Amiga products are once again selling in
mainstream retail outlets. True it is only in the US and they
are being sold repackaged by another company but the fact of
the matter is that you can walk into a normal store and buy
them. This represents a big step for Amiga as it travels along
the road from almost ruin to successful recovery and also
provides an interesting lesson, that as a creator of enabling
technologies, we don't necessarily have to judge our success
or design our strategies around our flagship branding.
Of course the Amiga brand name is very valuable.
It is embedded in the minds of many people as a feel good, fun
time part of their earlier life and its very mention tends to
trigger a smile in the majority of people, which is as good as
a foot in the door when it comes to sales and marketing.
However, once through that door, we are working with companies
who have their own expensively cultured brand names and
marketing strategies. For some, the Amiga brand name will be a
valuable ally but for others they will be more interested in
our technology and products as enablers for their own
products. In this respect flexibility at all levels will allow
Amiga to penetrate many more markets.
This flexibility doesn't just apply to sales and
marketing. The Gamecard deal described above (and in more
detail further on in this month's issue) is another
illustration of the flexibility that Amiga is pursuing. The
Gamecard is one example of a deployment type for the AmigaDE
technology base. That same technology can also be employed as
an online content service, or as an embedded service, as a
distinct player or as host adaptive standalone products. Such
flexibility of deployment around a core technology allows for
the easy marketing and development of distinctive product
strands, all of which have their set of advantages and
disadvantages. This gives our potential customers choice all
the way from the drawing board and upward and being able to
provide such choices is a valuable sales weapon.
Flexibility is also the key to the future
development of the AmigaOS. Amiga Generation 1 (AG1) was
blessed with a very flexible design that allowed it to carry
on for many years after its planned product envelope, which
has been a good thing considering the trials and tribulations
of the past six years. However the world of 2003 is very
different from 1984, at least in a technology sense.
Connectivity and hardware commoditisation are the two big
differences, along with the rapid advance in content
digitization that has seen the digital revolution move from
its innovation stage into its maturation stage; this is
represented by the increasing appearance of advanced digital
consumer electronic devices.
Indeed, whereas in 1984, a desktop computer sat
proud but alone in the home or office, the desktop computer of
2003 is almost crowded out by consoles, DVD players, digital
radios, cameras and camcorders, satellite decoders, PDAs,
Smartphones and MP3 players; A myriad of digital devices all
wanting to produce and consume digital content.
The challenge of 2003 is how to get them to all
working together and more, how to provide the enabling
technology for each of those devices. AmigaOS technology is in
a unique position to be able to address these issues whilst
moving forwards. The key again is flexibility. AmigaOS4.0 is a
desktop operating system, but as Amiga Generation 2 (AG2)
moves forwards, its technology will be designed to be
flexible. This will allow us to offer multiple deployment
configurations from the same set of common technology,
technology for the desktop, or the server, or the PDA or the
Smartphone.
AmigaOnes are now shipping in volume. AmigaOS4.0
is moving closer and closer to release, AmigaOS4.1 is being
fleshed out and the AG2 project is gathering pace. Flexibility
is the key to getting more products onto the shelves and in
getting Amiga back on top. It still won't be easy and there
are plenty of pitfalls that await us, as we have discovered
over the past three years but we are confident that adding
flexibility to the AmigaOS of Elegance through Simplicity will
give us the best chance of success.
