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Amiga Update (1997-07-25)
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_ __ _ <>_ __ _ ||
/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || A M I G A U P D A T E
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || -News and Rumors-
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_|| (An Occasional Newsletter)
BACK FOR THE FUTURE ||
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AMIGA and the Amiga logo are trademarks of Amiga International, GmbH
----------------------------------------------------------------------
970725
G A T E W A Y S H A R E S O W N E R S H I P ? ?
G A T E W A Y S P E E C H T R A N S C R I P T - W O A
P L A N S O F M A L Y S I A N C L O N E M A K E R
A M I C O N I N O H I O
P M P R O D E S C R I B E D
Editor's Thoughts and Introduction:
Wonderful, just what the Amiga community needs - a dispute over the
ownership of Amiga patents and intellectual property. This is as
helpful as a purchase of Amiga by Microsoft. (In case anyone missed
it, the previous sentences are meant sarcasticly.)
What seems to have happened to cause this quickly developed
controversy is this. A New Jersey company named Lotus Pacific has
announced the acquisition of the rights to build Amigas in China. They
did this through a wholly owned subsidiary named Regent Electronics
Corporation. "The acquired assets include all Commodore-Amiga's
patents, licenses, trademarks, and copyrights to be registered and
used in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao and the bordering countries
between China and the former Soviet Union" according to a July 18
press release by Lotus Pacific. These assets were sold by Rightiming
Electronics of New Jersey, which trades in China as NewStar. The deal
was for a reported $5,000,000 US and 8,000,000 shares of Common Stock
of Regent Electronics Corp.
The assets were apparently obtained by Rightiming through a contract
with Escom AG, which owned the rights to Amiga before Gateway 2000.
Lotus Pacific is a young New Jersey based company, about three years
old, formed to exploit emerging business opportunities in China.
As you will see in the press releases from Gateway 2000 and Amiga
International, that's not the way those companies see things. In their
view, the NewStar license to make Amiga clones is invalid due to the
bankruptcy of Escom AG and the sale of the Amiga. By an interesting
coincidence, I interviewed Petro Tyschtschenko, Managing Director of
Amiga International, on the subject of clones just before this story
broke. His words at that time indicated there were talks possible with
NewStar which could lead to a renewal of the license. Our opinion is
this would be a much preferred solution over a possible court fight.
We have the most recent press releases from Gateway/Amiga
International, and also the ones which broke the NewStar/Lotus Pacific
story below.
In more cheerful news, we found two fascinating items on the Internet
lately, which we bring to you in complete form. First is a transcript
of the speech by Gateway's Dr. Jim Taylor at the London World of Amiga
show. The transcript was make by Jeroen T. Vermeulen and placed on the
net for all to see. We bring it to you just as it was posted, and
extend our considerable gratitude to Mr. Vermeulen. Note that this
posting also contains the transcript of the Petro T. speech and at
least some of the question and answer session that followed. Some of
this material has been carried in AU before, but we felt it important
to run the entire posting.
The second item appeared on the net in the last few days, and
describes the plans of Innovations Lights & Magic, a recently licensed
Amiga compatible maker. You'll find an interesting sentence about
Amiga OS 3.5 casually dropped into the middle of this story!
We were sent an announcement of the upcoming Amicon Amiga convention
to be held in Ohio at the beginning of November. This looks like a
good one to attend if at all possible.
And finally, we received an announcement of a new graphics program
release, Picture Manager Professional V4 (PMPro). We are certain this
program will be of interest to many Amiga graphics artist.
Only five stories this time, but what stories they are. As always, we
hope you enjoy this issue.
Brad Webb,
Editor
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G A T E W A Y S H A R E S O W N E R S H I P ? ?
{We begin with two postings by Gateway 2000, which clearly state that
company's position with regard to the Amiga and its operating system.
The first posting was accompanied by a full-sized image of the Amiga
OS 3.1 packaging label.
