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MegaDisc 45 (1996-03)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].zip
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MegaDisc 45 (1996-03)(MegaDisc Digital Publishing)(AU)(Disk 1 of 2)[WB].adf
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amiga_tech
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ESCOM.txt
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ESCOM.txt
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1996-01-21
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10KB
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199 lines
Speech of Manfred Schmitt Escom AG Chairman of the Executive Board
Here are the speeches of Manfred Schmitt and Petro Tyschtschenko at
the Amiga press conference in Frankfurt.
[ Gilles attended this press conference. -Dan ]
Frankfurt/Main, May 30, 1995
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Ladies and gentlemen,
Since we won the auction for the intellectual property of Commodore
and Amiga, the ESCOM AG is flooded with congratulation messages. Amiga
clubs and Amiga users write to ask us to revive and continue to develop
and improve the Amiga. Many of them actually sent us their wishes for
future hardware architectures and operating systems improvements.
However, it is still unclear for many users how a PC manufacturer
and retailer will use the Amiga technology.
Here is our answer:
ESCOM now turns from a PC manufacturer and retailer into a
multimedia company. The big multimedia applications will come very soon
as Pay-TV, Video on demand, homebanking, home-shopping and online
services. In this growing market, we want to become a leading provider
of hardware, software and solutions. Our goal is to give the user a
cost-efficient way to access all these new services the multimedia world
will allow. The Amiga technology brings us all we need here in an
elegant way. We see in the Amiga the key to Multimedia technologies for
the future.
As an intelligent terminal, you all know the PC. Many people use
the PC in conjunction with a modem to access online services and the
worldwide Internet. Escom is providing that market with a wide palette
of advantageoulsy priced Multimedia PCs in a range between 2000 and 3000
DM.
But there are other user profiles, who want to use the multimedia
technology without having to spend several thousands of DM. For these
users, the Amiga represents a very interesting alternative. It stands
out with an amazing price/quality ratio. Also remarkable is the
operating system with a still unmatched multitasking ability. That
means that several applications can run simultaneously, depending on
available memory without slowing down the whole system. This is
achieved by the smart resource sharing of the system and the low
consumption of RAM and processing power by the applications.
The Amiga operating system needs 8 times less memory than Windows,
and it multitasks better than Windows. Through this smart use of system
resources, the Amiga is still a very efficient and unexpensive computer.
Video is another strength of the Amiga. In this aspect, the Amiga
is superior to the PC. The video output of the Amiga is already PAL and
NTSC compatible, so it can just be plugged into a TV or any video
monitor. A PC needs a converter to do this. The Amiga represents a
possibility to give people access to interactive television, online
services and pay TV with set top boxes at decent prices like 400 DM.
The market is huge because there are much more televisions than
computers in the homes.
The set top box is a concrete application involving Amiga technology
that we want to improve. For the American market, which is much more
advanced than in Europe in this regard, we already have license
agreements with our partner VisCorp - our first licence by the way. We
are willing to be very flexible and open-minded regarding licensing of
our technology. Amiga developers and manufacturers shall have the
chance to talk with us to define partnerships or license agreements.
Together, we will develop a wide range of Amiga hardware and software.
Our goal is a productive, open amiga technology. The example of Viscorp
demonstrates it at best : we license Amiga technology to people who
want to integrate it in their own products. The press already talked
about another partner, the Tianjin Family-Used Multimedia Co. Ltd.
They will build the lower range of Amiga computers and revive the
legendary Commodore 64 for the chinese market.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have mainly talked about the Amiga. In New
York, we also took over another well known brand : Commodore. All of
you surely remember the good old Commodore 64 and its tremendous success
in the early eighties. It is still a famous episode in the home
computer history that could be compared to the Volkswagen Beetle. A
recent study made by the german economic magazine DM reveals that the
name Commodore still has very high recognition. 93 percent of all PC
users know the trademark Commodore. such a reputation is only surpassed
by IBM.
