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→Vendors shifting gears; remain loyal to TI market
He notes that among the third party vendors whose orders Tenex handles, there is "95 percent enthusiasm to stay in a market in which their largest competitor has deserted."
However, he notes, "in the long run people question the viability of the TI market" unless some of the rumors of a compatible console to be produced by another company prove true. (See related story Page 6). He notes that there are ''"two million TIsin place. Our position as a company is to support the TI market."
He feels that the "mass market channels the products used to move through were typically not very supportive. They didn't know what went with what. I think that the aftermarket will return to firms that can help them more."
Gary Siegel, president of Challenge Software, a division of Ashford Computers, says, "Our plans, I suppose, are to wait and see. We have advertising in place that involves mail order sales and we'll see what develops."
He notes that some future plans may depend on whether "the patent on the 99 is sold to a major company like Milton Bradley. That's going to affect the shape of the market, or at least the length of the demand." Siegel says, "We don't see a lot ofchange so far. A lot of people have put things on hold. We hear from some places that sales are very brisk."
As for the future, Siegel says, "Not having a crystal ball, I don't know." Craig Reitan, owner of Unisource Electronics, Lubbock, Texas, another large mail order distributor of TI products, says that his company is "in the process of selling everythingas fast as we can."
He says that since consumers "aren't going to be able" to buy TI products at outlets such as K-Mart or Best Products, "mail order dealers like us are in a strong position."
Futura was on the verge of announcing the system when TI "exploded the bomb," Ehninger said.
The week before, he notes, some TI officials had told him that TI would continue to support the 99/4A for two or three years to come. He feels that his sources were sincere in what they told him. Corporate decisions, he says, are made in "ivory towers"and not everyone gets to be there when they are made.
Mr. Moon, of Moonbeam Software (he says his first name is Mr), notes that his company will continue to produce games for the TI home computer "as long as there is demand."
He notes that his company has recently reduced prices on all its software.
"We had intended to reduce the prices before Tl TI left the market," he says. "That just brought it to the forefront."
The International 99/4 Users Group, which does $2.5 million in TI business annually, has a number of proposals in to TI.
Charles LaFara, IUG president, says that the IUG would like to manufacture a number of TI cartridges on a royalty basis, buying the parts from TI and assembling them for resale. Included among these would be Extended BASIC, Editor/ Assembler, Terminal Emulator II and non-solid state programs such as Teach Yourself Extended BASIC and Teach Yourself BASIC. The IUG has also asked to take over TI's toll-free hotline.
'''— LB'''
