CompuServe Messages

"The OS is now in revision 3.1, there is over 10,000 applications available, there is 5,000,000 machines out there. How much bigger does it need to get before the market is established. There usually is less than that before competition starts." Your logic doesn't hang together too well. Very few of those 10,000 alleged applications are actively marketed – and very few are big sellers. 5,000,000 machines – mostly older, slower and used for games – doesn't make a market. It's people buying new software, new machines and new peripherals that make a market. You can judge the extent of the Amiga market just by trying to find a dealer near you – at least in the US. Finally, the specific kind of competition being spoken of here is between the genuine AmigaOS running on an actual Amiga and a maybe-it-be-developed clone. That's a big difference – and the number of existing machines doesn't have much relevance. The real question is where will both the dealers and the customers for an Amiga clone come from? Who's got the money to develop and support that market? What advantages would potential buyers perceive? If you look at the history of the Amiga marketplace, I think you'd have to ask how a clone could expect to succeed where the original failed. Jerry