CommodoreUSA CEO Interview Answers

[vox]

Of course they are not more Amiga than MorphOS, AROS, Pegasos, Hyperion's OS4, Natami, Minimig, AmigaOne... you name it... but even the original Commdore sold cheap PC clones under Commodore brand. I dont understand why some people go apecrap when someone is selling PC clones under Amiga brand. It is just a name for god sake.

They are no more Amiga then Android / iPhone running UAE or similar. Nothing is Amiga Classic but the Classic, but somehow doubt CUSA will make it to Amiga History pages, at last not by good

Before no one sold PC clones under Amiga Brand, but the iCoin shop was far more creative: why not offering them all
and even without Amiga Forever (not a bad product for itself, great emu box)?

[billt]

The 30 million dollar budget was an invention of the advertising agency we are no longer affiliated with.

I wonder how that happened... (imagining things get all wavey as we transition to my imagination...)

Ad agency: Yes, this all looks great. Our standard fee for this service is 30 million $.

CUSA: Uh, OK.

time passes

Ad agency: We'd like to be paid now. Where's our 30 million $??

CUSA: What?! You think we have 30 mil to spend on advertizing? You're freakin nuts!

(wavey transition back to reality)

CUSA: Yea, those crazy ad agency people completely made up this figure.

[vox]

The problem here is that, legally, they are. As far as visible or experiencable content, in our opinions, they are not. While we don't have to accept these "things" as what we believe "Amigas" to be, if we went to court and asked the judge to prevent CUSA from using the Amiga name in the way that they do, we would lose and CUSA would keep the right to do that, so long as they are not breaking some terms of all the contracts involved. (including those contracts not signed directly but CUSA but which Amiga Inc. is bound to restrict their sublicensors to)

True, they legally are, but judging by a lot comments on Amiga Mini announcements, people have many different reasons not to buy it, not only emotional and attached to Amiga brand like here. Like its way overpriced x86 system.So its likely that market and internet show that reason can prevail over legal logic :-)

[persia]

Nothing the Baron does really affects us.  Don't sweat it, enjoy your Amigas, MOS, AROS, OS4, UAE.  As long as you are having fun what does it matter if he makes a few bucks off the name?  

And understand he has to hype his products.  Nobody in advertising is allowed to tell anything like the truth.  He's selling desktop PCs.  Desktop PCs are the only part of the IT market where sales are stagnant.  If you don't toot your own horn no one else will.  He has a gimmick, a name out of the past.  A name with some goodwill associated with it.  He uses it to generate sales.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but to get into a stagnant market without a gimmick would be financial suicide.

[nyteschayde]

Thanks Barry for the time and Q&A. You stated

                                 

Why did you use name AMIGA for a PC computer that neither its operational system, architecture nor a case even in the smallest way has any connection with Amiga?
          I think of the Amiga more as a concept, rather than it must be this hardware or that software. I believe the Amiga’s essence is encapsulated as a beautiful, high-performance, home computer for creativity and entertainment. The VIC line is represented as something more affordable and more compact.

   
The funny thing is he is an Amiga and Commodore fan with a realist approach to which hardware will be useful. The annoying thing for most Amiga fans is that it really offers very little difference from running UAE on your own home Windows PC. The reason this is annoying is that we so dearly want the Amiga brand name to stop being reinvented by companies who buy it and have no interest in existing Amiga operating systems that most Amiga fans still want to interact with.

This is a really strange state of things. We'd like someone with money to burn to fund further development of what we like to use on original Amiga hardware or derivatives that emulate or work with original Amiga software. Part of the dream and memories of the original Amiga for many of us, was the software more than the hardware. Jens of Individual Computers for example, and the Natami and Minimig  teams all want new hardware to accurately and quickly run the old  software. For most Amiga users, the desire to run modern OSes on their classic or neo-classic hardware is not a concern. We have modern PCs for that.

With CUSAs reinvention of the Amiga and Commodore, Barry is recreating the hardware and not the software. Therein lies the conundrum. Therein lies the source of anger, angst and misunderstanding. As far as business goes, he is taking care of himself while trying to be polite. Most of us are angry because, once again, someone is taking the Amiga name and promoting it without keeping the essence of most of us consider to be the spirit of the Amiga (i.e. the software).

As frustrating as it is, it's hard to fault Barry for his efforts and ideas. If I had the money I'd have gone a completely different route, but I don't and therefore can't.

[commodorejohn]

Nothing the Baron does really affects us.  Don't sweat it, enjoy your Amigas, MOS, AROS, OS4, UAE.  As long as you are having fun what does it matter if he makes a few bucks off the name?  

And understand he has to hype his products.  Nobody in advertising is allowed to tell anything like the truth.  He's selling desktop PCs.  Desktop PCs are the only part of the IT market where sales are stagnant.  If you don't toot your own horn no one else will.  He has a gimmick, a name out of the past.  A name with some goodwill associated with it.  He uses it to generate sales.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but to get into a stagnant market without a gimmick would be financial suicide.

If Barry chose to get into a market he can't possibly compete in, design and price in such a way that he's not even trying to be competitive, botch every aspect of marketing his products, and shell out to Bill McEwen for a brand he has no idea how to use, that's his problem. I'm not obligated to approve of it, or even to nod and shrug and go "well, that's business for you."

[Dr.Bongo]

Nothing the Baron does really affects us.  Don't sweat it, enjoy your Amigas, MOS, AROS, OS4, UAE.  As long as you are having fun what does it matter if he makes a few bucks off the name?

