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Amiga Update (1995-06-02)
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// Amiga Update - News and Rumors //
\X/ (A Very Occasional Newsletter) \X/
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950602
We have more information today on the recent announcement and organization
moves by ESCOM. First, a quick rumor from England. Following that, two
transcripts from the ESCOM press conference mentioned in yesterday's
newsletter. All are interesting reading.
Brad
BRITISH RUMORS
I was on the phone today to someone who I will call "A large, maybe the
largest UK dealer of high-end amiga gear". I'm not saying who it is, to
save him the hassle of lots of phone calls. Yup- I know that's a bad start,
but I trust this guy- I've been buying things from him for a long time and
he's always been correct before.
Apparently ESCOM are manufacturing A4000T's straight away. The machines
will be in a custom tower case (not the original), and will have Cyberstorm
040 or 060 processing cards. An option is to have the CyberVision (is that
correct? I'm not hot on graphics and this is from memory) as standard too.
The price is reckoned to be at least 30 percent less than when CBM was
producing them.
Next up is the A1200, which will start production again in September,
running the pin-compatible EC68030 processor rather than the 020. Again,
price is supposed to hit the streets at 30 percent less than CBM's.
Finally, and I'm not particularly skeptical about this, there has been a
deal signed between Escom, Phillips, and Scala to produce an interactive
multimedia computer running some kind of Amiga OS.
Oh- and finally finally, apparently the new Amiga will be shipped from a
company in the Netherlands named "Amiga Technologies".
Whether any of this is true or not, I don't know. It sounds to me like
Escom have the right idea, which is to reestablish the high-end market
first, *then* get down to some games machines / low end machines. Here's
hoping, anyway.
On goes the rumourmill...
Neil Brewitt
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DIRECT FROM ESCOM OFFICERS
Frankfurt/Main, May 30, 1995
Speech of Manfred Schmitt
Escom AG
Chairman of the Executive Board
Ladies and gentlemen,
Since we won the auction for the intellectual property of Commodore and
Amiga, the ESCOM AG is flooded with congratulation messages. Amiga clubs and
Amiga users write to ask us to revive and continue to develop and improve the
Amiga. Many of them actually sent us their wishes for future hardware
architectures and operating systems improvements.
However, it is still unclear for many users how a PC manufacturer and
retailer will use the Amiga technology.
Here is our answer:
ESCOM now turns from a PC manufacturer and retailer into a multimedia
company. The big multimedia applications will come very soon as Pay-TV, Video
on demand, homebanking, home-shopping and online services. In this growing
market, we want to become a leading provider of hardware, software and
solutions. Our goal is to give the user a cost-efficient way to access all
these new services the multimedia world will allow. The Amiga technology
brings us all we need here in an elegant way. We see in the Amiga the key to
Multimedia technologies for the future.
As an intelligent terminal, you all know the PC. Many people use the PC in
conjunction with a modem to access online services and the worldwide
Internet. Escom is providing that market with a wide palette of
advantageoulsy priced Multimedia PCs in a range between 2000 and 3000 DM.
But there are other user profiles, who want to use the multimedia technology
without having to spend several thousands of DM. For these users, the Amiga
represents a very interesting alternative. It stands out with an amazing
price/quality ratio. Also remarkable is the operating system with a still
unmatched multitasking ability. That means that several applications can run
simultaneously, depending on available memory without slowing down the whole
system. This is achieved by the smart resource sharing of the system and the
low consumption of RAM and processing power by the applications.
The Amiga operating system needs 8 times less memory than Windows, and it
multitasks better than Windows. Through this smart use of system resources,
the Amiga is still a very efficient and unexpensive computer.
Video is another strength of the Amiga. In this aspect, the Amiga is
superior to the PC. The video output of the Amiga is already PAL and NTSC
compatible, so it can just be plugged into a TV or any video monitor. A PC
needs a converter to do this. The Amiga represents a possibility to give
people access to interactive television, online services and pay TV with set
top boxes at decent prices like 400 DM. The market is huge because there are
much more televisions than computers in the homes.
The set top box is a concrete application involving Amiga technology that we
want to improve. For the American market, which is much more advanced than in
Europe in this regard, we already have license agreements with our partner
VisCorp - our first licence by the way. We are willing to be very flexible
and open-minded regarding licensing of our technology. Amiga developers and
manufacturers shall have the chance to talk with us to define partnerships or
license agreements. Together, we will develop a wide range of Amiga hardware
and software. Our goal is a productive, open amiga technology. The example of
Viscorp demonstrates it at best : we license Amiga technology to people who
want to integrate it in their own products. The press already talked about
another partner, the Tianjin Family-Used Multimedia Co. Ltd. They will build
the lower range of Amiga computers and revive the legendary Commodore 64 for
the chinese market.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have mainly talked about the Amiga. In New York, we
also took over another well known brand : Commodore. All of you surely
remember the good old Commodore 64 and its tremendous success in the early
eighties. It is still a famous episode in the home computer history that
could be compared to the Volkswagen Beetle. A recent study made by the german
economic magazine DM reveals that the name Commodore still has very high
recognition. 93 percent of all PC users know the trademark Commodore. such a
reputation is only surpassed by IBM.
