Subj : Re: History of Coleco Adam To : Necromaster From : Spitfire Date : Thu Mar 28 2024 16:26:04 On Wed 27-Jun-2018 3:27p, Necromaster@80:774/0.0 wrote: N> one third of its Canadian N> orders for Christmas. Less than 10% of Adam units had defects, the company N> claimed, "well below industry standards". N> An analyst stated in early 1984 that the company had targeted a very N> special N> area: primarily home users who have students or N> teenage children who are writing term papers and who tend to be naive N> computer users. Coleco has tried to make the Adam easy to use and N> attractive N> to that group, consciously excluding other groups by the way that [they] N> configured the machine. N> By March 1984 John J. Anderson declared Adam as having caused for Coleco N> "a N> trail of broken promises, unfulfilled expectations, and extremely skittish N> stockholders." On January 2, 1985, after continuing complaints about Adam N> failures and low sales, Coleco announced that it was discontinuing the N> Adam and N> would be selling off its inventory.[14] Coleco revealed that it lost $35 N> million in late 1983 (the time of the Adam's launch), along with a loss of N> $13.4 million in the first 9 months of 1984. Coleco did not reveal which N> company they were selling the inventory to, but stated that they had N> worked N> with this partner before. No final sales numbers were revealed of the Adam N> computer and Expansion, but one analyst estimated that Coleco had sold N> 350,000 Adams in 1983 and 1984.[17] N> --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Windows/64) N> * Origin: Necronomicon BBS - necrobbs.strangled.net (80:774/0) N> season would result in "inestimable N> losses". CEO Arnold Greenberg promised in late September to ship by N> "mid-October", but claimed that Adam was "not, primarily, a Christmas N> item". N> The printer was the main cause of the delays; after it failed to function N> properly at demonstrations, by November InfoWorld reported on "growing N> skepticism" about its reliability, speed, and N> noise.[9] N> Greenberg refused to say how many units he expected Coleco to ship by the N> end N> of the year. The company did not ship review units to magazines planning N> to N> publish reviews before Christmas, stating that all were going to dealers, N> but N> admitted that it would not meet the company's goal of shipping 400,000 N> computers by the end of the year; Kmart and JCPenney announced in November N> that N> it would not sell the Adam during the Christmas season because of lack of N> availability. Despite great consumer interest, Coleco shipped only N> 95,000 units by December, many of which N> were defective; Creative Computing later reported that "the rumored return N> rate was absolutely alarming". One store manager stated that five of six N> sold N> Adams had been returned, and expected that the sixth would likely be N> returned N> after being opened on Christmas. Coleco partnered with Honeywell N> Information N> Systems to open up repair chain stores around the nation. By December N> 1983 the press reported that company executives at a news conference N> "fielded N> questions about Coleco's problems with its highly-publicized new Adam home N> computer, which has been plagued by production delays and complaints of N> defects", with the company able to fulfill only one third of its Canadian N> orders for Christmas. Less than 10% of Adam units had defects, the company N> claimed, "well below industry standards". N> An analyst stated in early 1984 that the company had targeted a very N> special N> area: primarily home users who have students or N> teenage children who are writing term papers and who tend to be naive N> computer users. Coleco has tried to make the Adam easy to use and N> attractive N> to that group, consciously excluding other groups by the way that [they] N> configured the machine. N> By March 1984 John J. Anderson declared Adam as having caused for Coleco N> "a N> trail of broken promises, unfulfilled expectations, and extremely skittish N> stockholders." On January 2, 1985, after continuing complaints about Adam N> failures and low sales, Coleco announced that it was discontinuing the N> Adam and N> would be selling off its inventory.[14] Coleco revealed that it lost $35 N> million in late 1983 (the time of the Adam's launch), along with a loss of N> $13.4 million in the first 9 months of 1984. Coleco did not reveal which N> company they were selling the inventory to, but stated that they had N> worked N> with this partner before. No final sales numbers were revealed of the Adam N> computer and Expansion, but one analyst estimated that Coleco had sold N> 350,000 Adams in 1983 and 1984.[17] N> --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A39 2018/04/21 (Windows/64) N> * Origin: Necronomicon BBS - necrobbs.strangled.net (80:774/0) ^-- Good reading, needed to share (again). * ACIS Member. AmigaNet ArakNet C=Net FidoNet PiNet RetroNet * C-Net/5 * Origin: call.rofbbs.com ports 6800 6400 8502 / 423-541-8271 (80:774/1) .