After the Copyright and licensing statements from Gateway, we have
the press releases that started the excitement. Brad}
*******
Amiga International, Inc.: OS3.1 Info July 25th, 1997
July 25th, 1997
Copyright
The AMIGA OS 3.1 is owned by AMIGA International, Inc. / Gateway 2000
and protected by copyright laws, international treaty provision and
all other applicable national laws. The distribution of the AMIGA OS
3.1 is only approved by authorized dealers and distributors. The
following security sticker indicates that this product is genuine
AMIGA International, Inc. software. Reproduction of this certificate
of Authenticity is illegal and strictly prohibited by law.
*******
Amiga International, Inc.: Gateway 2000 Info, July 24th, 1997
July 24th, 1997
About the Rightiming Electronics / Lotus Pacific confusion
As owner of all Amiga, Inc. patent rights worldwide, we at Gateway
2000 want to clarify a recent story on the apparent sale of all Amiga
patents, trademarks and copyrights by Rightiming Electronics to Lotus
Pacific, Inc. for use in China, Taiwan, Macao and the bordering
countries between China and the former Soviet Union.
Rightiming purports to hold a license to manufacture Amigas and has
apparently attempted to sell this purported license to Lotus
Pacific.We dispute their license, their right to sell any license, and
we dispute any claims they have made with respect to Amiga patents,
copyrights, or trademarks. Gateway 2000 owns all Amiga patents,
copyrights and trademarks worldwide and will continue to license Amiga
technology to qualified companies.
Dr. Jim Taylor, Gateway 2000
*******
Lotus Pacific Announces the Wonder TV A6000
PISCATAWAY, N.J.--July 18, 1997 Lotus Pacific, Inc., a public company
listed on NASDAQ Bulletin Board, announced today its strategic
alliance, through its direct subsidiary Regent Electronics
Corporation, with the largest TV manufacturer in China, Sichuan
Changhong Electronics Group Corporation of China.
According to the signed co-operation agreement, Sichuan Changhong
will produce over 200,000 units of Wonder TV A6000 in China before the
end of 1998. Regent has complete product technical license and patent
and it will supply product specific chip set and other key components
to Sichuan Changhong. Wonder TV A6000 is now highly valued by industry
experts as a true TV ready wonder box which combines all the useful
functions of a multi-media computer, a fax machine, a karaoke, an
Internet box (like WebTV) and a game machine.
Sichuan Changhong Electronics Group Corporation, a public company
listed in the Central Chinese Stock Exchange, is now No.1 in China and
the 8th largest TV manufacturer in the world. In 1996 it produced and
sold over 5 million television sets.
Lotus Pacific, Inc. is a public company traded on the NASDAQ bulletin
board under the symbol of LPFC. Its Internet website is at
http://www.lpfc.com/
*******
PISCATAWAY, N.J.-- July 18, 1997-- Lotus Pacific, Inc., a public
company listed on NASDAQ Bulletin Board, announced today that its
direct subsidiary Regent Electronics Corp., entered into a Purchase
Agreement with Rightiming Electronics Corp., a New Jersey based
high-tech company, to acquire certain technology related assets and
rights for an aggregate consideration of US $5,000,000 (five million
US dollars) and 8,000,000 (eight million) shares of Common Stock of
Regent Electronics Corp.
The acquired assets include all Commodore-Amiga's patents, licenses,
trademarks, and copyrights to be registered and used in China, Taiwan,
Hong Kong, Macao and the bordering countries between China and the
former Soviet Union. Over the past year Rightiming successfully
developed a multi-media and multi-functional TV set top box. It was
brand named as Wonder TV A-6000. This product features an all-in-one
box system with combined functions of a multi-media personal computer,
a fax machine, a Karaoke machine an Internet box, an audio CD player,
a video CD player and an electronic game machine. Patents for this
multi-media and multi-functional TV set top box are being registered
in China.
The acquisition decision, by the management of Lotus Pacific, Inc. is
to produce and market a home use electronics product similar to Web-TV
in China and other countries in Asia Pacific. The market potential for
this new home electronics product is believed to be tremendous in the
Far East.