No, sorry. If he even makes a few bucks it's another load-of-nothing company that's dragging out and killing off the Commodore/Amiga brand (Escom/Gateway etc.). It does matter to me.

[Dr.Bongo]

   
The funny thing is he is an Amiga and Commodore fan with a realist approach to which hardware will be useful.

Again, sorry but that's not what came across to me at all!

[Snoozy]

Hmmm as a short summary of the 32 pages.

- Barry liked Commodore and Amiga in the past, but not the games

- He will make amiga or commodore shells (plastic cases) by which to house PC components

- There will be no (specifically developed) Amiga OS. There will be just winuae. There is not the finance or inclincation from CUSA to develop a new Amiga OS.

- There are very small number of staff employed by CUSA and demand for the product is unknown/potentially low.

[jorkany]

I wonder how that happened... (imagining things get all wavey as we transition to my imagination...)

Ad agency: Yes, this all looks great. Our standard fee for this service is 30 million $.

CUSA: Uh, OK.

time passes

Ad agency: We'd like to be paid now. Where's our 30 million $??

CUSA: What?! You think we have 30 mil to spend on advertizing? You're freakin nuts!

(wavey transition back to reality)

CUSA: Yea, those crazy ad agency people completely made up this figure.

I wondered about this myself. Ad agencies aren't typically in the business of shoveling over money for the client to spend, if anything it's the other way round. Oh well, the fun continues!

[Digiman]

Of course they are not more Amiga than MorphOS, AROS, Pegasos, Hyperion's OS4, Natami, Minimig, AmigaOne... you name it... but even the original Commdore sold cheap PC clones under Commodore brand. I dont understand why some people go apecrap when someone is selling PC clones under Amiga brand. It is just a name for god sake.

My point is they are no more Amiga than a Dell PC running Linux+UAE/Windws+WinUAE/AROS with the circular Dell badge removed and replaced with a boing ball sticker. Can they run RTG screened/AHI audio enabled system friendly code? No. At the very least they should get Amithlon legal and then update it for i7/Phenom motherboard chipsets.

In this respect imagine if Wintel failed in 1994 and it was Microsoft and Intel who went bust not Commodore and 18 years later a regular IBM Power7 based Commodore Amiga with Amiga OS 7.0 (the defacto standard) running Wing Commander via PC Task PPC was called the Intel Windows PC rising from the ashes with an Intel inside sticker. Same thing here, all emulated virtually via software, not even a similar CPU/motherboard architecture.

It may be a legaly Amiga branded chinese Wintel PC but it will NEVER be an Amiga, that's what Mr BS doesn't understand.

[number6]

I assume that THIS in the question was a link to something interesting. What was THIS?

Hi Bill,

I found the link in the original thread asking for questions to be submitted:

at bottom of post

#6

[number6]

I wondered about this myself. Ad agencies aren't typically in the business of shoveling over money for the client to spend, if anything it's the other way round. Oh well, the fun continues!

some more info about that here

#6

[Digiman]

With CUSAs reinvention of the Amiga and Commodore, Barry is recreating the hardware and not the software. Therein lies the conundrum. Therein lies the source of anger, angst and misunderstanding. As far as business goes, he is taking care of himself while trying to be polite. Most of us are angry because, once again, someone is taking the Amiga name and promoting it without keeping the essence of most of us consider to be the spirit of the Amiga (i.e. the software).

As frustrating as it is, it's hard to fault Barry for his efforts and ideas. If I had the money I'd have gone a completely different route, but I don't and therefore can't.

You don't have $9000 spare for 300 Chinese HTPC cases with free logo etching.

He is not recreating any hardware, these are off the shelf Wintel components and a lightly [badly] skinned Linux DVD-R.

I have $9000 spare, a better skinned version of a more popular OS but I don't feel like.....

1. raping the memory of an awesome 80s computer
2. destroying 68k Amigas to house PC motherboards inside their cases*
3. selling WinUAE running Wintel box as an Amiga

*(which would be worth more than his rubbish HTPC cases)

[jorkany]

some more info about that here

#6

Thanks! Although the first and second links are actually the same and make no mention of the "projected budget". No need to try to track it down - the money isn't there, and doesn't appear to have ever been there, whatever the reason or whose fault it may be.

[nyteschayde]

Again, sorry but that's not what came across to me at all!

Trust me, I don't like what he's doing either. But in his own way, he see's it as though he is honoring the Amiga and the C64. He didn't realize and doesn't care that he is hurting our vision of the Amiga and Commodore because truthfully it's not a profitable market. He is running a business not a fan shop.

Again, I hate the approach he is taking but it's his money.

Does it bother me that the name is being tainted? Yes.
Do I wish he'd support the Amiga OS? Yes!! Will he? No.
Can all my whining and complaining do anything other than make me look bad? Probably not.

The guy is in a business to make money. He doesn't really care what we want to happen. He has offered to make a machine for us if we make it profitable for him. There was never any real quote for the unit prices he kept talking about in his offers, but nonetheless money is his bottom line. From a business stand point, it makes perfect sense.

It just also happens to hurt the image of the Amiga OS and our feelings. It also just happens that we're the ones keeping the Amiga OS alive and kicking. What that means is we should simply find a way to persevere like we have thus far. When the Natami is available for widespread consumption we can blog, post and advertise to the best of our ability that machines like that preserve the spirit of the Amiga; it's OS.