We will now separate Commodore and Amiga operations. Amiga will be
the multimedia range with Motorola processors and Commodore for Intel
based Personal Computers. We want to use all available and appropriate
distribution channels both for Commodore and Amiga: specialized retail
stores, warehouses, and mail order services. The ESCOM subsidiaries are
only one of many possibilities.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced that ESCOM, Commodore and
Amiga will become a sucess story. Look at the structure and
competencies we have built up in a short time.
Thank you.
*********************************************************************
Petro Tyschtschenko
Ladies and gentlemen,
As the General manager of Amiga Technologies GmbH, I would like to
welcome you to the first press conference of our new company and also
tell you how much we appreciate your presence here.
At a spectacular auction, five weeks ago in New York, ESCOM AG
acquired the rights to the intellectual property of the former Commodore
company for 10 Mio $, including all trademarks, logos, products and
licences.
Since the day we succeeded in buying the Amiga technology, many
people have asked us how the future will look for their computer of
choice. We got floods of anxious faxes and letters to which we couldn't
give an answer at once because things were too early to comment. We
will use the opportunity we have now to talk to all of you and present
the new Escom daughtercompany, Amiga Technologies. Some leading
developpers of hardware and software for the Amiga as well as some of
our new licensing partners will present themselves and their projects to
us.
To clear up things from the beginning, - and that's the point you
are all interested in - I want to make the comittment that we are
determined to resume production and also want to continue hardware and
software development of what we believe is a superior technology.
That's why we created Amiga Technologies and we are now hiring the best
and most capable people to accomplish this.
For a sucessfull Multimedia company like ESCOM, the Commodore
Patents and licences concerning Amiga are considered the key to
multimedia technology. Mister Schmitt will say more about this later.
But let's concentrate on our immediate plans. As the director of
Amiga Technologies, my first priority now is to resume production of
Commodore and Amiga computers and bring them on the market as soon as
possible. For us, this means September 1995.
I would also like to refer to Commodore computers, Pentium PCs,
which will be available in August this year. These will be fully loaded
P75 and P100 multimedia PCs. They will be assembled in our own ESCOM
facilities. We plan to sell between 50 000 and 60 000 units before the
end of this year. Let me point out that the Commodore and Amiga
operations will be separate, Amiga Technologies will only take care of
Amiga, whereas ESCOM will provide Commodore PCs.
One month later, we will start producing the high-end multimedia Amiga
4000 T. To succeed in keeping that tight schedule, we negotiated with
well known producers in Europe and Asia. For the selection of the
manufacturing partner, we will be emphasizing the quality requirements.
Until the end of the year, we plan to produce enough machines to
meet the demand. These machines are already outsold in preorders. In
October, the production of the low-end A1200 will begin. We expect to
ship enough untis as well as CD 32 game consoles to meet the Christmas
season demand. Please give us more time to publish quantities.
The takeover of the inventory, which is mainly composed of spare
parts, in the UK and Germany is completed. The rumoured stocks of new
Amigas ready to be sold do not exist. For inventory in the Phillipines,
we are currently negotiating with the local trustees.
Ladies and gentlemen, the new Amiga Technology will now become the
operating center of an international Company held 100% by ESCOM AG. Our
headquarters in Bensheim will employ around 50 people for following
tasks : development, support to developers, resellers, and users,
production management, Marketing, PR and administration. We also took
over the former Commodore development center in Norristown, with its
research and development facilities. Eduard Goff, former Vice President
and General counsel at Commodore now leads that center. He will talk to
you later. Our developers are now working on the next generation RISC
based Amigas as well as on improving current models. Here, we are
working in a tight partnership with SCALA and MOTOROLA.
Amiga Technologies GmbH expects a turnover of 100 Mio DM in 1995,
mainly from the Christmas business with Amiga 1200, 4000 and CD32. Our
monthly expenses are evaluated at around 600 000 DM. The break even
point should be reached this year. We are confident that we will have
rentabilized our 10 Mio $ investment by spring 1996 with Amiga sales and
licences.
Thank you.
-- Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH
gbo@ramses.fdn.org
gbo@worldnet.net
--
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