forever for small computers to really hit business, you had the new PC from IBM, the Apple III (an unholy abomination that it's users failed to realize because of their deep Apple trust at that time) and the Mac.
All saying - business-capable - in marketing.
Then you get the Amiga and it blows them all away. No great names in office products behind it. So what do they use to show off the great color graphics?
Games.
And the first guys buying them - just like the Apple ][ or PC - weren't conservative business managers, they were the risk-taking tech heads.
So - then you get the risk-taking tech heads explaining that now it's the amiga to the conservative business types in their organizations - the same guys that they convinced to try and buy Apples and PCs before - suddenly going reactionary on them.
I saw in no less than 6 major aerospace firms where the same scene unfolded - tech heads trying to convince that the new Amiga was the way the go, and getting all lathered up that their advice was being ignored (first time I ever saw the fanboy prototype - and it was off-putting).
And the thing that they'd all missed, I couldn't convince any of them about - stop playing those games on your lunch hour, the business guys are walking by seeing that and you're shooting yourself in the foot.
That's mighty anecdotal of me, I admit.
Can I test my theory?
I believe so. As the PC gained dominance and the Mac fell into obscurity back in the 90s what was it that everyone said?
If you want to play games or have fancy graphics, get a Mac, if you want to do business and be serious, get a PC.
Same exact thing, it looks like to me.
Further test:
By the early 2000s, the mantra had changed.
If you want to play games, get a PC, they are powerful enough to do anything. Macs can't even play games - want to trust your business to something that weak?
So - depending on the timing and the
perceived comparison to the competition - having the best graphics and good gaming can make or break a product.
But not if it has it or not - but when it has it and how it seems to fit at the time.
Probably I'm not making sense to a lot of people, I'll just quit here.