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Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984

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On 2014-03-11 22:56:04 +0000, Koen Lefever said:

> On Tue, 11 Mar 2014 13:37:54 -0700, Oregonian Haruspex wrote:
> 
>> On 2014-03-11 15:36:51 +0000, RS Wood said:
>> 
>>> From the 'If it's got an X in the name it's cool' department:
>>> 
>>> http://www.dvorak.org/blog/whatever-happened-to-msx-computers/
>>> 
>>> Not too many people will recall the short-lived era of the
> “MSX”
>>> initiative which was slated to pretty much take over the non-existent
>>> middle world where consumer electronics met personal computers. It was
>>> always believed, back then, that this is where the sweet spot of
>>> profits would emerge. What emerged was instead laughable MSX. It was
>>> one of Microsoft’s greatest flops.
>>> 
>>> ... [major snippage] ...
>>> 
>>> In February of 1990 one of the last hold outs for MSX, Sony
>>> Corporation, gave up on supporting MSX and moved into production of AX
>>> computers (another dead-end) and mini-notebook machines. Only Panasonic
>>> continued to make an MSX-II Turbo machine. Sanyo also stayed in the
>>> consortium to no avail
>>> 
>>> The story of MSX – if it is ever remembered — might eventually
> be a
>>> Harvard Business School case study. The entire episode proves that
>>> popularizing a new standard is not a trivial pursuit."
>> 
>> While MSX machines were very rare stateside, they were probably the most
>> popular platform in Japan for about a decade.  The problem that MSX
>> faced here in the USA was that Microsoft was pushing DOS for everything,
>> and even finding an advertisement for MSX in the USA is difficult.
>> 
>> Back then there were several competing computer platforms in Japan which
>> were almost never seen stateside - MSX, Sharp's X1 and later X68000, the
>> Fujitsu Fm series, and the NEC PC-8801s.  They are sought by collectors
>> these days, not only for the rarity of the hardware but also because
>> these platforms had many many games.
>> 
>> I have to say, as usual, that Dvorak missed the point.  MSX failed in
>> the USA and Canada, but it made a lot of companies a lot of money in
>> Japan and Brazil.
>> 
>> He can't be blamed entirely for his journalistic error, though.  Most
>> people are not aware of the variety of Japanese home computers because
>> they never had a chance to see them.
> 
> In Europe, MSX had some limited success for a very short period due to
> the Philips VG-8000 series:
> 
> http://www.msx.org/wiki/Category:Philips
> 
> In 1984, a Z80A computer was too little too late. Commodore 64 was still
> going strong in the 8-bit segment. Some IBM-PC clones, notably the Sanyo
> MBC-550 and some "White PCs" (machines without a brand), were already
> affordable to home users. A year later in 1985, the Atari ST and the
> Commodore Amiga brought M68000 power in reach for home users and killed
> the MSX market.

It's interesting that the Amiga and ST never made much headway in the 
states.  I only knew one person with an Amiga back in those days, and I 
have still never seen an ST in real life.  Almost everybody I knew had 
a Commodore 64, an Apple II of some flavor, some type of IBM or clone, 
or a Macintosh.  I went to a special magnet middle school for computers 
and technology so my peers were all pretty computer-savvy and so were 
their parents.

I do agree that, in the USA and perhaps Europe, a Z80 was a bit wimpy 
for the time frame (certainly by the late 80s) but in Japan these MSX 
boxes seem to have been the predominant computer, with Microsoft's 
DOS/V struggling to catch on even after the MSX was almost a decade old.

Let's not even get into the sad demise of the British computers of the 80s!

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The story of MSX computers in 1984 RS Wood <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2014-03-11 15:36 +0000
  Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-11 13:37 -0700
    Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Koen Lefever <koen.lefever@gmail.com> - 2014-03-11 22:56 +0000
      Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-11 16:56 -0700
        Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Roger Blake <rogblake@iname.invalid> - 2014-03-12 02:33 +0000
          Re: The story of MSX computers in 1984 Oregonian Haruspex <bob_davis_retired@yahoo.com> - 2014-03-11 23:05 -0700

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