CommodoreUSA CEO Interview Answers

[dammy]

This CUSA stuff is so 2010 (or was it 2009?)  Let's move on to something more interesting.

Feel free to stop posting in C=USA threads then if you find it so uninteresting.

[tone007]

Feel free to stop posting in C=USA threads then if you find it so uninteresting.

[youtube]rH6b_lSQst0[/youtube]

[Duce]

I run Zeus BBS on a SAM 440.  The BBS software itself runs just fine on the PPC hardware/OS4, but the problem (and the reason I want the FPGA board) is that many older doors simply won't run well on the PPC machine :/

Working on porting DLG BB/OS to OS4 as well, and eventually to MorphOS perhaps.

[haywirepc]

Whats the telnet address to the bbs?

[weirdami]

Can I get the PDF in a handy pocket sized paperback version? I'm going on a long trip and I've already read War and Peace.

[motrucker]

Feel free to stop posting in C=USA threads then if you find it so uninteresting.

You mean CUSA hasn't folded yet?!

[wrath of khan]

You mean CUSA hasn't folded yet?!

They fold more than Origami.

[dammy]

You mean CUSA hasn't folded yet?!

Nope.

[wrath of khan]

I don't begrudge cusa if they want to make some money but I really wonder if selling pcs and calling them amigas will be a financial success. What makes their systems stand out from a regular pc.I don't see it as a long term business. Doing something interesting and mining some of the classic heritage and marrying it with modern components might be a better idea.Something that diffrentiates cusa systems from regular pc's is a must imo.As a side project even an amiga handheld similar to the megadrive/neo geo x like blaze make could concievably make some money in the retro market. There is alot of young people who missed the whole amiga games era. If certain concessions can be made to classic users when it doesn't cost cusa a dime then they should make those concessions as it gains nothing to alienate the amiga community either through accident or intention.Nostalgia aside I think success lies in some form of innovation much like the innovation inherent in the original amiga. I can't see cusa lasting very long with their current ethos.

[persia]

At some point they will hit the end of the faux retro market, but nobody know how deep that market is.  It's most certainly larger than the classic Amiga market, but all anyone can do is throw out numbers, a hundred thousand?  Half a million?  A million?  If it's on the million side they might go for years before hitting the wall.

The Commodore name is a dual edge sword.  For every one person that remembers it fondly there's at least another one or two that remember it as cheap plastic crap.

[dammy]

At some point they will hit the end of the faux retro market, but nobody know how deep that market is.  It's most certainly larger than the classic Amiga market, but all anyone can do is throw out numbers, a hundred thousand?  Half a million?  A million?  If it's on the million side they might go for years before hitting the wall.

The Commodore name is a dual edge sword.  For every one person that remembers it fondly there's at least another one or two that remember it as cheap plastic crap.

That is where you are wrong on two points.  One, this is not cheap plastic crap, they are pushing for reasonable quality hardware.  The other point your wrong on, there is much more then double digit number of C=USA haters online vs the world who remembers C='s name.  One of the biggest problems for the online C=USA hater's have is getting their head around, AO/AWN isn't the whole world nor a significant portion of the whole world.

[Kronos]

Well I guess dammy is still not smelling the cheese ....


NotC=USA now admitted (long after there was anything to deny) that they never had that 30 million ad-budget and that it was just another barry-brain-f### (well technically that would require a brain ...).
Same goes for those major retailers stocking NotC=64s ....

Is the brand-sticker-market really bigger than real-retro ? I can see lots of Amigas and real C64s even without going to specific websites, while NotC=64-sightings aren down to 1 unboxing video on utube (what was posted by barry&co does not count).

Also the question never was wether the NotAmigaMini is high quality or not, but wether people will remember C= products as high-class or rather as "cheap plastic".

The NotAmigaMini seems more like the spec-monsters you see on sale at Aldi or Walmart, lots of GHZ plenty fancy stickers but in reality medicore components not working together forming a turd.

[OlafS3]

It might be that the community is only a (very) small part of the world but most of the world outside does not remember amiga (and will not pay premium prices for the brand) or is remembering amiga but already uses computers (and will not pay premium for the brand either). As long as CUSA has nothing new and innovative to offer the brand is more or less worthless.

