Commodore - a post mortem from the UK perspective (BCS)

The rise and fall of Commodore as posted a few weeks ago, getting David Pleasance’s take on the company’s fall:

Mismanaged from the hero to zero. … how Commodore roared to a position of almost global dominance and then collapsed, just as dramatically, declaring bankruptcy on 19 April 1994. [Pleasance] was one of Commodore’s longest serving employees, eventually becoming its UK MD. That gives him an unparalleled view of the tech giant’s rise and its eventual fall.

“Right from the start that move told me that they never had a business plan. I was given the job of selling the C64 because we didn’t have enough PETs to sell into retail”

… nostalgia is pulling legions of young people into technology, coding, making and doing. ‘I’m very closely associated with the retro computing museum in Leicester and with a museum in Holland,’ he says. ‘They bring classes of school children through and show them the C64, Amiga and the BBC. It excites the kids. What you can make with pixels on a C64 is nothing compared to a modern mobile phone, but it really opens up their eyes and their ears to what’s possible. And it’s accessible, not locked down like a phone.’

via Elminster on Stardot.

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