A little over two months ago, OSNews had a bit of a run-in with Commodore USA’s CEO, about how I felt about the company and its rather dubious business practices. This led to a legal threat we laughed away here at OSNews, but laughable or not, a legal threat is a legal threat, and it never sat well with me that it was never retracted or apologised for. Well, that changed today.
I received this statement today from Barry Altman, Commodore USA’s CEO.
Like many forum members, tech writers, and people in general, who sometimes react to statements in an inappropriate manner, I would like to:
- retract the idiotic legal threat
- apologize for the legal threat
- ship something
Certainly a phone call would be considered appropriate before you print something, so you can have all the facts before determining your position.
The three points above came from me – before I would even be open towards changing my position on Commodore USA, the idiotic [my words] legal threat had to be retracted and an apology had to be made. The last point, about shipping something, refers to the fact that I believe Commodore USA should actually ship something as well.
My original opinion of Commodore USA, the opinion that started all this nonsense, still stands, and nothing has happened between then and now to soften that position (in fact, the threat only made it worse). We’ll have to see what the future brings, but in all honesty, I don’t have high hopes at this point.
Still, that silly threat has been retracted and apologised for, and that’s something I’m very happy with. No matter how silly it was, having a legal threat hover above your head simply isn’t something I particularly like.
I personally wish commodore all the best, and hope they can revive the commodore brand. America need all the techjobs and goodwill towards their companies they can get.
Apologies in these day in age is hard to come by. Mr. Altman gets my respect.
By the way I’ve been to their website and seen their products and think their cool.
Edited 2010-11-04 21:45 UTC
Agreed. But in today’s highly globalized society (though this is not always consistent, Commodore, and Amiga for that matter, needs all the help it can get anywhere, much like Linux has gone global. And may this mean a new Geos for the new Commodore.
Bring on the re-badged Chinese crap at 30% markup!
What’s wrong with that!? Apple have been doing it for years!
Just a joke guys, I actually like apple stuff
It’s a joke indeed, because it’s actually far more than 30% 😉
I don’t understand, was that a question? It’s already been answered, by yourself.
Edited 2010-11-05 12:38 UTC
I can respect that. He’s probably too much of an ’80s power business man to fully understand the best way to interact with potential customers here on the interwebs, and I don’t blame him for that.
Some advice, Barry:
* Demonstrate a good, working product and if exciting enough, the readers will practically do the advertising for you
* Let customers be creative and let go of control of where that goes. The viral stuff happens when people are supported in doing their own thing
* Focus on the details
* Don’t talk business-talk, buzz words and product strategising synergies on the Internets. It simply does not work. Talk technical and honest to us
* Learn to laugh at yourself, as well as others
While we are on lecturing….
We should all take to heart that there is difference between being Dick and being Frank.
You forgot E[a]rnest!
One can be cooked on a grill and the other… ???
The “other” would depend on if your wife is Lorena Bobbit.
Don’t forget that he should seek treatment for boneitis if it shows up! It’s the bane of the 80s buisnessman!
As for the “demonstrating” part, could the third point (“I would like to ship something”) perhaps be interpreted as a promise to send in a machine to the OSNews editorial staff for review? (as was done recently for another product – http://www.osnews.com/story/23969/AT_T_s_Samsung_i897_Galaxy_S_aka_… )
Thom isn’t the kind of stoic man who sticks with “I said I don’t like it so I won’t ever like it.” A good example is how he originally compared aluminum Macs to his IKEA frying pan, then buys an improved design little over a year later (see links below). If the Commodore should exceed his expectations, he’ll change his opinion and be honest about that.
http://www.osnews.com/story/21953/Apple_One_Large_Depressing_Metall…
http://www.osnews.com/story/23917/Apple_Unveils_Stunning_New_MacBoo…
Well, 2 months is kind of a long time but then again it takes a while to acquire the taste of ‘humble pie’ some times…. better late than never.
Nice, Commodore USA !
Good News ! 🙂
Best of luck bringing out the PC64 !
They all seem to have the same surname. All made in china, all commercialized boutique attempts to market now. Funny how people line up to buy surname product and then joke/defend their positions.
There you go, highlighted the key words for you.
Assembled in china. Apple do not rebrand china products (sticking a label to some crap stuff). Lenovo is genuine china computers today on the other hand =)
Edited 2010-11-05 12:21 UTC
Everyone makes mistakes and as long as one regrets for his/her moves in the past, they can be forgiven.
Quod Erat Demonstrandum…
I hope they learned well the lession of being reasonable and humble.
If they want to sell REAL products, I will welcome them…
If they just want to sell unuseful cr*p products, then it is better for them to leave this market, because Amigans have learned well the lesson with Amiga Inc. and the period under the management of Bill Mc Ewen as CEO.
Edited 2010-11-05 13:18 UTC