#Business as usual in UK?
10 messages in this thread
I had reason to contact CBM UK a couple of times today to talk to both tech
support and customer services. Of course I asked the question about the future
of CBM in light of the liquidation of Commodore in the US. They said that as
far as they were concerned it was business as usual and added that they
expected to be in business for a long time.
Later in the day I was in touch with a local dealer today and discussing the
merits of fixing my A3000 (260 pounds sterling for a new power supply!!). They
said that the unconfirmed rumour floating around their place was that CBM UK
was not a wholly owned subsidiary and would be buying out the US operation.
Now all this seems highly improbable but so does closing down CBM over here
when Amiga is still such a big name in the home computer market. Add to that
respectable sales in the rest of Europe and you have the basis for a successful
business. I don`t think you need hundreds of millions to develop and market
Amiga – Chelsea are playing in the FA Cup Final, that's enough international
advertising for the year.
Acorn seem to survive on a few tens of thousands of Archimedes sold annually
plus royalties from Apple. Meagre resources didn't stop them developing the
first RISC based pc – which might have been a big success if it hadn't of been
for the ubiquitous Amiga. The Archimedes may not sell in droves but it is
alive.
But despite CBM answering the phone I still have the lingering dilemma – is it
worth parting with 260 quid to get my Amiga back?
IMHO 260 quid for a few more years use of an Amiga 3000 is well worth it,
whether the machine is still in production or not.
Peter Wade
Autopiloting from London, England
"IMHO 260 quid for a few more years use of an Amiga 3000 is well worth it,
whether the machine is still in production or not."
A conclusion that I eventually reached myself – helped by the fact that CPC
actually supply them for 167 quid and have promised next day delivery. Just
hoping that nothing on the motherboard has blown.
Martin,
You must take into consideration that Acorn is not an independent company,
but part of Olivetti.
Pete Jones, flying on AutoPilot from Brussels, Belgium
Yes I knew that Acorn became part of Olivetti but wasn't sure if that was
before or after the Archimedes was developed. I remember first seeing one of
these machines in Sydney in about 1986-7.
I had also thought that Olivetti had been struggling over the last few years
and would be unlikely to be propping up Acorn.
Martin,
What's L260 ? About $400US ? That sounds awfully expensive for a power
supply. Yes, get it fixed, but you might shop around on price!
-sja
I just had a thought. If Commodore was indeed working on AAA chipset and so
called A5000, they were probably thinking of puting a PCI bus on it. As far as
I know PCI was developed by Intel, so if Commodore was working with the PCI bus
didn't they have to get rights from Intel?? If they did is it possible to get
that kind of info from Intel or anyone else? The other thought I had was
concerning the RISC processor. If they were thinking of puting one in the next
generation machines they had to get som RISC processors to work with; but from
whom?? So, is there a way to find that out also? If lets say they got some
R4000 processors from what ever company makes them could some one find that
out? I hope you see where I am driving at. If Commodore purcha sed a lot of
RISC cpu's from some company that means that we will probably see a new
machine. Oh, and by the way maybe someone could call Motorola and see if
Commodore purchased some 060, and get a date of when that was done. If they
were purchaised a week ago then we will know that this liquidation is a "joke".
Anyway these are just specula tions. I guess I am just too disapointed to see
Amiga go.
I see your logic, but doubt it would work. Most suppliers are pretty tight
lipped, and also often have signed agreements not to disclose details of
transactions.
Thus Intel would probably not disclose whether or not C= had liscensed the
technology, and Motorola is unlikely to give you number of chips shipped, or
the dates.
Eugene,
You might want to read the transcript of the CO we had with Dave Haynie in
early February. He details what he was working on at that time.
-sja
L260 is closer to $US375 as far as I know. Still pretty expensive though.
In the event I purchased one directly from CBM's main distributor CPC for
L165 or thereabouts. I am glad to have the 3000 back although I suspect
that I still may have some problems in serial port department.
martin
wetherby yorkshire