Lotus Pacific, Inc. is a public company traded on the NASDAQ bulletin
board under the symbol of LPFC. Its Internet website is at
http://www.lpfc.com/
Contact:
Lotus Pacific Inc., Pascataway
David Fei, 732/885-0600
----------------------------------------------------------------------
G A T E W A Y S P E E C H T R A N S C R I P T - W O A
Complete Gateway 2000 Speech Transcript
7-23-97
Newsgroup: comp.sys.amiga.misc
For some reason, a lot of what was said by Gateway's Jim Taylor at
the WOA still hasn't made it to all those who are interested. A real
pity, since it explains and answers a lot that is being discussed here
{on the Usenet Newsgroups. Brad} by the usual pessimists.
One of the most notable items is the fact that Gateway themselves had
little notion of what was going on with the Amiga before they bought
it, but it was the enthusiastic user community (and other assorted
miracles) that made them think again.
All this can be heard on the MPEG audio samples published on Amiga
Computing's Web site (http://www.idg.co.uk/amigacomp/, look under
Stuff). However, downloading them takes ages and playing them eats a
lot of CPU cycles. So for those of you who didn't get to hear the
samples, here's a transcript of what is said in them.
DISCLAIMER - I don't speak for anyone. This transcript is not
official, it has not been acknowledged or endorsed (or even read
AFAIK) by any of the speakers, and punctuation is my own. Transcribing
speeches necessarily involves some guesswork, so it's likely that the
text will deviate in some points from what was really said. Typos are
also unavoidable since I mostly wrote this at night.Since the samples
don't always overlap, I also have no way of knowing whether anything
else was said in between samples.
Don't use for medical purposes or on live animals. Do not inhale.
Ingest after reading. Good luck, 007.
Whatever the weaknesses in my own transcription may be, I think that
posting it would do more good at this point than keeping it to myself.
I've tried to be conservative in my guesses, so some text is marked as
doubtful [word ?], either inserted or deleted [word], annotated <like
this, ed.>, or added to describe other sounds <mumbles: yeah right>.
Where speakers correct themselves, I've not transcribed the mistake
and correction literally but incorporated the correction in the
original sentence directly.
START OF TRANSCRIPT
Dr. James Taylor, Senior VP Global Marketing Gateway 2000
Incorporated:
Hello Amiga people!
<crowd: hello etc.>
In my country when you say hello they say "Hi Jim!"
<crowd: Hi Jim!>
(chuckles)
I really am pleased to be here today, er, as you all know Gateway
2000 has agreed and has completed the transaction to acquire Amiga and
it is a wonderful opportunity for Gateway 2000 and we hope that for
the world of Amiga it turns out to be just as rewarding. I would like
to say on rumours of this meeting today, the US share price of Gateway
2000 rose 7.50 dollars yesterday so...
I felt what I'd do though is spend a few minutes talking about
Gateway, because I think that we can all become friends going forward
and I think it's important for you to understand who we are as a
company, and hopefully gain some confidence in the kind of
organization that Petro and the Amiga people have chosen to associate
themselves with, because in some ways we are as deeply embedded in the
culture of computing as Amiga and its predecessors in Commodore all
the way back into the seventies when these ideas were being founded
and being built with little cassette tapes on desktops all over the
world.
Gateway was founded by a man named Ted Waitt, his partner Mike
Hammond, and his brother in 1985 in the American city of Sioux City,
Iowa. Sioux City is a city of about 100,000 people, and at the time
was the last vestment of the great American cattle industry. It was a
deteriorating place of stockyards, you may remember those of you at
least my age, the characterization of American industry in the late
seventies and the early eighties as being in the tank, unable to
compete, and filled with what they called "rust balls". Well, Sioux
City was certainly one of the capitals of the rust ball. Ted borrowed
10,000 dollars--actually the truth is he borrowed 15,000 dollars from
his grandmother in order to borrow 10,000 dollars from a bank; his
grandmother put up a [time ?] 15,000 [cd ?] to guarantee a 10,000
dollar loan--and went into business supporting Texas Instruments'
efforts to distribute PCs in the midwest.
