SAM TRAMIEL CONFERENCE ON COMPUSERVE - HIGHLIGHTS *ZNET9107
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 Prepared by John Nagy
  
 Thursday night, February 21, 1991, Atari CEO Sam Tramiel was the guest
 of a special conference on CompuServe.  For this evening event, CIS
 waived all connect charges for the participating callers.  The
 conference was moderated by Ron Luks, the manager of the Atari areas on
 CIS.  Here are some key comments of Mr. Tramiel, edited for length only
 and re-ordered for clarity.
 
 On New Products to come from Atari:
 
 > Unix will be shown on March 13 at the Hannover faire in Germany.  It
   will be Unix System V.4, X-windows, Motif, and a front-end named
   "Wish".
 
 > Panther...  is a 68000 running at 16MHz game machine which we will
   probably ship in early 1992.  Software is now being written for the
   Panther.  It will even allow for Lynx to network with some games.

 > We plan to make more applications software and peripherals available
   on the Portfolio.  We are definitely planning to make small notebook-
   like machines which will be 68000 ST-based.

 > MIDI-tasking is currently in beta-testing, and will be released as
   soon as it is finished.  

 About emulators being built in to Atari products as original equipment:
 
 > This is an interesting idea that you have, and we are investigating
   such things all the time.  I cannot say more than that.

 On Atari's plans for Dealers and Marketing:

 > We think that we have a very clear marketing direction.  We are trying
   to sell personal computers to people at the best possible price.  Of
   course, we consider backup and service by our dealers, and we want to
   develop a good dealer network.  We do plan to sell customers like
   Circuit City [God willing].  We have no plans at present to sell at
   K-Mart.  The TT030 will definitely be sold through qualified dealers
   who can explain advanced computer use.

 > We plan to support our long-time dealers even more than we have in the
   past.  Greg Pratt, who was our corporate CFO, is now President of
   Atari US, and is making a big effort to build up a team to support all
   of our dealers.  We are looking for dealers who really understand our
   products and who will be there to support you...  If any of you out
   there have suggestions for dealers who want to make money in the long
   term, please call Greg Pratt at 408-745-2349 and give him the name and
   address of such dealers.

 > We plan to advertise in the US through our dealers.  And as this
   network expands, we will do national advertising.  This will not occur
   until we do have a national network.  We feel that advertising through
   our dealers will get us good exposure and will start to expand the
   user base.  We are also bringing in MIDI software from Europe and will
   work closely with developers to assure its availability.  We are, as
   you know, supporting our own magazine, Atari Explorer.  And are happy
   to support any other magazine as well.  Stacy is available for
   professional use, ie. Musicians..  We have them in stock, and can ship
   now.  If you have any particular questions in the music area, please
   call James Grunke at 408-745-4966.  He is our new MIDI guru and ex-
   Beach Boy member.  We will be happy to support an attend any
   coordinated effort for a user group show in the south.  Contact Bob
   Brodie at 408-745-2052.

 > We are planning a 1.44 mb drive in the future and will also make this
   available as an upgrade on TTs and Mega STEs.

 > We offer more power, features, for less money over time.  If we do not
   lower prices and offer more features, we would quickly be out of
   business.  The 1.44 mb floppy is being designed at present and when
   the Mega STE and TT were designed, this was taken into consideration.
   We are not trying to abandon, and will not abandon, 1040 owners.
   However, we cannot always satisfy issues like this.  The VME card is a
   whole different issue.  To offer expansion requires larger power
   supplies and other components which increases the cost of the
   computer.  The 1040 is a lower priced machine, and therefore cannot
   have such features.  If you don't buy it now, and always wait for the
   next price reduction/feature improvement, you'll never buy a computer.
   You'll always be waiting.

 > I appreciate that you love your Atari 8-bit system.  Unfortunately,
   most users in the US have been convinced that they need 16-bit or 32-
   bit systems.  Because of this, very few 8-bit machines are being sold
   in the US.  And therefore, little software is being developed.  If you
   have needs for commercial software, come on, let's go for it!  Buy an
   ST!
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