Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

he story of the
Amiga is a strange
one. Since Commodore
went bust in 1994, impres
sive corporations have arisen as appar
ent saviours of this unique platform, only to
disappear leaving a string of unfulfilled
promises. If it was any other computer, the
Amiga would have been forgotten by now.
But this is not any computer, and its sup
porters are not your average computer users.
The birthplace of the Amiga it may be, but the American
market has suffered since Commodore's demise. According
to most of the companies in the survey, the US market has
been struggling of late, though the Video Toaster market
remains fairly buoyant.
international community
developerrf^ffalers and user groups
ooks to the future of your computer
RandhirJesrani from retail firm Compuquick painted pos
sibly the bleakest picture, saying that customer interest had declined over the
past five to six months. Software Hut has experienced a similar downturn in USbased
trade, which they ascribe to the fact that people are becoming discour
aged by waiting for a resolution to the ownership situation.
By contrast, lAM's Dale Larson said business was buoyant during the holiday
season, thanks partially to reduced pricing and small incentives like the histori
cal 'Boing logo' offer. However, he added that 'Too many customers have had a
wait-and-see attitude since Commodore went bankrupt".
As to what needs to happen to revitalise the market, all the US companies
were in agreement on one thing: A new owner is needed, and soon. "Thereafter
we would like the OS to be expanded for Internet access, memory management,
The Amiga has certainly been wounded by
delays in its development, and many of the
best companies have either gone bust or
moved to more stable
kets. But there is still a whole
host of others developing and sup
plying products to keep us happy,
plus the real hope of new, powe:
Amigas on the horizon from QuikPak.
1997 should be the year the Amiga's des
tiny is finally resolved. In this exclusive sur
vey, you'll find out what an entire community
of businesses and users think should happen
next
networking, and better printer/scanner access," said
Compuquick's Jesrani. "We would then like the Amiga
platform to offer more power in terms of processing
speed and CD quality sound, though it should retain its
custom chip-set"
'The new owners should advertise and market the
Amiga so that the confidence of Amiga owners is maintained and the mar
ketplace becomes familiar with the Amiga brand name and the technology," he
added.
Dale Larson's masterplan was rather more wistful. "Ideally, Bill Gates would put
me in his will and then die," he said. "I'd have hundred of millions of dollars to
invest in creating a new generation OS to compete with WinTel as a better gen
eral-purpose system with better apps. Short of that resource, I don't see how the
Amiga platform will continue to develop in terms of new generations of hard
ware/OS. It will still develop through third-party extensions and enhancements,
though, and it remains excellent in some niches and as a low-cost home
machine."
Amiga Computing
MARCH 1997