Changes

Don Donlan, president of the HoosierUsers Group in Indianapolis,Indiana, says he works with a manwho bought a 99/4A for $25. By giving rebates and reducing thecomputer's price, TI "gave theimage that this was a very cheappi·ece piece of hard.warehardware," Donlan says. He suggests that ''"instead of discountingthe hardware, TI wouldhave dcine done better discounting some ofits software." "Reducing the price below $300was a mistake," comments :R,ikRik Papagolos, president of the Tri-S!ateState Users Group. He also believes thefirm "pushed the command moduletoo heavily," giving the impressionthat the computer was merely a machine into which to plug cartridges, like an Atari game machine. "It was marketed as a game machine and as an educational machine, but not as a computer." "They spent enough money onadvertising," he notes. "Theiradvertising budget was adequate.They just had terrible commercials.The only thing they did right was hiringBill Cosby, but hiring him andgiving him terrible commercialswasn't right." He says that the TexasInstruments user group coordinatorhas not been in contact with his groupsince TI announced it was quitting ·the home computer market."I.think they're missing the ball,"he says.Charles D. Bathman,. president ofNET 99er in Hurst,. Texas, believes·that TI should have "gone out andproved that they were better thanApple. They should have advertisedhow good it is and more capable thanmachines t,l;l,at w􀂹.r􀂺 more exnPnsive."He. also p􀂻li􀂼ves TI was ''too stingywith allowing third party manufacturers·to· produce software." TI"tried to get all the gravy," he says.