And your evidence for this lies in what? Not to get off on a rant here, but Aeon are a completely untested and unknown quantity. You have the Sam which is a great deal more reasonable on the wallet and sales for it have pretty much dried up - practically everyone who wanted one has one.
And your evidence for this lies in what? :-P
We have to accept that we're all mostly in the dark and trying to make educated guesses here, which means we're unlikely to agree, and asking for evidence either way is meaningless...
With respect to the SAM, I'd argue that the coming 460 is a good indication that sales are going reasonably well, or they'd hardly invest in a new model, especially with the upcoming competition. But that too is a guess.
The X1000 is competing against the Sam in terms of AmigaNG-OS4 and against old mac gear for MorphOS. If your kick is nostalgia then it's competing against UAE, Minimig and classic hardware. It is entering a relatively small market from the top end, which is itself limiting.
The price is limiting, but it is also the first new computer to run AmigaOS that's powerful to entice people like me back to this community, even if it's slow when compared to x86 machines. I'm by far not the only one who have come back to Amiga forums as a result of wanting to buy the X1000. So while the market is limited, the X1000 is showing signs of at least attracting *some* people outside of the current market.
That, to me, indicates that while they're certainly not going to sell bundles, they might have hit a sweet spot in terms of maximizing revenue, which is far more important than maximizing number of units if A-Eon is going to become a viable business (even as Trevor Dickinson's "hobby")
You may well be well off, but many/most people aren't, especially with the credit crunch in full swing. Your line of reasoning might well work for you but I just can't see it translating to anyone who isn't pretty well off.
I'm not arguing that everyone will be able to afford it, because clearly there will be people that can't. I'm arguing that this community has enough people with cash to spare, and that the amounts of money being spent on old and slow hardware is a pretty good indication of the amounts of cash people can be prepared to spend on hobbies like these, with no concern for the actual performance or "utility" of the system. People have far more expensive hobbies with far less utility.
In previous threads I've pointed out that from a financial point of view for AEon, the high price point is also not a bad thing per se in a market like this when they're the only alternative for someone wanting a "high end" Amiga.
There's substantial price flexibility in niche markets that you don't find in more competitive markets. Sales will be smaller at, say, 1500GBP than at 1000GBP or 500GBP, for sure, but probably not enough to make up for the difference in percentage margin they'd be able to "hide" in the higher price, so I'd argue they're better off aiming for the high end, both because there's at least some signs they're attracting people that wouldn't otherwise consider an AmigaOS machine, and because they might be able to survive on far lower total sales (in pounds/euros, not just units) and that the price elasticity in this market is so big that sales are not likely to fall off in proportion to the price increasing.
Of course, this is guesswork, but it is guesswork that has some basis in how niche markets actually work: They *do* generally have far higher price elasticity; they *do* tend to see a lot less focus on hard numbers and price/performance compared to other factors (people who care mostly about price/performance generally go for the mainstream products instead)
Cost comes high, but even if you could afford it you are still going to be asking some pretty hard questions about what the hardware is going to offer you against the alternatives I've listed.
No, I'm not. It's the first computer to run AmigaOS4 that's feels like it'll be "fast enough" for me to give it serious use. It's passing a threshold. That's enough.
The XMOS chip and the recent hint that it might be possible for them to get Linux running in parallel with AOS4 on the second core are interesting bonuses that rise the geek appeal, but not necessary. The rest doesn't really factor in. Call it a midlife crisis if you want - I want the X1000 instead of the Ferrari.
We can argue (based on guesses on both sides, since neither of us have any actual data) about the number of people who'll think about the X1000 like me, but that this market segment exists is clear (I'm proof, for starters, though I'm afraid my pockets aren't deep enough to carry the X1000 on my own :-P )
Capabilities and performance most definitely feature heavily into any equation that is as highly priced as the X1000 promises to be.
You're looking at this from a utility point of view, but utility does not govern this type of niche market.
If I cared about capabilities and performance, I could get an Intel Core i7 Quad core 3.2GHz based machine with 12GB memory and a GeForce GTX480 with 1.5GB memory and a 2TB harddrive for the same price, that would wipe the floor with the X1000. Or I could wipe the floor with it with a cheaper machine and have enough money left over for a weekend in a good hotel.
But I have my other computers for the performance. The X1000 and other Amiga-related kit I plan to buy is for fun. I value fun far higher than performance I don't need.
