A*L*T*E*R*N*A*T*E R*E*A*L*I*T*Y T*I*M*E*S "All the news that could have been!" MONOPOLY INVESTIGATION OF ATARI DROPPED "Absolutely no reason to continue." says FTC Chief. Washington, D.C. 1 April, 1994 (ART Staff) The Chief of the Federal Trade Commission today announced that the investigation into alleged monopolistic practices of computer giant Atari Corporation has been dropped. "After a very thorough investigation of Atari, we find no indication of any monopolistic practices. Atari simply had a better product at a better price with better advertising and customer support than any of its competitors. Consumers obviously recognized that." he said. Atari spokesman and Vice President for Customer Relations, Bob Brodie, was grinning broadly when he met with reporters. "We knew early on that we had a superior product at a better price than anyone else. 'Power without the Price' was a slogan we took very seriously." said Brodie. "It went further than that, however." continued Brodie. "We knew that we had to work closely with our dealer network, third party developers and above all our customers to maintain our lead. That is why we embarked in an aggressive national advertising campaign in cooperation with our fine dealers. We also felt that we had to do everything possible to support the third party developers. We made the information necessary for them to do the fine job they have done in as complete and timely manner as humanly possible." When asked about Atari's outstanding reputation for customer service Brodie replied "We always knew that getting the customer was only part of the battle. Keeping the customer happy is just smart business. A happy customer is a repeat customer. Also a happy customer will tell his or her friends. We can advertise all over the world, but once the word of unhappy customers gets out, well it takes millions of dollars of advertising just to combat that. Therefore we decided to work closely with our dealers to establish training for their personnel and make sure that the dealers had what was necessary to properly support Atari customers." Mr. Brodie then went on. "We also think that direct contact with our customers is invaluable. We maintain a bank of 800 numbers just for customer questions. However our greatest interface with our customers is on the various on-line services, especially GEnie, our Official On-Line Support service. I have a large staff some of whom do nothing but monitor and reply to questions on the on-line services. We feel that we get to know our customers that way and, even more importantly, they get to know us - not as a faceless corporation but as individuals. We take problem reports very seriously and try and get answers to our customers within 24 hours." Brodie then described the full Atari line including the newest model, the MegaFalcon040. "We are ready for the 68060 whenever Motorola is ready to produce it. However, as has been our policy, we will not announce any new products until they have been fully tested and sufficient quantities are available for our dealers to be properly stocked. We are very pleased with the customer response to our full line, especially our premier offering, the MegaFalcon040. The MegaF040 was a direct response to customer demand. Built in 16-bit stereo sound and 1280x1024 true color video was necessary for real MultiMedia as was the built in quad- speed CD ROM drive. Of course we have had DSP is a standard feature for quite some time." When asked about future products, Brodie only smiled and said "Join in the Dateline: Atari! Real Time Conference on GEnie this evening at 10pm Eastern time. We expect to break our attendance record of 1022 tonight." Sheldon Winick, owner of the coast-to-coast chain of Computer STudio Stores, was reached at his Asheville, NC, mansion for comment. "We have always had a great relationship with Atari. They have been extremely supportive of their dealers especially in the areas of advertising, training and proper stocking. It was obvious very early that Atari had a clearly superior product. However they did not just rest on their laurels, the kept developing and bringing to the market even better products. Had they not done so, we might be using MacIntoshes now." The MacIntosh was an early competitor of the Atari line by the now defunct Apple Corporation. John Eidsvoog, CEO of the mammoth software company, CodeHead Technologies was also reached for comment. "It is no surprise to us that Atari virtually monopolized the home computer market. They produced a clearly superior product for a reasonable price and then supported it. As a software developer we owe a great deal of our success to the complete cooperation that Atari offered third party firms. We always had advance units of new hardware to work with as well as complete documentation for upgrades to The Operating System. They always consulted with the developers about proposed changes in TOS and listened to our inputs. It has been a great relationship" Charles F. Johnson, President of CodeHead, could not be reached for comment. He was with the Al Jareau tour jointly sponsored by Atari and CodeHead. CodeHead Technologies recently purchased a small software firm, MicroSoft. "They were trying to market a poorly designed and implemented operating system for an inferior CPU." said Eidsvoog. "However, they did have some personnel with potential." Tom Harker, President of ICD, also had comments. "We were very pleased with the findings of the FTC. We had no doubts about the outcome. Atari has always been a very forward looking, but realistic company. They realized in the late 1980s that for them to develop hard-disk interface hardware and software would only be duplicating the work that ICD had already done. They contracted with us to supply these products for all Atari computers and that relationship remains in effect today. I believe that it has been very beneficial for Atari, Atari customers and, of course, ICD." David Troy, Owner of the Toad Computers Super Store in Severna Park, MD was on vacation with his wife Jennifer in the Virgin Islands. He did wire Brodie the following comment: "Right on!" Dan Wilga and Rick Flashman of Gribnif Software also expressed delight at the FTC findings. An official statement released by Gribnif stated "Gribnif is very pleased that the FTC came to the obvious conclusion. We have had a very good arrangement with Atari since they incorporated our NeoDesk desktop as part of every Atari system. They have been far-seeing and supportive. What else could you ask for?" Dave Small, Vice President of Gadgets by Small, was dragged from beneath his vintage Camaro long enough to comment. "For a while I thought that Atari's dominance would hurt my business. However I find that there is quite a demand for my product due to the closing of many Atari competitors. With my product line people who still want to use computers that are no longer in production can do so, and usually faster and better than on the original product. Atari has been very good about keeping me appraised about hardware changes so that I can keep my product compatible. Sometimes they have even made changes in their designs to help me! With that kind of cooperation, how could I not succeed?" The other premier third party hardware developer, Jim Allen of Fast Technology was less sanguine. "Atari's hardware is so good that it is hard for me to improve it. However, I do manage to keep a step or two ahead of them in specialized areas." he grinned. "Also I am on a permanent retainer to Atari as a consultant. They call me quite often." In general, the home computer community seems to believe that Atari earned its pre-eminence but that they will have to keep earning it with the same positive attitude.