Very shortly thereafter Texas Instruments decided to exit the PC
business and Ted was offered an opportunity to convert a lot of Texas
Instruments warranties to cash, and he used that money to buy some
chips from a weak US chip manufacturer called Intel that was launching
a new product called the 386, and assembled those computers in the
early days--Ted, Mike, his sister, everybody--by hand, and offered
them for sale through magazines.
I will tell you something; that according to the historical research
we've done, in that year there were 700 direct-mail PC companies in
the United States. All the value (with the exception of this one out
of Austin, like, I can never think of the one out of Austin, it is
er... Dulk, Dul, Del -- Dell company), all the value of all the other
companies put together does not equal our revenues in the 1996 fiscal
year.
Because Ted did something from the very beginning that was a
revolution in the PC business: He built a product from the customer
in, rather [than] from the technology out. And from the very beginning
we were founded on the idea that we wanted to be the leading marketer
of personal computer products in the world.I mean, you can't imagine
what it'd be like to be [in] a little John in the middle of nowhere
and say, and Ted'd have a ponytail, he was 23, and he says "I'm going
to be the leading manufacturer of personal computer products in the
world". And this would be the sort of a laughable statement I would
get if I was to say "I'm going to Hollywood and become a star".
It wasn't likely--and yet we believe it's actually taking place.
It's happening because of what we think about ourselves as an
organization, how we run the business. We are perhaps the flattest
large corporation in the world. There's about 10,000 people in the
world of Gateway today and there's one chairman, Ted, there's a
president, Rick Snyder, there's about 7 senior vice presidents,
there's a dozen or so vice presidents and then there's everybody else.
We run the business in such a way that everybody sharing a common set
of values about the relationship we want to have with the customers
and each other, prohibits the need, or limits the need, for a lot of
supervisors, for a lot of people running around telling other people
what to do. And as a result we remain very flat relative to our market
size, and as a result we remain very profitable, and we remain able to
move, in an organization as large as we are, against the speed of
technology. When P2 <Intel's Pentium II processor, ed> was launched on
tuesday of last week, by the time Intel finished the announcement we'd
sold 1300 systems.
When MMX went on sale in January with a 9 o'clock press conference in
[telannounce ?], we announced at 10 o'clock that we were shipping MMX.
We are able to respond very very quickly to emerging market
expectations, emerging technology, emerging human resources
expectation, and emerging opportunities like the opportunity
represented by the <searches for words> Amiga opportunity.We believe
in respect, caring, teamwork; we believe in common sense, we believe
in aggressiveness, we believe in honesty and we believe in efficiency,
and we believe in having fun.
I've noticed that at least on the last count, we share something with
the Amiga world right out of the box. This is a technology that is
about not just working with computers but having fun with computers,
making computers make a difference in people's lives. Our marketing
position--we used to pray silicon prayers describing ourselves,
because what we're interested in doing is making technologies more
accessible to the ordinary needs of ordinary people. Sometimes I like
to say that what our business really is, is taking extraordinary
technologies and making them do very ordinary things, so that people
can do more and more, and more better things with their lives.
Our mission as a company is to profitably grow our business faster
than our competition by better understanding and serving the desires
of our customers and marketing high-value products directly to our
customers. And there is no company in the world that fits this mission
better than Amiga. And quite frankly there is no company in the world
that we are more happy to partner with, and to become next to, than
Amiga. We are, as you may be aware, a global company now. We have
manufacturing in the US in Sioux City; Sioux Falls; Hampton, Virginia,
we have a large marketing center in Kansas City, we have a
manufacturing facility (a very large manufacturing facility) in
Ireland. We have manufacturing now in Malacca, Malaysia. We have a
very large operation now in Tokyo, in fact [Asai Shibbo?] recently
wrote that Gateway is the fastest corporate startup in the history of
Japan. We grew 389% our first year, and from zero grossed 250 million
dollars. In fact, last week on the launch of P2, I think our Japanese
people were ecstatic: Sales in Japan on May the 8th exceeded the sales
of Gateway throughout all of Europe.
