Scifi Alternate Future: What If Apple bought Amiga Inc.

[amigakidd]

After reading Brian Bagnall's book:
The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore
(Great Book BTW, cannot put it down after buying it last week at my local Borders). What If Apple bought the current Amiga Inc. and became interested in Amiga technology. Would they create a separate line of computers based on Amiga GUI, but not directly compatible with Mac OS X in terms of porting apps, but still compatible with filesystem of Mac OS X.

Right now, there are two dominant commercial platforms of Computing: PC Clones and Macintosh. It just came to me from reading On the Edge that in the past there seems to be always three major computing companies. Examples, Apple, Atari, Commodore. Then Microsoft came along with Win 95 to dominate, somehow they kind of replaced Commodore. PCs became popular in mid 90s and Macs became 2nd Popular in the mid 2000s. Talking in a scifi alternate future sense: If Apple buys Amiga Inc, do you think in 2010s the Amiga will be the 3rd most popular machine.
Let's forget Linux because it is everywhere and open-source. In 2000s, three major platforms exist: PC Windows, Mac OS X, and Variant forms of Unix/Linux.

Or will Apple buy Amiga and forget the technologies just like Escom and Gateway did? Or will they merge Workbench with the Apple TV? Perhaps multitask the iPod touch?
Amiga Games on iPod? Perhaps marry the Finder with Workbench Interface. Remember this thread is for your fantasy speculations "IF" Apple bought Amiga and what technologies will emerge in doing so. I kinda chose Apple because Apple somehow parallels Amiga in many ways, loyalty, but instead Apple was lucky in the 90s and they succeeded today.

[bloodline]

hmmm, I've just spent a few minutes thinking about it... and there is nothing that Apple could get from Amiga...

Not for brand recognition, in fact they culled all brands a few years back other than Mac (iBook, PowerBook, PowerMac were all got rid off) and iPod... Apple, or rather Steve Jobs has tended to consolidate brands not spread them out... They *could* purchase the Amiga brand and sell it as a gaming brand, but Steve isn't keen on Games, and they would not sit well with the Mac brand...

Not for OS technology... Apple are consolidating their operating systems to a single OSX... only the Ipod Classic and iPod Nano are not on OSX yet... but I'm not sure how long that will be. OSX has proven to be modern, stable and scalable with a massive developer base... AmigaOS can offer none of these..

Not for Hardware technology... There is no value in any Amiga hardware, even the iPod nano out performs the most powerful classic Amiga, at a fraction of the cost, size and power consumption.

Nope... Apple have better thing to do with their money.

[motorollin]

Everything Apple is doing is light years ahead of anything Amiga. There's nothing any Amiga hardware or software could do to enhance Apple's products.

--
moto

[IslDreamer]

I read the Commodore book as well and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone who cares about the rise and fall of the C64 and the Amiga.

In any reality (alternate or not), Apple wouldn't buy today's Amiga, but I believe the question is what would have happened if Apple bought Amiga Inc. back in 1984.

I think they would have thrown away the very ugly Amiga 1.0 Workbench and quickly integrated the custom Amiga chips into the Mac.  The Mac would have multitasking and color two or three years earlier.  

Apple would have trebled the price of the high end Amiga, selling it as a professional device, something like a Lisa 2 or a Next Cube prequel.  They would have marketed the hell out of their machine as God's gift to mankind.  It's unclear to me whether Newtek's Video Toaster would have been developed for the Apple/Amiga hybrid.  Apple's closed architecture may have scared away third party hardware developers like Newtek.

And all of us who hated the PC, but saw through Apple's b.s. would have probably opted for the Atari ST or the Commodore 128. :-)

[B00tDisk]

I think Apple would've pursued a "buy-it-and-bury-it" approach.  The engineers who worked on the Amiga would have been split up and farmed out over many, many, many sub divisions within the body corporate of Cupertino.  

