Well, here are some of my hypothetical thoughts: :-)
1. I think Commodore did a better job than Atari would have if they would have received the chips. Jack's business sense worked well into the early 80s but as the business shifted I'm not sure Jack would have. So I think he was still applying late 70's business sense in a new 80's technology world.
2. Apple would not have been a good fit either. For all the reverence Steve Jobs receives he is not some wunderkind. He hated complex hardware, fought Woz on slots on the Apple II, and shot down anything 'open' on the Macintosh. The Amiga would be the anti-computer to him.
3. Companies I think that could have done the Amiga better (or that I think would be interesting):
-Microsoft - I think that Microsoft could have been an interesting player in all of this. They had not hardware but were looking for a great GUI to sell to everyone. They have could licensed the chipsets and sold the GUI to many different companies. Granted, the hardware might have been a tough sell in the beginning but they had very smart people.
-SUN - Another company with very smart people and I think the Amiga would have been a great fit for them. We all know that they like the Amiga 3000 and AMIX later on so I think they could have ran the Amiga in the beginning. Of course, they could not stop the WinTel tour-de-force so we might have ended up here again.
-SGI - The Amiga would have complimented the SGI hardware on the desktop quite nicely during the time. Again I think they would have been a great match. However, SGI could not stop the WinTel team so the fate might have been Commodore like.
Of these three companies, I think Microsoft would have had the be shot of making the Amiga a standard in some form. Bill Gates was/is very smart and given his transformation of Microsoft in ten short years during the 80's he could have done something very lasting with the Amiga.
Cheers!
-P