We are a desktop and portable manufacturer. We [are] probably now
lead the US in terms of desktop sales to various kinds of categories
in the home market.Nielsen and IEC just announced that we are now the
#1 brand in the US for brand loyalty (we just passed Apple), and we
[have ?] now go back in the top [tier in ?] service and delivery.
We are also an innovator. We invented and launched the PCTV last year
with our Destination line. This is a product that puts the tuner on
the motherboard and converts very large VTAs into functional
televisions while retaining all the capacities of computing. We are
the time-to-market value leader in new technologies as well as product
innovations that serve the customer's needs. We currently have just
under 8% of the US desktop market, five billion dollars in revenue
last year, 1.9 million units last year, a 43% increase on
year-on-year, and I just saw the numbers for the first quarter 19--[]
<going on to next sample>
[]--We grew in the home market 55% and in the corporate and
enterprise market 26%. Our profits last year were 251 million dollars
(that's rounded), we have a little over 500 million dollars in the
bank, and we have a total last year of about 800 million dollars in
non-US sales and we expect to exceed that number by a very large
percentage this year.
It wasn't hard for us to decide to talk to Amiga, and talk about
Amiga, because one of the bedrocks of the Gateway customer
relationship has always been being next to the people who are the most
enthusiastic users in the world. Gateway's marketing strategy--and I
can speak to this with some knowledge, I will have difficulty
answering technology questions but I do understand what our consumers
are looking for--is the first [] of a country we enter into, to be
what we call the enthusiasts: People who are given to using computers
as a part of their life on a daily basis. People for whom being
involved in the computer world is a part of their self-esteem. People
for whom computers have become a natural part of what it means to be
alive today.
Once we have established ourselves in responding to a country's needs
in that category we then begin to look at opportunities in the
generalized consumer market or the enterprise market, the corporate
market, the institutional markets. But the cornerstone of the company
has always been, and will remain, relationships with enthusiasts. And
another point of similarity is--and I can tell you we've gotten
thousands of letters now, thousands of letters, from Amiga enthusiasts
that run the gamma from "Oh boy, are we glad you guys got it" to "Oh
boy, you screwed us up, I will kill you".
<laughter>
[]! I wanna know who wrote that []!
<more laughter>
Now we've completed the transaction through the German bankruptcy
court; it has now been approved by the German regulatory council. We
are not disclosing the terms of the transaction but I would like you
to know that the transaction is completed. The parent corporate name
of Amiga will be Amiga International, which we enlisted as a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Gateway. It will continue to run as an
autonomous company providing services, products, and development to
the Amiga community. We acquired all the aspects of Amiga and that
included the inventory, the trademarks, the operating system, the
hardware designs, the intellectual property. But what we really
acquired, what we found we acquired, I think what we were surprised we
acquired, was the World of Amiga.
And I spent of a lot of time studying this, so I want to take a
minute just to say something. It is clear that without you people, we
would have had nothing to acquire. So the first obligation of Gateway
2000 is to say thank you. It is the Amiga community that has kept this
brand and this OS and this product line and this concept alive without
the support of strong corporate financial backing, without the support
of a wild and competitive advertising scheme, and without a lot of
things. It is the belief in the OS and the belief in the value of
these products in the world of computing that has kept this product
alive.So Gateway 2000 would like to say: Thank you guys very much
because without you, there'd be no Amiga.
Before I turn it over to Petro I'd like to introduce my two
colleagues here.They'll be here all the next couple of days. They'll
be happy to talk to you. Steve Johns is our head of corporate
development. Stand up Steve, so I can see you!
