Thanks

I would like to extend my thanks to Peter and Michael for kindly giving me a column on Amiga Universe!

This month I feel like having a really good rant. These past few weeks have been quite annoying and confusing so I think a good complain is in order! :)

They say a Leopard can't change it spots, and the way the business of publicising the new Amiga, and Amiga International's plans for the future, is being handled is making me more convinced about this than ever. We all know the fiasco caused when AI mentioned the 'Intel' word at World Of Amiga this year, and the back-peddling they had to do to minimise the damage (It's now x86 - ie: Intel or Intel compatible.. nice try anyway). Then we have a certain interview with Jeff Schindler in Investors Business Daily....

Part of the announcements all along has been that the new Amiga, or at least some models of the new Amiga, will be part of the Digital Convergence fad which is sweeping the computer industry. Besides being nothing more than a ploy to get around the patents held by Viscorp, and a few other firms, concerning so-called Internet Set-Top boxes, this trend is aimed squarely at increasing the integration of computers and household appliances like TVs. What this boils down to is that new Amigas are basically going to be set top boxes. The community has been assured that other models - desktop, tower etc - will be available. But Jeff somehow manages to forget about those in the article, even going as far as saying that the high-end market is not the "bulk of their target". Fine, we all know that the Amiga can make a great home computer and would be ideally suited to use as a frontend to an internet system, but it is first and foremost a computer - something you use for serious applications such as word processing/ DTP, graphics, music etc and games. I can just imagine trying to use Lightwave on a set-top internet box... Going off the information given out so far these new Amigas will have a fairly average processor and graphics capability (yeah, it's impressive today, but by the middle of next year PCs will have reached the same level or passed it) with an operating system which is likely to be a long way from the one we know and the whole thing will be stuck in a box on the top of a TV set. From the sound of it, what AI are telling us to do is buy a PC for the serious stuff of doing business and buy a set-top box Amiga for web browsing and games.

I suppose that what I have said so far is a worst case scenario. It probably is too, but I haven't seen very much evidence to counter it. I have even gone as far as trying to mail the new PR man at AI (and they NEED him), Bill McEwan, asking him to clarify these matters. All of them bounced. The current, or as AI call it the "Classic", Amiga market has been largely left to it's own devices by AI - they want it to continue, but they haven't invested anything in maintaining it. P5 are doing their best to maintain the current hardware market, but even this can only be a short-term holdover. What is desperately needed now is for AI to clarify the situation concerning the format of the new Amigas, I know that as, a developer, I certainly wouldn't support anything as farcical as a set-top box Amiga and that the majority of the current Amiga owners and, perhaps more importantly, developers wouldn't either. What we want is an Amiga COMPUTER not an Amiga internet frontend.

Hopefully, now that AI have a dedicated PR guy, we will be spared any more of these confusing announcements and interviews. Given their track record though, I'm not confident that this will be the case. I certainly can't help but get the feeling that AI are singing different tunes to different people - one story for the community, another for the rest of the computer industry. It is about time they realised that the Amiga community is very good at finding out where the Amiga is being talked about, and it doesn't do their reputation any good when what Amigans read in the mainstream media is at odds with what they have been told in AI press releases. And then they wonder why people are still leaving for pastures PC...

There, rant over.

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