The Day After - Inventing the PC - page 141

chures, data sheets, and manuals. All of these projects required
marketing efforts and financial resources that MCM could never
secure. “It's a case of being there first and not realizing how ex-
pensive it is to tell people what you're doing. Because that was
our biggest problem,” explained Ramer.
Most difficult of all, it wasn't clear how best to communicate
effectively the full benefits of a dedicated small, stand-alone sys-
tem from MCM , and the benefits of its APL language and virtual
memory, while still claiming that the system was not a utopian
electronic gadget but a useful computational tool “as easy to use
as a hand-held calculator.” “Every sale was really a hard thing
because you are going in with something totally new, something
never seen before,” added Ramer. Indeed, the novelty factor
can act against a new computer product, when marketing fails
to provide distributors with effective tools. With time, how-
ever, the novelty of small desktop computers was starting to
wear off.
Marketing problems at MCM under Berg's presidency per-
sisted. Some former MCM employees pointed their fingers at
Berg himself. “What originally intrigued me was the hundreds
of responses from adverts placed in trade magazines and the
lack of sales,” recollected Barrie Robinson, who was with MCM
from January to June 1976 as director of marketing. “Ted
[Berg] was convinced it was all Peter Wolfe's fault as marketing
manager. At the time I tended to agree, but as time went on I
can honestly say Peter did as good a job as he was allowed to
do.” To add weight to his words, Robinson quoted his corpor-
ate experience: “After MCM , I built Comten who were leaders
in IBM compatible front-end processors (later NCR -Comten),
Sytek, and Cisco [Canada] so I reckon I am well qualified to
comment on MCM 's failure in the market.” According to Rob-
inson, it was Berg who should be partially blamed for MCM 's
inability to market its computers successfully when IBM had
begun to encroach on MCM 's territory. “These were the days