<STEVE: I'm going to receive all the thousands and thousands of
letters, so if there's any [] you know I'm working on it>
<Jim laughs, then resumes:>
And Steve Braddocks, who is also part of the corporate development
department and has been the lead guy in handling the details of the
acquisition, so on behalf of Gateway 2000 again thank you very much,
it's a pleasure to be here, and it's a special pleasure to introduce
my new friend Petro.
<Petro: Thank you, Jim>
Petro Tyschtschenko, CEO of Amiga International:
<joking to Jim, barely audible:> [... I?] know already our new goals
for Amiga, all the figures that you presented, and our next goal.
<Jim laughs, says something like "kept [?]">
Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished guests: I'm looking around here,
and I see a lot of people which I know. People who have long
experience with the Amiga, and people which supported Amiga and
supported today as well. It is nice to me to see that the Amiga
platform is gifted by a community of competent people.These strengths
are going to be of critical importance for the success of the plans of
Amiga International, which I am going to explain [to] you later.
Anyway, I'm very happy to see you and I would like to welcome you to
this press event. I believe there is a bright future for Amiga
International, a bright future for all of us. Let me explain a few
details of importance so that you can have a better understanding of
what has happened to Amiga since the old Commodore days. Escom
acquired Amiga in april 1995. During this time, an effort was made to
revitalize the Amiga market. However, Escom went into financial
difficulties and filed for bankruptcy on [the] 15th of July, 1996.
During this time, an effort was made to develop products. But due to
financial difficulties, there has not been any signific[ant] amount of
new product development by Amiga over the past couple of years.
[Those] are facts. Since filing for bankruptcy we have been trying to
keep the marketplace alive through inventory sales by the Trust.
However, it has truly been the Amiga community that has kept Amiga
alive through the development of products based on newer technology
and software applications development.
Now that Amiga is owned by a successful company, Gateway 2000, there
is a bright future. Gateway 2000, we just learned (and we know), is a
solid and well-established in the computer industry. Gateway 2000 has
consistently been honoured with awards for products and service.
Gateway 2000 is a bright partner to give Amiga new life and energy for
the future. Amiga International was formed as a US-based company in
March 1997 to acquire the assets of Amiga Technology GmbH. Amiga
International will operate, as Jim already mentioned, as a
wholly-owned subsidiary of Gateway 2000.
Over the past months we have been very busy finalizing the exhibition
[/acquisition?] together with Steve, and Keith, performing due
diligence, setting up operations in Germany and communicating with
you, ladies and gentlemen, the Amiga community. We have a new office
in Langen, next to the Frankfurt airport, and I'm happy to report to
you that we are operational again.In Langen we have three people
handling sales, marketing, and general administration. We will be
running in the beginning of June. Since early April we have four
employees in Braunschweig that are taking care of logistics and
warehousing, order processing, and customer support, and, you maybe
noticed this already, Internet support as well; and technical service.
Finally, we are in the process [of] identifying an individual to
manage new product development, which is so important, and R&D.
What are we going to concentrate on? We have to implement our
strategy. First, supporting the existing Amiga community. Second,
leveraging the existing Amiga technology through broad licensing.
Third, assisting in developing new products based on open standards to
the home computer and video graphic market.
Ladies and gentlemen, how will we support the community, that has
kept Amiga alive? Through conventions, press conferences, via the
Internet, meetings and all useful initiatives coming from the Amiga
community (I've already been to conventions in Germany and in Sweden,
and will entertain any suggestions); continuing, of course, to sell
[through the distributor?] network which is existing and which has
supported the Amiga; working together with developers through concepts
such as the Open Amiga Initiative, that is being formed with the
support of many [of] prominent names in the Amiga community.
The basic of success in this project is to work together with
partners and to define a common path of development. The Amiga market
cannot afford a split, ladies and gentlemen. We must go together in
one direction. For us to keep the market alive is necessary to assist
many companies in developing products through broad licensing. Our
licensing policy will be very open, broad, and focused on licensing
the standard OS, chipset, and trademarks.