We will now separate Commodore and Amiga operations. Amiga will be the
multimedia range with Motorola processors and Commodore for Intel based
Personal Computers. We want to use all available and appropriate distribution
channels both for Commodore and Amiga: specialized retail stores, warehouses,
and mail order services. The ESCOM subsidiaries are only one of many
possibilities.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are convinced that ESCOM, Commodore and Amiga will
become a sucess story. Look at the structure and competencies we have built
up in a short time.
Thank you.
*********************************************************************
Petro Tyschtschenko
Ladies and gentlemen,
As the General manager of Amiga Technologies GmbH, I would like to welcome
you to the first press conference of our new company and also tell you how
much we appreciate your presence here.
At a spectacular auction, five weeks ago in New York, ESCOM AG acquired the
rights to the intellectual property of the former Commodore company for 10
Mio $, including all trademarks, logos, products and licences.
Since the day we succeeded in buying the Amiga technology, many people have
asked us how the future will look for their computer of choice. We got floods
of anxious faxes and letters to which we couldn't give an answer at once
because things were too early to comment. We will use the opportunity we have
now to talk to all of you and present the new Escom daughtercompany, Amiga
Technologies. Some leading developpers of hardware and software for the Amiga
as well as some of our new licensing partners will present themselves and
their projects to us.
To clear up things from the beginning, - and that's the point you are all
interested in - I want to make the comittment that we are determined to
resume production and also want to continue hardware and software development
of what we believe is a superior technology. That's why we created Amiga
Technologies and we are now hiring the best and most capable people to
accomplish this.
For a sucessfull Multimedia company like ESCOM, the Commodore Patents and
licences concerning Amiga are considered the key to multimedia technology.
Mister Schmitt will say more about this later.
But let's concentrate on our immediate plans. As the director of Amiga
Technologies, my first priority now is to resume production of Commodore and
Amiga computers and bring them on the market as soon as possible. For us,
this means September 1995.
I would also like to refer to Commodore computers, Pentium PCs, which will
be available in August this year. These will be fully loaded P75 and P100
multimedia PCs. They will be assembled in our own ESCOM facilities. We plan
to sell between 50 000 and 60 000 units before the end of this year. Let me
point out that the Commodore and Amiga operations will be separate, Amiga
Technologies will only take care of Amiga, whereas ESCOM will provide
Commodore PCs.
One month later, we will start producing the high-end multimedia Amiga 4000
T. To succeed in keeping that tight schedule, we negotiated with well known
producers in Europe and Asia. For the selection of the manufacturing partner,
we will be emphasizing the quality requirements.
Until the end of the year, we plan to produce enough machines to meet the
demand. These machines are already outsold in preorders. In October, the
production of the low-end A1200 will begin. We expect to ship enough untis as
well as CD 32 game consoles to meet the Christmas season demand. Please give
us more time to publish quantities.
The takeover of the inventory, which is mainly composed of spare parts, in
the UK and Germany is completed. The rumoured stocks of new Amigas ready to
be sold do not exist. For inventory in the Phillipines, we are currently
negotiating with the local trustees.
Ladies and gentlemen, the new Amiga Technology will now become the operating
center of an international Company held 100% by ESCOM AG. Our headquarters in
Bensheim will employ around 50 people for following tasks : development,
support to developers, resellers, and users, production management,
Marketing, PR and administration. We also took over the former Commodore
development center in Norristown, with its research and development
facilities. Eduard Goff, former Vice President and General counsel at
Commodore now leads that center. He will talk to you later. Our developers
are now working on the next generation RISC based Amigas as well as on
improving current models. Here, we are working in a tight partnership with
SCALA and MOTOROLA.
Amiga Technologies GmbH expects a turnover of 100 Mio DM in 1995, mainly
from the Christmas business with Amiga 1200, 4000 and CD32. Our monthly
expenses are evaluated at around 600 000 DM. The break even point should be
reached this year. We are confident that we will have rentabilized our 10 Mio
$ investment by spring 1996 with Amiga sales and licences.
Thank you.
--
Gilles Bourdin / Amiga Technologies GmbH
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Brad Webb || (414) 544-3087 voice
ADSRS System Administration || (414) 544-3700 fax
General Electric Medical Systems || webb@malamute.med.ge.com
Information Management ||
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