Amiga Acknowledges T-shirts Shipping

[mikeymike]

Not that my t-shirt has arrived yet, me being way out in the sticks, but I'm wondering what to change that part of my sig to next... :-)

@rayt / smithy

Off-topic : The reason for my statement and belief that the Mini Mac is 'a platform killer' is simple..  It's absolutely true that Amiga users will gladly sacrifice their first born and take out third-mortgages on their homes to afford to run AmigaOS.  I have no doubt about that.  However...  There are very few "Amiga users" left who haven't already bought their motherboard, leaving Eyetech without anyone else (except maybe the Linux market) to sell more boards to.

So... to follow the logic trail, that means that companies like Eyetech and bPlan are left with only selling to the markets outside the Amiga community if they want to survive.  That means simply stated that the Mac Mini is -- in fact -- their primary competitor, because it's pretty much the exact same specs, it's aimed at the same market that Eyetech/bplan will need to get into, and it's far, far cheaper.  

That means that unless Eyetech/bPlan can get the price of their boards down to ~$200/$250 USD, to the point that someone can buy a board then buy memory/HD/and video card for about $499 USD, the "mainstream" (the only people left who would buy AmigaOnes or Pegasos) will always look to the cheaper alternative.  Especially when Apple is a far more viable and supported name brand.

You're right of course.  It doesn't "run AmigaOS".  But... with respect, outside of the few remaining real Amiga users left (<1000), who really cares?  Certainly not the only group of people that Eyetech/bplan have left to sell new boards to.  No sales == no money == no continued existence.

I hope I'm wrong, but that's how and why I see the Mini Mac as a huge problem.

Wayne

[cecilia]

I'm wondering what to change that part of my sig to next...

"Thank you"

 :-?

[smithy]

@Wayne

I think you're right that pretty much every Amigan has bought their motherboard and that future sales must come from outside the Amiga market, but I don't agree that the Mac-Mini is a threat.

There are two markets outside of the Amiga one.  There is the mainstream computer market, made of people like my parents might who buy a computer for occasional net surfin or writing letters.  And there is the computing enthusiast market, made of people that use computers as a hobby and use them to develop and create stuff.

The Mac-Mini is targeted at that first market - more specifically against the £300 Windows PCs.  And as a one-stop package, it is perfect for that first audience.  The Amiga has no chance in this market because it just doesn't have the software.

In the computing enthusiast market, it's all about computing for the sake of it, price and top-class applications are less of an issue (most have more than one computer including a Windows PC anyway).  This market seems to be dominated by Linux and OSX.  It is this market that Amiga/etc must make some serious inroads in to stay afloat.  So this means trying to attract some geeks, tinkerers, and hobbyist developers.  I think Amiga/MorphOS is equally placed to do as well here as the Mac Mini, what we need is presence in the computing press, articles on Slashdot, OSNews etc... we need to be in the places where the geeks are and make them notice these new platforms of ours.  It needn't be expensive, we really need to just make some news.

The other options we know of is that these companies look for embedded deals, and Eyetech has mentioned in the past taking an interest in the kiosk market.  We also know that Eyetech has a whole business outside Amiga, and doesn't rely on the Amiga side of the business.

[dammy]

What is the status on the $50 coupons now that the T-shirts are being delivered?  And the $100 from the DE special?

Dammy

@smithy,

I see your point, but I don't quite agree with your assessment.  While there are two sides to the market as you mentioned, there is simply no valid impetus for the "geek" to spend $500+ on a motherboard when they can buy the whole mac mini and put linux on it for $500.

Like you said, it's about the software, and in the Amiga's case, there is none (other than the OS) and there's no way to generate interest in developers (other than sending them free machines) to build AmigaOS software.  There's no money in it for developers to do so, outside of selling POTENTIALLY 1000 copies.  No one, outside of bedroom developers, could survive on sales of 1000 copies.  This is not the 1980's where bedroom coders are the most talented out there.  Everyone with talent is already employed, and that means part-time "weekend" development, which isn't going to lead to the top-shelf applications that the Amiga needs to make an impact.

