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From: Jim_Trascapoulos@a68k.denver.CO.US (Jim Trascapoulos)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Progressive Peripherals Speak..
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <Jim_Trascapoulos.0w3u@a68k.denver.CO.US>
Date: 10 Mar 93 08:45:08 MST
Organization: The Arvada 68K BBS- Westminster, CO
Lines: 163
Portal-Origin: Usenet
Portal-Type: text
Portal-Bytes: 9352
Portal-Location: 16152.3.13828.4

Q: What happened with Progressive. They've dropped their prices and have
   moved from their new building. 
 
A: Nothing has happened to Progressive. The Amiga market has contracted
   quite a bit in the last 6 months and Progressive has changed to 
   accomodate this smaller market.
 
Before we get into all of this, let me explain who I am and my relationship
with Progressive. I was, for the last year and until recently, the Director
Of Technical Support at Progressive. Besides manning the phones with the
other Tech grunts, I wrote all the new manuals for the '040, BaudBandit and
DiskMaster, did all the art for disks/manuals/covers and some box design.
As well, I was working on interface design for new software and hardware
yet to come. And yes, it will come.
 
Current relationship? I left to work for a local paper as a graphic artist
- more my speed anyway. Much of what I did at Progressive prepared me for
my new Mac-based illustrative work, and I am posting this in their benefit
(as they never get onto the net anyway.) I'm not receiving anything for
this, and have no interest in what happens next (unlike the vulture from
RCS who couldn't wait to grab as much market as possible for their crappy
'040 cards, IMHO..)
 
Okay, some facts first:
*JAfter the 1st of Feb, Progressive layed off 70of their staff. This is
true, but it should be noted that nearly 40of that number have been hired
back as outside contractors for projects in development.
 
*JPrices have dropped through the floor - this is because of a few major
factors but the most pre-eminant factor is that Commodore discontinued all
the machines we make '040s for, and the A1200 and A4000 are what some
manufacturers would call "third-party proof." Yes, there are '030's for the
A1200 being shown right now, but no 040s and there possibly won't be
because of the design. But I digress..
 
Now - the REASONS behind the change:
Okay, some background first. You have to know the market we're in before
you can judge actions. The IBM market is, as always, growing wildly in
multimedia and Windeos applications, and the Apple market is booming too,
with their new aggresive price policies and new '030 and '040-based
hardware. Commodore though has some different ideas.
 
In October and November, CBM announces two new platforms, the A1200 and
A4000, to accompany the A600 (announced in the US in September). This KILLS
sales. According to American Software Distributors, and based upon our and
other manufacturer's sales, the Christmas season was murder. November sales
were behind last years, but still reasonable. December sales were below
last year and even below November. January was off by the previous month,
December, by 70 70is a mammouth amount in Amiga terms, and this is due
to two factors: 
 
* Advanced publicity of the new machines (killing off new Amiga sales and
  peripheral upgrades)
* A lack of availability of product, as CMB stops shipping A2000s to force
  sale of the limited number of A1200 and A4000 class.
 
So dealers starve, as do manufacturers. Commodore then, in January, fires
most of their sales staff and reduces the employee count in West Chester.
As far as sales go, there are 3 salespersons and 1 service person west of
the Missisppi river. Unix support is reduced as the last Unix programmer is
layed off. To increase their bottom line, so close tot he end of the
quarter, Commodore sells all it's stocks of new computers at the beginning
of January in what one NYC dealer called "fire-sale prices." Afterwards,
manufacturing problems plague A1200s and especially A4000 daughterboards
and Buster chips (which are under redevelopment - ready for a Rev. K
Buster?) as well, delaers are told that A2000s are no longer available
(possibly to force the A3000/4000 version of the Toaster to market..the
NewTek/CBM war gets all kinds of new rumours.) News from across the pond
show that Commodore is rapidly losing market share, as PC clones finally
eliminate their at-home advantage in Europe. Sources in CBM tell us that in

Germany the Amiga (last year #1 in sales) falls to a distant #2 behind PC
sales, with Apple sales very close behind. PC sales are devestating in
England, France, Australia and South America.
 
