Posted By
JamesC
on 2004-11-12
00:26:10
|  Re: Commodore's market decisions in the 80s
From an American market point of view: the Plus/4 was not meant to replace the 64, but to replace the PET/CBM machines... business machines. In that respect, it succeeded. Commodore's last business machines were the Plus/4 and the B128 (of which the B128 were also quickly sold off as liquidation machines, as quickly as all the Tramiels were out of West Chester).
The 16 did indeed replace the VIC-20 here. However it was marketed as a 'starter computer', as the competition here was Timex/Sinclair and Atari. The 16 was sold at discount stores whereas the Plus/4 was sold at department stores and other retailers that specialized in Commodore machines.
Having two computers based around one design simplified things for Commodore, as then they only had to build TED machines and VIC-II machines..... no more original VICs, no more metal-cased machines..... and the software selection from Commodore itself was also simplified as they didn't have to publish word processors and programming languages for several different memory architectures.
The 264 series also gave Commodore's engineering department the experience with memory banking and fast transfers that they needed to design a true 64 upgrade (the 128). History may forget about Script/Plus and the 1551, but the lessons learned kept the VIC-II series alive longer than anyone ever thought it could survive.
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