Given Jobs' legendary assholery, I'd imagine that like his edict against doing anything positive for 8-bit apple systems post-Lisa introduction (the II-GS aside), he'd make mention of the Amiga verboten in Cupertino with dire consequences for those who broke that rule.

[weirdami]

Apple buying Amiga would mean goodbye Amiga because they wouldn't be putting out a competing anything. I don't even think they'd want to put out AmigaAnywhere or DE or whatever they call it these days since they're focused on iPhone and just put out the iPhone SDK. They want all phones to be iPhones, not iPhone software running on other people's cellphone hardware.

[kreciu]

I know what Apple could "use" from Amiga... Amiga users only  :-D, and sell them their ipods...

[Psy]

I don't think it would have worked with Apple as I don't see what Apple could have brought to the table.

I have though of the idea of Amiga having been bought out by one of the Japanese computer companies.

If NEC bought Amiga: it would have meant large sums of capital and R&D resources.  For NEC it would mean having a microcomputer to replace it's 8-bit systems.  Also NEC probably would have went to the Amiga when it came to designing the TG-16.

If Hitachi bought Amiga: same as above.  Since Hitachi left the home computer market after their MSX compatible machines the Amiga would probably have allowed Hitachi to stay in the market.

If Sharp bought Amiga: like NEC it would have meant tons of capital.  The X68000 probably wouldn't have been released and the Amiga might have gotten the same kind of arcade ports the X68000 enjoyed.

If Sega bought Amiga: On the plus the Amiga chipsets would have quickly pushed past their limits by Sega's arcade teams.  Of course Sega's hardware engineers probably would not have got along with Amiga's engineers, Sega's engineers solved problems with fancy code not with fancy chips thus why Sega hardware mostly focuses on processing power.  Sega's engineers probably would have looked at the Amiga and ask why they can't replace the custom chips with general purpose processors.  Yet given how Sega was willing to test different markets (see the Sega Pico) and that Sega did try their hand with a home computer before (see the SC-3000H) they might have actually supported the Amiga better then Commodore did but that is not saying much.


If Nintendo bought the Amiga, it would have be used in the SNES end of story, Nintendo didn't make arcade boards and was even less likely then Sega to release the Amiga as a home computer.  

[AeroMan]

Amiga would have been useful to Apple back in 94 when Commodore died. They could have used lots of stuff from the Amiga, form chipset to Workbench and AmigaDOS, and maybe OSX would be different.

Today, Amiga is useless to Apple. No new users, as almost everyone have the Amiga as hobby today, no technology, as they are already the top dog, and no new hardware... ...as we don't have it either  :-?

If Apple have bought Commodore by the 80's, it is pretty sure they would had it running in parallel as they had the Mac and Apple II. It is quite possible that the Amiga would have killed the Mac, just like the Mac killed the Apple II.

We could have OS X running in Amigas by now...

(hey, I really like these Marvel Style "What if..." threads  :-) )

[B00tDisk]

Psy wrote:
I don't think it would have worked with Apple as I don't see what Apple could have brought to the table.

I have though of the idea of Amiga having been bought out by one of the Japanese computer companies.

If NEC bought Amiga: it would have meant large sums of capital and R&D resources.  For NEC it would mean having a microcomputer to replace it's 8-bit systems.  Also NEC probably would have went to the Amiga when it came to designing the TG-16.

If Hitachi bought Amiga: same as above.  Since Hitachi left the home computer market after their MSX compatible machines the Amiga would probably have allowed Hitachi to stay in the market.

If Sharp bought Amiga: like NEC it would have meant tons of capital.  The X68000 probably wouldn't have been released and the Amiga might have gotten the same kind of arcade ports the X68000 enjoyed.

If Sega bought Amiga: On the plus the Amiga chipsets would have quickly pushed past their limits by Sega's arcade teams.  Of course Sega's hardware engineers probably would not have got along with Amiga's engineers, Sega's engineers solved problems with fancy code not with fancy chips thus why Sega hardware mostly focuses on processing power.  Sega's engineers probably would have looked at the Amiga and ask why they can't replace the custom chips with general purpose processors.  Yet given how Sega was willing to test different markets (see the Sega Pico) and that Sega did try their hand with a home computer before (see the SC-3000H) they might have actually supported the Amiga better then Commodore did but that is not saying much.


