by Harvey » Thu Mar 29, 2012 4:30 pm
Somehow I got it stuck in my head - somewhere around 1982 - or maybe a few months earlier? That an Atari 400 in New Zealand, costing around $1295? Which I guess would be only 16K? The Atari 800 was around the $2000 mark?
The oldest price I have a note of is - The Atari 800 with 16K at US$1080 - via Microcomputing, April 1981. Listing also a 16K add board for US$120 and a 32K board for US$320. The Atari 800 was initially to be shipped with only 8K - but was quickly revised to 16K - because of how useless it is with 8K. Early Atari's had a CTIA chip, and this was superceded by the GTIA chip.
The oldest English price I have is - Atari 800- 16K for 399 Pounds, and 48k for 440 Pounds - and I would guess this is for late 1983? I purchased my Atari 800 a year earlier, which was around 600? Pounds. I knew it's price was starting to drop downwards. A disk drive at this time - was very expensive - costing around NZ$1000
As I said - the only way to explain the insanely high Ozisoft prices - was that they could not import the hardware/etc at wholesale prices, but only via retail - and added their own profit margin/etc on top of that. Meaning also - it was better to import the equipment/etc yourself overseas directly.
When Monaco took over - the downward reduced prices trend had fully blossomed - and we know now in respect, that when electronics reach the mass market - the greater numbers encourage lower and more affordable pricing, etc etc. The computer changed from a hobbyist/enthusiast market towards a more general mass market - who would also only afford a cheaper price.
Harvey