[vox]

That is where you are wrong on two points.  One, this is not cheap plastic crap, they are pushing for reasonable quality hardware.  The other point your wrong on, there is much more then double digit number of C=USA haters online vs the world who remembers C='s name.  One of the biggest problems for the online C=USA hater's have is getting their head around, AO/AWN isn't the whole world nor a significant portion of the whole world.

Probably the number of Commodore and Amiga names positive heritages outnumber their own faults. 30 000 likes on Facebook is result more of that, then of CommodoreUSA`s innovation. Quality of hardware as x86 has improved, even the pricing is high. Is such model sustainable, CUSA`s longlivity will prove. Surely, COS is improvement over self-install Ubuntu, but is still beta and support and updates are yet to be established.

I would be worried if most of people that lived as Amiga Community over last decade disliked not merely the products as much as lack of innovation and bad PR. Maybe some conclusions could be drawn from that. Surely, the world market is xyz times wider then Amiga community, but if strategy was better Amiga community would be first to count on as customers and loyal promoters. In community terms its also handful (two digits) that have accepted CUSA agenda as way forward. If this was the idea, it failed so far.

Of promises really made A1200 (or A500) case, AROS support and some form o of innovative OS (and most expensive "Amiga workstations") remain vapor as much as Elite 4. Leo has done some good PR and hope will get more independence and funds to live such projects. Paradoxically, with best wishes for that to happen, that depends on the sales of current VIC, C64x and Amiga Mini offer.

To deserve support at least as PC of our next choice, CUSA should come forward with some next gen idea, like Community project was supposed to.

Legally, and even in market behaviour, CUSA is a small bussiness we expected way too much from, but is continuation, licencee and financer (via double licence - licence sum and per machine fee all CUSA users repay) of Amiga Inc, an offshoot of Amiga Inc side of the court agreement. Small Amiga scene seems to be small but resiliant, and sometimes CUSA shortcomings make an Amiga promotion.



Hope to hear we all learned some lessons and some improvements are possible. Then surely, even you can`t satisfy all the people all the time, your support from this kind of community would strengthen.

[persia]

@Dammy  I was speaking of the Commodore name, not anything that this new Commodore makes.  There are a fair number of people that remember the Commodore name as a producer of cheap plastic crap, whether you like it or not, because, in the end they did produce cheap plastic crap. The original Commodore had about an equal number of lovers and haters.  No company has ever achieved universal love.  Commodore marketed on price.  Low Price.

[Duce]

Find it amusing that the magazine clip Vox posted is scathingly critical of the "new Amiga" that C-USA are offering.  Hope C-USA isn't posting that article in their Media relations file, because the author of said article is just as critical of the Amiga Mini as anyone here is, if not worse.

The words C-USA and Innovation shouldn't be used in the same sentence in regards to this Mini.  I'll give credit where credit is due on the 64 series, that case had some merit to retro guys.  There was something new and unique there, but not on this one.

The Amiga Mini?  Components I can purchase off any store shelf.  A $40 case, some commodity PC components in it, and a rebadged version of Linux.  
Not even an emulator with ROM's.  Nada.  Zip.  Zilch.  A Linux PC.

I'll respect it for what it is, and that's a PC - but man am I sick of people heralding an Intel based PC running Linux as the "new Amiga that will save the Amiga name!" when there's absolutely nothing "Amiga" about it, nor is there anything innovative.  An Amiga decal on a Dell, same thing.  PC components in a PC case.  Nothing more, nothing less.

I'm far beyond getting cranky about people defiling the Amiga name - after
years of seeing people like McBill and others farm it out like a $5 prostitute, I'm not a big, ardent defender of "the name".  What does annoy the living hell out of me is otherwise bright, intelligent people heralding things as a "rebirth" or a "great new innovation", when the stark truth is:  it is a COMMODITY PC WITH A LOGO ON IT, RUNNING LINUX, AT 2x THE PRICE.

The Amiga Mini has about as much to do with the Amiga as a Dell with an Amiga decal stuck on it.  Period.  There isn't enough whitewash in the world to get past the fact they are charging a 2x markup for an Amiga etching on a $40 mini-itx case that has been discontinued.

If their products are what you are after, by all means, it's your money and I truly hope you enjoy your systems.  There are more reputable and far cheaper "boutique" brands out there, however - or you could build your own in about an hour at half the cost...

Once again, I implore you to support the "little guys".  The Natami crew, FPGA guys, the authors and vendors of emulator programs, MorphOS, AROS, and OS4 - which do actually bring something unique and niche to the table.