If Nintendo bought the Amiga, it would have be used in the SNES end of story, Nintendo didn't make arcade boards and was even less likely then Sega to release the Amiga as a home computer.  

So the best and brightest future for the Amiga = game console.  

No Japanese company has ever broken through in the west with any computer offering, and the X68000 was holding down the 'weird alternative 3rd market' just fine without the Amiga in Japan.

[B00tDisk]

AeroMan wrote:
Amiga would have been useful to Apple back in 94 when Commodore died. They could have used lots of stuff from the Amiga, form chipset to Workbench and AmigaDOS, and maybe OSX would be different.

Hardly.  Jobs was ready to nuke and pave anything to make NeXTStep the new apple OS.  As to the chipset?  The chipset was antiquated by 1994 - even Dave Haynie will tell you so.

If Apple have bought Commodore by the 80's, it is pretty sure they would had it running in parallel as they had the Mac and Apple II. It is quite possible that the Amiga would have killed the Mac, just like the Mac killed the Apple II.

When C= could have purchased Apple it was well before the Mac.  Its highly likely there would have been no Mac if C= had bought Apple.

We could have OS X running in Amigas by now...

What, aren't there enough Linux distros for the various Amiga systems?  m68k, PPC+ Classic, A1, etc.

[Psy]

B00tDisk wrote:

So the best and brightest future for the Amiga = game console.  

Except for Nintendo all of those companies had home computers, even Sega that had the SC-3000, of course like I said Sega would have a problem with not understanding the custom chips as Sega was all about distributed computing with programmable chips at the time.

NEC also had a home computer that the Amiga could have replaced.

B00tDisk wrote:

No Japanese company has ever broken through in the west with any computer offering, and the X68000 was holding down the 'weird alternative 3rd market' just fine without the Amiga in Japan.

They could have, many had far more capital then Commodore.

The X68000 was launched after the Amiga, so if Sharp bought the Amiga the x68000 would never have seen the light of day.
 

[AeroMan]

B00tDisk wrote:

Hardly.  Jobs was ready to nuke and pave anything to make NeXTStep the new apple OS.  As to the chipset?  The chipset was antiquated by 1994 - even Dave Haynie will tell you so.

Both true... But I still think there were good ideas in the chipset that could have been used, like Copper, genlock capabilities, and others

When C= could have purchased Apple it was well before the Mac.  Its highly likely there would have been no Mac if C= had bought Apple.

Yes, but Rattingan tried to sell Commodore to Apple later, and they didn´t buy it. This would have opened the possibilities I´ve talked about.

What, aren't there enough Linux distros for the various Amiga systems?  m68k, PPC+ Classic, A1, etc.

Yes, for sure... But if the Amiga survived instead of the Mac in the situation above, we would probably get to OSX or something similar, and there wouldn´t be so many distros then. It would be funny  :-D

[persia]

Would have been the end of the Amiga

[B00tDisk]

Psy wrote:
B00tDisk wrote:

So the best and brightest future for the Amiga = game console.  

Except for Nintendo all of those companies had home computers, even Sega that had the SC-3000, of course like I said Sega would have a problem with not understanding the custom chips as Sega was all about distributed computing with programmable chips at the time.

NEC also had a home computer that the Amiga could have replaced.

...in Japan.  Again, there was never, ever a world-beater home computer produced in Japan.

B00tDisk wrote:

No Japanese company has ever broken through in the west with any computer offering, and the X68000 was holding down the 'weird alternative 3rd market' just fine without the Amiga in Japan.

They could have, many had far more capital then Commodore.

The X68000 was launched after the Amiga, so if Sharp bought the Amiga the x68000 would never have seen the light of day.
 

and the Amiga would now be as obscure as the X68000.  If not moreso.