[taylodl]

That was dealer price, not retail price. A C64 system having the monitor and floppy drive retailed for $1,000. It was the highest-selling computer at the time (technically of all time) and yes, Jobs was obsessed with it. Jobs believed taking the C64 with its serial expansion bus, and adding in a mouse and a GUI would make a computer "for the rest of us." Also, that price you quoted is after the release of the Mac, which subdued C64 sales.

[rasz]

https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1984-Sea...

https://christmas.musetechnical.com/ShowCatalogPage/1984-Sea...

http://www.wishbookweb.com/FB/1984_Mongomery_Ward_Christmas_...

[taylodl]

The Mac was released in January of 1984. These are prices from Christmas of 1984 - several months after the Mac was released. The design of the Mac began in 1982, when the C64 was retailing for $595 and was seriously affecting Apple II sales. What these catalog prices reveal is the impact the Mac had on C64 sales in a very short period of time, which forced Commodore to respond with the Amiga. But that's a story for another day.

[rasz]

So to sum it all up I was correct in stating $199 price in 1984 and C64 did have expandability.

[taylodl]

Yeah, you just neglected to mention it was the arrival of the Mac that forced Commodore to slash their prices by over 66%. That "bottom feeder" you spoke of is the top-selling machine in history and was a major factor in Apple's pivot. Maybe it's just me but I think those facts are important in understanding the why's and wherefore's for how we got to where we are now.