Take for example a $150 widget program.  *If* _ALL_ 1000 AmigaOne owners bought the widget, that's $150,000 gross income.  Take out the cost of development, packaging, shipping, promotion and advertising, taxes, and everything else, and my bet is that you're looking at less than $35,000 profit, and that's *IF* each and every one of those AmigaOne users bought a $150 program (which would never happen).  

Perhaps it's different in 3rd world countries, but you can't run an office, buy connectivity, buy furniture and supplies, pay the utilities/phone/etcetera, or even provide insurance to employees on $35,000 per year.  I'm not drawing parallels to Amiga Inc or anyone else here, but it is very eerily similar.

I apologize.  I know that my opinion is potentially offensive considering my position, but if I had the money (which I don't), I just couldn't justify buying an AmigaOne motherboard any more versus the cheaper and complete mac mini, but that's just the way I see it.

[itix]

Garry Hare is CEO of Amiga Inc? What happened to McEwen? Got fired?

[dammy]

So this means trying to attract some geeks, tinkerers, and hobbyist developers. I think Amiga/MorphOS is equally placed to do as well here as the Mac Mini, what we need is presence in the computing press, articles on Slashdot, OSNews etc... we need to be in the places where the geeks are and make them notice these new platforms of ours. It needn't be expensive, we really need to just make some news.

I don't see it.  If the Geek wants to spend a load of cash, he's going to be doing it on his "Beast" system, not some exotic (and under powered) mobo/cpu.  Afterall, he needs the cpu/gfx brute strength for WoW/EQ2/DAoC.  That leaves us with business niche market, and we know which path they tend to take.

Dammy

[itix]

@rayt

You forget something... not every amiga user is amiga enthusiast. There are uncertain users who might want to try something new. Bringing in fresh blood is even harder. How many *new* users (never had an amiga) you have seen here?

[cecilia]

itix wrote:
Garry Hare is CEO of Amiga Inc? What happened to McEwen? Got fired?

where have you been? Hare has been da Boss for over a year now.

[redrumloa]

itix wrote:
Garry Hare is CEO of Amiga Inc? What happened to McEwen? Got fired?

 :lol:

Where have you been? According to court documents he has been CEO since sometime late 2002/early 2003. Before the buyout, merger, and whatever fuzzy transactions has happened.

-edit-

Aah, memory lane..

Business card circa 1Q/2003

Bolton's post

April 2003: Bill has to come in and testify about his finances. Of course, he's broke. He can't pay. This is when we learn of the new CEO, Gary Hare, and Bill's virtual washout by the Dutch firm.

[rayt]

@wayne/itix

Hmm I forgot to mention in my post that I haven't even thought about "new" users. I was just seeing recent amiga users as the only customer base for the AmigaOne/OS4. Because I can't imagine anyone with no "amiga experience" (apart from a very few rich people maybe) buys such an expensive board just to try out an exotic OS. They maybe install some toy OSs on their x86 box, but nobody would buy outdated hw/Os for so much money just because he read on websites that its different and had a glorious past in the 80s. The only other customers I could imagine other than us "amiga fanatics" may be ex users who had an amiga in the 90s.. I think a price of ~499Eur for the MicroA1 board plus OS4 could attract quite a lot of these users (regardless of the price of the mac).. But this price probably wouldn't be possible for Eyetech if they wish to survive :-(

[Louis Dias]

Now if I could only get my $100 voucher (for purchasing the "Party Pack") acknowledged and forwarded to Hyperion...

[MayhemMaybe]

I'm one of the very few Amiga users who havent bought their board yet

While I'd be fully willing to buy anything Amiga (I'm a Commodore/Amiga junkie) even I look at price as a factor coupled with the fact that AOS 4 isn't done yet. I just could never see spending that much for a Linux box.

That all sad, I'm very happy to hear I just might be getting my t-shirt soon (I definately hope they have my right address, I'm pretty sure I checked it). This news has me watching the AmigaOne very closely again.

[ikir]

@redrumloa
You should read the Hare long interview about the CEO card:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&cat_id=3&rev_id=50&sort_by

[redrumloa]

ikir wrote:
@redrumloa
You should read the Hare long interview about the CEO card:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/features/index.php?op=r&cat_id=3&rev_id=50&sort_by

I've read it. Sounds like damage control to me;-) It's kind of hard to dispute what is in court transcripts.