The $500 000 Question: How much is Amiga *worth*?

[Ilwrath]

With Bill's recent post there was a point of ridicule at Amiga Inc's requirement for a hardware partner to have >= 5 000 000 USD of revenue to be considered.

I believe the actual number stated was $500,000 USD.  Not nearly as outlandish.  However, that mark still puts anything "Amiga" branded outside the means and scale of the hobby community.  I doubt even the largest players in the remaining Amiga community (Individual, Elbox, etc.) turn that in a year.

I'm guessing that there is a bit of spite in Bill's statements.  He invested (possibly mis-invested, but invested, all the same) a lot of time, effort, sweat, tears, and money into Amiga.  He threw away a lot of posh management job credentials to chase this beast.  At this stage, I guess he wants either a "home run" (some insane large company to swoop in and save the day) or nothing.

In reality, though, I think that the time for a "home run" came and went.  There is nothing interesting about the Amiga IP, other than the name and the Amiga OS ROMs (capatalizing on the retro / hobby market).  

Can Amiga Inc expect a potential hardware partner with 5 million dollar minimum revenue?

Magic 8-ball says "HIGHLY DOUBTFUL"

[Ilwrath]

@Stone-

so far all newer amiga productions has been targeted at the enthusiast market and the last remaining fans. this market is incredible small and difficult to make any profit in.

we have yet to see a product thats targeted at the mainstream market and those potential new and has-been amiga users.

This is one of the few things you've said that makes sense.  Any new product MUST reach past the existing market, as the existing market is practically nil.  As for the value of Amiga, it is in the name, and nothing more, that I can see.  (Lets face it, the OS is so long in the tooth that any effort to re-write it would be practically the same as starting from scratch.)

@stopthegop-

You're right but your analysis is again incomplete. Millions of people HAVE at least heard of the Amiga name [...]

True.  To most people (other than the 1,000 or so users scattered between here, aw.n, moob, eab, etc.) the Amiga name carries a slight positive recognition.  Not much, but having a new product starting out with a slight positive affinity never hurts.  

and, if given a reason to do so --via marketing-- would spend money on it.  A differentiated, unique and inspiring product would also help.

I disagree.  The advantage would be needing to do less new marketing to reach the same point of sales.  

I could see a company that has some cheap Taiwanese manufacturing capabilities snatching the Amiga name for a cool million, throwing it on a cheap media player of some type, and hoping for 15-20% market share against the iPod video/iRiver/Creative Zen types.  Of course, that manufacturer likely wouldn't even catch the irony in the fact that they didn't bother to include the ability to play back a .anim or display an .iff.  :lol: