There's a lot of speculation and concern flying about as to what the
future holds for the Amiga platform. One thing that worries people is the
price. The Amiga is regarded as a cheap machine, and a lot of people think
that all these wonderful ideas for hardware will make it an expensive
machine, not in the spirit of the old Amiga. The Amiga is thought of £400
computer, and if it comes with PPC, graphics cards, Caipirinha chips and so
on, it isn't likely to remain as a £400 machine. Will a £1000+ Amiga still be an Amiga?
With the prices of PC componentry tumbling, can the Amiga remain comparatively cheap?
Actually, when the Amiga first came out people moaned that it was too expensive. 30% more costly than it's main rival, it won out none the less because people recognised it was worth paying more for the better hardware. It looks cheaper today, but we seem to forget inflation. If a new Amiga was launched today at £7-800 it would be comparable. A £400 machine might be possible, but the limitations of making a computer to fit a tight price bracket is what put us in this situation in the first place. If the A1200 had been launched at a slightly higher price it could have been a tower system ten times as expandable as it is now.
What makes an Amiga appear cheap is what is possible on a minimum specification machine. If future machines allow a good range of specification, there should be no problem. The Connect motherboard announced by Index should allow OEM manufacturers to offer Amigas varying from a 18Mb '040/25 big box Amiga with a 2GB hard drive for around £650.. Go up to a grand and a half and you'd be looking at an '060/66, 34MB, CD-ROM, 4GB hard drive, graphics card, modem and a 17" monitor. That kind of freedom of choice rather than worshipping of traditional price points is what the Amiga really should really be aiming for.
Andrew Korn, CU Amiga Magazine Staff Writer.
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