CompuServe Messages

"How can the buyer of the Amiga expect to succeed, where the original failed?" You put your finger on it, Alex, and the answer is that none of us know. As a matter of purely personal opinion, I think the two groups have totally different objectives in mind. The UK group, from what I've seen, hopes to re-establish the Amiga in the European market which was the core to begin with. I don't know enough about that market to offer an opinion as to the viability of doing that. CEI's plan seems to concentrate more on the higher-end and the US market. My personal feeling – and taking into account my absolute ignorance of the European market – is that the Amiga has excellent potential as a niche machine in the US, generating perhaps between $20 and $50-Million in annual revenues for the near-term. I don't personally think that there's any hope of re-establishing the brand as a mass market machine. "Apple (II series), and the IBM both had their clones." Bear in mind if you will that the Apple and IBM situations were entirely different. Apple moved aggressively against the one clone manufacturer I remember (Franklin) and essentially pushed them out of the business. Since that time, to the best of my recollection, there have been only two Apple clones, both using the Mac ROM's. Apple invested in one (Outbound). Both have long since gone out of business, Outbound being slaughtered by Apple's introduction of the PowerBook. IBM produced an open architecture to begin with allowing anyone to produce the machine without legal restraint. IBM promptly shot itself in the foot with the PCjr and allowing itself to become mired in internal turf wars that literally distracted its attention from the market. I forget the exact name of the book ("Big Blues" maybe), but Compaq would never have made it to first base if IBM had not cancelled several machines because of internal squabbles. In both these cases, though, Apple and IBM had established markets and huge brand recognition. People could be convinced that purchasing a lower cost 100% clone might be worth the risk. As often lamented here, most people have never heard of the "Omega". Thus the only people who might be induced to buy a clone are those who already own an Amiga – and they have shown little inclination in the past to upgrade their equipment with the real thing, so why should they be expected to purchase a clone? Personally I think the entity that acquires the Amiga technology and aggressively markets it as a niche machine is going to make a lot of money. Not as much as Bill Gates, perhaps, but definitely enough to buy a yacht or something like that. But I have serious reservations about a re-established Amiga product making it in the mass market – and even less belief that a clone could do it. Jerry