|
Friday, G-day. The show hasn't begun yet, but a large number of Amiga enthusiasts
already made their way to the Salon Bourg room in the Novotel, Hammersmith,
London, to hear the new owners of Amiga speak, hopefully about the wonderful new
future plans they surely must have forged already. Yours truly decided to attend this
no doubt historic event and after consulting his IRC cronies decided that London
was a swim too far, and should be taken by Eurotunnel. Unfortunately, two hours of
sleep didn't prove to be enough and the reserved seat was missed. Although all
teleport pads were taken for the afternoon, a planeticket could thankfully still
be procured on time. The conference was hosted by Dr. Jim Taylor, vice-president
of Marketing, Gateway 2000 and Petro Tyschtschenko of the rechristened Amiga
International. As expected, no earthshattering plans or demonic devices were
revealed, the respective PR's:
AI,
Gateway.
As a great fan of behavioural sciences and general skeptic of hype I was much
more interested in the conviction with which these matters were presented and the
reaction of the public present. Dr. Jim Taylor gave me the first impression of an
experienced businessman, confident, smooth, charismatic, some would say arrogant.
I couldn't detect any dead eye syndrome though and his longer than usual hairstyle
surely must be a good sign :) He presented the subject matter with some humour and
apparent conviction, thanking "you the Amiga enthusiasts, who made it all possible".
Gateway's businessplan revolves around consumer satisfaction and his calculatingly
inspired speech would have given a less hardened audience the totally warm fuzzies,
I'm sure. My overall feelings were a mixture of weariness and of moderate elation.
This man is, although a suit, obviously knowing what he does and doesn't bullshit
about much. Transposed to the entire Gateway organization that could mean expediency
in reviving the Amiga, but also no remorse at liquidation or at least rolling of
heads if things don't proceed according to plan soon enough. The question round
was kept short, and stupid/repeated questions quickly dealt with.
Next came Petro Tyschtschenko, president of Amiga International. In many
respects the opposite of Dr. JT, with his lisp and German accent, soft spoken and
lacking any sign of charisma he reminded me mainly of a vicar. At one point making
a vague promise of something by November. November is in itself a good date
if AI can present actual product, licensed OS development or otherwise to
the German public in Cologne, and be in time for the christmas season. This does
not preclude any announcements before then of course. The most important points made
were IMHO 'broad licensing' and 'cooperation'. It remains to be seen whether this
will result in a source license to PIOS or a hardware cooperation with phase 5 for
example. Although talks with PIOS and phase 5 employees present suggested no clear
movement in this direction, I remain hopeful. After all, and this was the general
undertone of the entire press conference: "give us room, it's much too early to say".
|
OS license they don't stand a chance of making it as suppliers of the
'new Amiga', and surely their plans are calling for more than suppliers
of third party add-ons. In the long-term supplying proprietary
solutions is a lost battle as the Amiga moves towards industry standard parts,
PCI and suchlike. Nevertheless I like their attitude, not caring about
waiting for something to happen and do their own thing if need be.
Mail me