Fleecy Moss of Amiga Inc, answers a fourth session of the community’s questions over at AmigaWorld.net.
Fleecy Moss Q&A Interview, Week 4
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Eugenia Loli
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Is that meant to read, “answers a fourth session“?
“We have made it known that we are looking at excelling in the 90% of desktop computer usage by the average person and Internet is obviously a major component of that usage.”
———-
I have no idea what this means.
Yet more marketspeak. we will be looking at this, thinking about this, etc. How about some answers??
Its historic with the Amiga that the hardware and software technology has had good possiblities but continues to be stifled by poor management.
In the QA session Mr. Moss talks about being the best platform for niche applications, then wants to on 90% of the desktops and also on PDA but they can’t deliver their next OS anytime in the near future and their users already want the OS after that.
I think its better to focus their attention on delivering OS4 and other updates in a timely manner. You can depend on MS to deliver a new/upgraded OS every other year or so, Apple seems to deliver a new OS every year, fortunately for the better and Linux seems to be developing at a rapid pace.
I still do not see a clear direction Amiga is going. The technology is getting there but where is the business model that will work?
In focusing on Amiga everywhere, they have achieved having Amiga nowhere.
The direction is pretty clear by now, I personally must have explained this a dozen times @ OSNews as well. However quite a few people get confused by two different sets of products, the AmigaDE and AmigaOS, which are currently clearly two different product series offering different market potentials.
Combine this with deliberate misinformation/FUD spreading by rivals (and often rival supporters) and you have the recipe for confusion.
Regarding to desktop usage, Amiga Inc has continuously explained that they won’t be able to compete with Microsoft’s marketing power. So your interpretation of his answer seems quite strange.
However Amiga could easily excel for various computer uses, especially compared to previous Amiga offerings. Does this mean being used in 90% of dektop computers? Of course not. BeOS excelled for various computer uses compared to many solutions in terms of i.e. performance, however never came it close to 1% of the general desktop market.
Likewise Amiga’s main money making market will not be the desktop, regardless of this being an important focus. Q&A week4 regarding *AmigaOS*: “This immediately points to the obvious desktop but the bigger markets are in other device classes, STBS, Information Consoles and solutions.”
@ Chris
Sometimes it is not possible to give clear answers, due to the fact of being a company executive. But for instance regarding the Series 60 support and partners, the plans and 3rd party intentions are promising.
Alan has recently held a speech at a Swedish Amiga show. He explained the realities surrounding the AmigaOne/AmigaOS4 project pretty well:
http://amigaworld.net/modules/news/article.php?storyid=355
> The direction is pretty clear by now, I personally must have explained this a dozen times @ OSNews as well.
Yep it is clear. As clear as mud. Seeing Amiga Inc. waving their hands and talking ‘marketspeek’ is not my definition of a clear direction.
> However quite a few people get confused by two different sets of products, the AmigaDE and AmigaOS, which are currently clearly two different product series offering different market potentials.
Most people I have communicated with (about Amiga) knows of the difference between those two products.
> Combine this with deliberate misinformation/FUD spreading by rivals (and often rival supporters) and you have the recipe for confusion.
IMHO Amiga Inc. doesn’t need anybody to spread FUD about them as they are clearly capable to do this themself. But it is always easier to have a shapegoat is it not?
> Regarding to desktop usage, Amiga Inc has continuously explained that they won’t be able to compete with Microsoft’s marketing power.
Or their software features, standards support, their hardware support, their software quality* or even their support for memory protection!
(* Guess I need to clarify that this is not a joke. There are many cluesless people on the Internet)
> However Amiga could easily excel for various computer uses, especially compared to previous Amiga offerings.
Excel in what? I hate to tell you this but AOS have nothing unique to offer todays users… And I doubt that this will change as the developers of AOS4 seems to have “mainstream-o-phobia”.
Even for STBs/”Information consoles”/other semi-embedded systems AOS have no clear advantages over Windows CE, Linux, QNX and many other systems available…
@ Megol
> Yep it is clear. As clear as mud.
Let me explain the direction the Amiga partners are taking one more time. AmigaOS4 is the first step to greatly modernize AmigaOS and to port the OS to modern open hardware. The OS will initially be targeted at AmigaOS4 fans and OS geeks. Some of AmigaOS4.x’s strong point will be a small memory footprint, efficiency, performance, modularity and customizability.
The first AmigaOne systems are just like the usual desktop computers. The market for these initial machines are however estimated to be around 10,000 units. By far not enough to cover the development costs. (The costs for the 25 manyears of development is estimated to be worth 5 million USD, another 5 million was spent on acquiring Amiga, let alone the hardware development costs)
So they are also targeting important niche markets. A MicroATX version of the AmigaOne-XE board will be targeted at server farms. A lite version of the AmigaOne-SE board will be targeted at STB, Kiosk and homecomputer models (mass production consumer products).
Regarding the AmigaDE, this technology is currently being targeted as a cellphone and PDA content providing technology and a derivative in the form of Gamecards is already available at mainstream shops. The AmigaDE is a platform independent technology and will be integrated into AmigaOS. The fact that companies like Microsoft, Nokia and Sharp have partnered with Amiga shows that this technology has great potential. Hopefully the tech market will soon recover, so that such big companies finally enter the market with their originally intended products.
AmigaOS5 still has a long way to go and will be a 64-bit OS.
> Most people I have communicated with (about Amiga) knows
> of the difference between those two products.
I have too. And each time many people seem to confuse the two products.
> IMHO Amiga Inc. doesn’t need anybody to spread FUD about
> them as they are clearly capable to do this themself.
> But it is always easier to have a shapegoat is it not?
Actually they have chosen to stay quiet for quite some time, trying to concetrate mainly on development. It were rivals and their supporters who spread nonesense rumours of things like bankruptcy.
> I hate to tell you this but AOS have nothing unique to
> offer todays users…
Most Amigans would greatly diagree. Amigans i.e. greatly appreciate the concept of screens and levels of modularity, performance/effiency provided by AmigaOS comparison to other offerings. For example, what makes Windows really unique apart from its content monopoly and Microsoft’s general desktop market dominance?
> And I doubt that this will change as the developers of
> AOS4 seems to have “mainstream-o-phobia”.
What a nonesense. Being realistic = “mainstream-o-phobia”? Come on now, Amiga and their partners have limited resources. Microsoft has billions of dollars lying around unused, how the hell do you expect small Amiga companies to take their market away from them?