TO: THE AMIGA COMMUNITY
Thanks for your notes and comments about our plans for Amiga. In the past couple weeks, we've received hundreds -- if not thousands -- of emails and messages from loyal Amigans worldwide, many of you expressing a concern about Amiga's future based on recent reports in the media and in numerous chat rooms. I am so impressed with the spirit and passion of this great community and I wanted to make sure I told you that
.The fact is... to borrow from Mark Twain... the reports of Amiga's death have been greatly exaggerated. To that end, I wanted to provide a little more detail about our plans for Amiga... both as a product and as a company, and hopefully clear up any confusion that exists.
First, I hope you'd agree that Amiga was never about a box. It was never about an operating system either. Sure those things were part of what made the original Amiga great, but at its heart, Amiga was simply about a better way. Amiga was ahead of its time. Amiga promised to change the world. It ran against conventional wisdom and was better than anything out there at the time. In fact, we could all argue that it's still better than anything out there.
The ideals and spirit of that original Amiga are alive and well today. But to limit Amiga to just one box, one product, one OS, is to keep Amiga from ever seeing its full potential. Think about it.... The original Amiga never did really reach its full potential despite its technical advantages and its cost and ease of use advantages. Why? Because it never became ubiquitous. The company's early vision was probably too limited for the vast potential that Amiga offered.
The original Amiga was all about multi-media, so why not have Amiga running on every type of device imaginable, on top of every other OS out there? That's the beauty of Amiga and where we are as an industry. We're in the midst of a revolution unlike anything the world has seen, and Amiga has never been better positioned to change that world and make a bigger impact. Limiting Amiga to just one box and one OS at this point would be like offering the world a better horse and carriage at the dawn of the automotive age. Amiga and its revolutionary spirit deserve better than that. Amiga is going to produce software technology that will enable Internet services on an emerging category of products commonly referred to as "Information Appliances". It is an exciting new mega trend in the industry and we are excited about being at the forefront of this next great wave in computing history. In addition, we have decided to work with business partners who will deliver our software technology on their systems, rather than enter the hardware business directly.
So long live Amiga, but if you think that Amiga was just a box, you've missed the point. Amiga is about a better way. In the coming weeks and months, we promise to keep you posted on progress against our plans for Amiga, and we thank you for your continued support. Let's work together to enable Amiga to revolutionize the industry and change the world!
Long live Amiga,
Thomas J. Schmidt
President & C.E.O.
September 17, 1999
Open Letter to the Amiga Community
There has been a great deal of confusion and frustration expressed in the news groups and via email over the past several weeks. I apologize that we have not been more direct in our communications, and I want to set the record straight.
First, per my previous messages, I continue to be impressed with the passion and commitment of this community. You have "hung in there" through a number of upheavals over the past years, and through several false starts on next-generation Amiga platforms. You deserve better. I have received many, many emails over the past two weeks, expressing your opinions and frustrations. Let me try and summarize what I have heard.
Many of you acknowledge the fact that we are focusing on software for the coming generation of "Internet appliances." We are very excited about the new Amiga Operating Environment, the work we are doing with Linux (and other operating systems that support Java), and the huge growth curve in Internet appliances that we are going to ride. You have gracefully wished us well in this endeavor, for that, I thank you. As you know, we announced in July that we were pursuing the development of a "multimedia convergence computer" that would serve as the next-generation Amiga desktop computer. After the change in management at Amiga, we reviewed all our product plans. To be honest, the ability for us to deliver the MCC was unrealistic. Furthermore, I have fundamentally decided that it would be better to partner with a wide variety of hardware partners, rather than compete against them with a product of our own.
From your perspective, one big problem exists. Sounds great, but what does this new direction have to do with the original Amiga computer? Quite honestly, nothing! We realize that this does not satisfy the desire of the Amiga community for a next-generation Amiga. In response, I remain committed to seek out partners who are interested in developing a next-generation Amiga computer and operating system. We have been following the discussions amongst the newly formed "Phoenix Platform Consortium" and talking to companies interested in supplying the next-generation Amiga. We are open to the possibility of licensing the MCC product specification and design that is now on the shelf to companies that are interested in further developing the Amiga desktop computer product line. We believe that this could be an attractive business opportunity for another company.
In summary, we are continuing to focus our resources on setting software standards for the coming generation of Internet appliances. We are not planning to offer hardware devices, but will work with hardware manufacturers who want to license our technology. As far as offering next-generation Amiga systems, we are open to talking to companies who want to offer such a product. For those of you who are excited about the Amiga Operating Environment running on a wide variety of future Internet appliances, we invite you to track our progress and activities over the coming months. The Internet appliance software model that we are putting together will open up an exciting new era of software development that we think will be very interesting to the type of innovative thinkers who were drawn to the Amiga computer in years past.
Best Regards,
Thomas J. Schmidt
President and CEO
Amiga, Inc.