More information is trickling out about the new Amiga hardware. In an email to Amiga dealers, Bill McEwen, CEO of Amiga, Inc., writes: “As mentioned in the press release we are in the final stages with the design of new hardware and getting them into production. Something that will be different than what happened with the AmigaOne is that we will be purchasing these new machines in the more than 1,000 units per order. This will allow us to get better pricing and quality for all of you. The specs for the sub 500.00 machines will be out on Monday and the more expensive machine the following week. Production will begin soon and they will be ready this summer.”
Unless your Apple, you usually reveal the specs of your new machine(s) before pricing (or even availability).
So we know there is new hardware, we know one of the machines will be sub $500 (i.e $499.99) and we know there available soon, but why they are being secretive about the specs is beyond me.
If there in the “final stages” of the design (and I assume production won’t be that far behind) then at least let us know some details. CPU, chipset, ram slots, IDE or SATA. Hell, does it even come USB ports! Anything!
Edited 2007-04-29 22:49
Unless your Apple, you usually reveal the specs of your new machine(s) before pricing (or even availability).
So we know there is new hardware, we know one of the machines will be sub $500 (i.e $499.99) and we know there available soon, but why they are being secretive about the specs is beyond me.
If there in the “final stages” of the design (and I assume production won’t be that far behind) then at least let us know some details. CPU, chipset, ram slots, IDE or SATA. Hell, does it even come USB ports! Anything!
Patience, my young padawan
Specs on monday, only a few hours from now
if anything, its just going to be the sam440ep or something.
http://www.sam440.com/eng/products.html
While this may save money, is there still really a market for a thousand Amiga machines?
Yes, absolutely.
While this may save money, is there still really a market for a thousand Amiga machines?
Are you kidding? The Amiga user base once had over two million members (assuming one per computer), and the number of people in a position to know about them since (thanks to resources like Wikipedia, and products like UAE and AROS) has widened, not narrowed.
So what? Commodore 64 had 20 millions users 15 years ago. Amiga is comercially dead since the fall of Commodore.
I agree past performance has no indication of the future(edit: Look at DELL taking a Dive and SUN making a comeback). I am actualy shocked that they are going to make a hardware product. I actualy had a amiga 500 and actualy caught a virus on my Sim City.
I dont see me buying a 500USD PC just to run a single OS that I have never used before. Does qemu or boch work on it? Open office? What about support?
These are all questions new users ask. Amiga lost the console market after going up the river without paddles.
Edited 2007-04-30 00:33
What the hell are you going on about?
The Amiga user club is more extreme than the Apple club; there is a loyalty to death that many of us have pledged, and you’ll find that these machines aren’t targeted at youngsters such as yourself – the ones that have been sucking on the tit that is Microsoft since conception.
Believe me, if AmigaOS is as well integrated and running as it was on the old Amiga hardware, and comes with a decent array of new software and the ability to run old in some form or another, its going to be alot of fun for many of us old farts.
Oh, and Commadore didn’t fail because of Amiga, it was the fact they put their PC business ahead of their Amiga business, which was actually turning a profit; quite frankly, they should have killed off their PC business, focused on improving the Amiga, and never came out with the ill fated Amiga CD32. It was a stupid idea from day one quite frankly.
I do wonder. I feel there’s more than it’s fair share of nostalgia being marketed to here.
I feel there are just too many hurdles for this one to take off, as good as it may be. Lets wait and see the final product.
If anything, it’ll give us a good walk down memory lane checking the new offering out.
Seriously? They only exist in Europe, right? There can’t be any in the US still?
We actually have (several) regions in Europe that defy national (and European) authority and where X86 processors have been outlawed ever since the inception of Intel’s original Pentium chip.
Suffice to say that Amigas still have a considerable marketshare at those spots places!
Really? Outlawed as in banned? Bummer. I would think the countries that are listed in that dumb US export law would have the ban on them, but there are others?
i think that outlawed was written as a joke but im not 100% sure…
Thanks for recognizing…
(How can you not be sure?)
because one never knows
The EU has regions where Windows is banned to
Edited 2007-05-01 21:53
Just as long as Bill McEwen doesn’t pull that ol’ “Send in $50 and we’ll give you a T-shirt and $50 off the AmigaOne” stunt again…
Makes me glad I didn’t actually send in $50. I was sure tempted though… VERY tempted.
I wonder if anyone still believes ANYTHING that cretin has to say. Has anyone ever gotten their shirt plus their $50 back? I’d heard that some got the shirt, but doubt anyone has gotten their money back…
I got my shirt, and I was wearing it today as I washed the house.
I didn’t get my money back, but was I supposed to? This is news. (Of course, I haven’t been paying much attention lately anyway.)
I’d happily pay $250 for AmigaOS to run on my PPC platform of choice, but can’t buy another machine as I already have too many machines / gadgets cluttering up my place!!
you’re
they’re
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The “sucking on the tit of Microsoft” comment hit the nail on the head. Mass does not make for quality. The mixture of modern applications with the ability to play the old games and use the old software makes for a tempting prospect. I am waiting with baited breath for the specs.
Although it is *HOT* news for the Amiga community, it supposed to be confidential and not released to the public.
>Are you kidding? The Amiga user base once had over two million members
Come on… This figures are *low* !!