Now, examine Progressive. 7 months earlier they have a devestating fire,
and proceed into new quarters to rebuild the company. The 040/500 is
delayed by 5 months, delivered just as the A1200 is announced. The A2000
and A3000 get discontinued notices (the A2000 comes back under pressure in
early February, but won't be delivered until late that month.) A3000T
systems, plagued by bad DMAC chips for months, gets a Tech Notice from CBM
detailing manufacturing problems that cause "040s to fail (screwing
Mercury's rep, as well as GVPs own product.) A new Buster/Ramsey
combination patches the problems, but CBM decides to go on to a A3000/040
Tower without really fixing the problem. We decide to take a gamble and
start working on a totally new graphic processing device, capible of 500
specmark rendering performance, that can work with Amigas, Macs and PCs.
 
So we hire 30more programming and 20hardware design staff and
renegotiate our lease to move into a neighboring office for the new
project. Imaging our surprise when the landlord finds that they can double
the rent on both buildings with the new contract. Imaging our surprise when
she does.
 
Let's add up the factors: a general slowdown in sales, discontinuation of
existing models, reduced support from a shrinking Commodore and a clamour
for virtually redundant hardware ('030 accelerators for a A1200, when the
040/500 is twice as fast as a 50MHz '030-based A2000, and 40faster than a
A4000, which lacks a '040 burst mode.) We had to ask where the market was
going..
 
Now, what's happening to Progressive today. Simply, pear down and start a
price war. We decided on pausing the new project for 60 days, laying off
personell recently aquired and selling all hardware not required. We
negotiated with a local SMT house and have all our boards surface-mounted
by someone else, eliminating our own expensive in-house work. Progessive
moves out of the Denver area into the nearby mountains. We drop prices for
a 60 day limited period to selected dealers who, feeling the pinch in their
own business, decide to KEEP the prices low. New products are still under
development (like Rambrandt Personal and the custom WB/AGA support) but are
done by previous employees on a contractual basis, saving the company money
on insurance and taxes. Repairs are done by the core engineering staff
until the SMT are up to speed, but are re-embursed by the SMT group for any

agressive prices, saves itself, actually having the best March (or, for
that matter, the best month) in 3 years. Meanwhile, GVP start laying off
some staff..
 
It's not popular, but the company is alive and now healthy after being
screwed to the wall 3 months earlier. They're still battling the insurance
company for the fire money, and CBM looks as though it really may not make
it past the next 6 months (my opinion, based solely on inside information.
MB need not reply..), but the amount of speculation and "inside gossip"
from net-dweebs and dealers alike is really unwarranted. Sure, you want to
be able to buy a product and know that the company will be around in a
year, but the modern tactic of "monday-morning quarterbacking" helps no
one. Everyone has a better idea, everyone thinks they "know" what's
happening, and everyone has an opinion why they are right, no matter what
the facts are. I've been out here posting before, telling people that they
are mistaken concerning Progressive. But the RCS guy got me crazy last week
when I read his post, and I had to do something. PPI is alive and well, and
as far as I'm concerned, the leader in '040 technology at a reasonable
price. AA will be replaced by AAA, RTG has nothing to do with either, but
the power of a full-bore '040 with FPU and MMU makes the Amiga something to
be respected, and I'm just asking to hear what we're saying and respect
PPIs decision.
 
Regards,
 
Jim Trascapoulos, 
formerly Director Of Technical Support, PPI.
Progressive Peripherals Inc.
 Phone: (303) 238-5555
 Fax:   (303) 235-0600  (last I looked)
When I get the new address, I'll post 'em.
 
PS: IT should be known that there is another poster who claims to have
worked for PPI (true) and "knows" that PPI is doomed. Please note that this
person has been locally charged by the police for stealing hardware from
PPI and reselling it. He was caught and will be tried for grand theft, so
his opinions can be thought of as somewhat biased. If anyone has purchased

a card from this person (if you know what I mean, you'll know who he is),
please note that they is no warranty on what he's sold, and since we know
EVERY card we make, we'll catch the owner too. If anyone wants to come
forward and help us press further charges, we'll not press charges on the
owner and will enforce the warranty as if it were purchased legally. Please
contact Sean Moore or Steven Spring at Progressive if you want to come
forward, or contact me by email if you don't want to go directly. It costs
you nothing and we will not implicate the owner in any of the thefts.
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[note - although this posting is full of spelling and grammatical
errors, I didn't correct anything, but just copied it as-is from
Usenet.... Harv]
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