The Amiga sold two millions during its whole lifetime, that is almost ten years! There have never been 2 million users…
I don’t think either there is room for more than a thousand machines…
FYI: 2 million is *half* the number Macs that are being sold *each year*…
Hi,
I don’t think 2 Million is too low, here are the
numbers of sold Amigas (from Germany only, until
31.12.93):
Amiga CD32: 25.000
Amiga CDTV: 25.800
Amiga 500: 1.081.000
Amiga 500: 79.500
Amiga 600: 193.000
Amiga 1000: 27.500
Amiga 1200: 95.500
Amiga 2000: 124.500
Amiga 3000: 8.300
Amiga 4000/030: 7.500
Amiga 4000/040: 3.800
Link (sorry german only):
http://www.amigaland.de/content/view/12/33/
Estimates (of worldwide sold Amigas) are 5 to 7
million machines!
You’re forgetting that computers in general are a lot less pricey than were then. When I had an Amiga 500, we only had one Amiga 500 class machine in the house. Now we have four PC’s.
I did not meant that Amiga sold less than 2 millions, I meant that selling 2 millions (or even 5) in ten years represent a really low number… It’s far from being impressive, and after ten years (even more if you consider that the Amiga was already *dead* (in terms of sales) in 93)), most people won’t even know/remeber it. I don’t think you can think “ok, people know about it, are waiting for it”… If you want to sell Amigas again, you should better consider it unknown/dead by everyone. And so you need to start again everything, from scratch…
>You’re forgetting that computers in general are a lot less pricey than were then.
Really ?
1991: I bought my A500 for around 380 euros (add around 200-300 euros for a monitor)
2002: I bought my pc for around 1000 euros
I think the PC has become a commodity, but I don’t think it’s so cheaper than it was before…
I’d defiitely grab one if the specs aren’t *too* anemic.
I’m not expecting something that will decode the human genome for $500, but I don’t want an expensive 486-class machine, either.
I missed out on the first round of Amiga goodness.
But, *usually* a thing has to have at least a few good qualities to attract interest so long after its “demise”.
So, I’d give it a chance, out of curitosity if anything.
The genesi ppc hardware, the new open desktop workstation (aka pegasos 3) and the Open server workstation (aka quad g5 with other name).
The cost it’s seems the same, both are ppc, like amiga userbase and in genesi market studies, appears the 1500 price as launch target for the open server workstation
.
All that’s previosly writen is done with any evidence, or 1st hand information…but i feel good today
I was an Amiga user for 10 years or so and I really loved my Amiga and I enjoyed it to be part of the Amiga community. I remember that I bought all the German Amiga magazines to hear about new Amigas and Amiga products. After the fall of Commodore, I hoped that Escom and later Gateway and Amiga Inc. would develop a new Amiga. A year ago I bought the book “On the Edge – The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore” and I can recommend it to everyone that used to own an Amiga or a C64. I really enjoyed to read it.
But is there still a place for the Amiga today? I don’t think so. What made the Amiga exceptional back then was how it made use of the back then limited hardware resources. I still remember when I first saw an Amiga game (I had a C64 back then). It was just amazing. But this came also at a price. The Amiga OS (and especially many games) were making use of the Amiga custom chips and that was the reason why it was so hard to develop a new Amiga computer. I think Amiga OS even today still does not have memory protection. The reason for this is, as far as I know, that most existing Amiga software wouldn’t run with memory protection. In addition, back then Commodore (or better the company that developed the Amiga that was later bought by Commodore) developed custom hardware for the Amiga that was just better then everything else (at least in the price range of the Amiga). Later this became a problem, too. Commodore just didn’t have the resources to compete with other large chip companies like Intel and there production process for the Amiga chips was quite dated in the end. Today there would be absolutely no point in developing custom hardware because you just can’t compete with ATI/Nvidia. So basically the Amiga today would have to use standard hardware to get the best performance. So basically the only thing that would distinguished the Amiga would be its OS. When the Amiga was launched, Microsoft was far less dominant then it is today. There were few games for the PC platform and the PC and also Windows was technically inferior. Today Microsoft totally dominates the PC market. Most games are developed for the PC platform or for consoles. Even Windows became a quite reliable OS, having true preemptive multitasking, memory protection and many other advanced features. And of course there is a lot of Open Source Software and OSS operating systems which offer most things people need. In my opinion, all this makes it extremely unlikely that an Amiga comeback could be successful. I think even most fanatic Amiga fans (and there were a lot back then) turned away from the Amiga after ten years where basically nothing happend. At least I did. And I have to say, in addition to all that, after the experiences I made with Commodore, I don’t want to ever rely on one single vendor again.
I said in the beginning, that I loved the Amiga, I enjoyed the great software like Deluxe Paint and the great games like Turrican (thankfully there are Amiga emulators so I can still play them and I even still have my old Amiga). I wish Amiga Inc. luck with bringing back the Amiga to the place it really deserved. I just don’t believe anymore that they will succeed, but I would be happy to see that I am wrong.
Amiga has dealers?!? I’ve never seen one…
Anything else think that all of these recent ‘news’ items are a little suspect? Lawsuit, new hardware specs, and press releases announcing that there will be future hardware spec announcements released?
The whole thing sounds like Mining for Investors…
-Bob
Edited 2007-05-01 05:45