Also, licensing will alllow the Amiga to be spread to many different
embedded applications and fields such as medical solutions, military
applications, fitness equipment, irrigation systems, and kiosk
terminals. Of course we are looking for new partners through licensing
and focused R&D managed by Amiga International. We plan to assist the
marketplace in developing new products for the Amiga. We are currently
exploring many of the possible new products that have been suggested
including such things as operating system upgrade and new hardware
platform. We would like to keep the procedure, not complicated, but as
simple as possible. Simple as myself.
We need to talk with technology companies from the Amiga business and
exchange knowhow. Very important. It is also important that we explore
an open Amiga platform, use industry standard components to make it
cheaper to produce, faster to develop, and easier to operate.
These things, ladies and gentlemen, need to happen very quickly--but
in a very managed fashion. With this strategy and the support of the
Amiga community and Gateway 2000, we are convinced there is a bright
future for the Amiga.
That, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our presentation for today. Jim
Taylor and myself are now ready for questions and answers, and we hope
that tomorrow you will all enjoy the fair and visit our booth. Thank
you very much.
Q1: [] We appreciate Gateway buying us, very much so, but we kind of
wonder, what does Gateway get out of this? What did you achieve by
buying this [elaborate?] kind of [electric?] gizmo?
Jim: We believe that Amiga can be one of the most important computer
companies in the world, to the extent that if it succeeds, we succeed.
I mean, this is an important investment for us from the point of view
of the future of Gateway. We believe that this is a very, very
important market. We believe in a multimedia computing future. We
believe that we are very close to the day when every household will be
its own broadcast center, its own Internet site, its own Web site, its
own communicating entity; and certainly Amiga represents a very
important technology in that venue.
Q2: So, were you trying to diversify Gateway's holdings, er,
Gateway's credentials?
Jim: Gateway would avoid the use of words that would cause us to be
characterized the ways that other corporations are characterized. We
don't speak of ourselves as being "diverse". We speak of ourselves as
being a company that is so close to the customer that we know what
they want, and we know an awful lot of customers want Amiga.
Q3: Do you guys intend to benefit from the acquisition of this
technology beyond simply the [acquisition?] of Amiga Technologies?
Jim: I would be a fool to say no. I can't believe that we won't
benefit from this technology. How we will benefit still remains to be
seen, it's not clear to us how that will work out--but, I mean, you
guys know, this is some good stuff! So we...
Q4: So you think there's any possibility of Gateway products in the
future benefiting from the technology you bought [through?] using
parts of it?
Jim: Like I said, I can't imagine that we won't benefit from the
technology.
[We guess?] it's very important for the Amiga community to recognize
something, and I'll say it one more time because, those of you in the
press: I would really like the word to get out. We... Petro has the
opportunity to sit down and take a hard look at what it takes to make
Amiga "go" in the real world. And we need to give him the room to do
that. Gateway is prepared to be patient and let the company develop.
As I said, we've owned it for (what? a little over...) a month or, a
couple of days... <interjected suggestions> Ninety seconds...Twenty
minutes, whatever. And we are here communicating with the Amiga
community at the very first possible venue to do so, but we want you
to be patient with Petro because the answer to these questions lies
more with the Amiga people than it lies with the Gateway people, and I
think that's a thing you've got to understand. We believe in Amiga. We
believe in Gateway. But Amiga is Petro's destiny, [and] we're here to
help.
Now I know everybody in the room has heard about [] corporate []
help, but we hope that we are benign in our processes.
Q5: [] Amiga [] in Brussel <Flemish name of Brussels, ed>. Petro, you
said that Amiga could not afford to go in more than one direction, I
mean on a hardware point of view. [] But [] Phase 5 has already
announced that they are launching next month their PowerPC product.
PIOS has a working prototype (without software for the moment). There
are already quite some products. MacroSystem has a DraCo running for
quite a time now. What are you going to choose? Is it Phase 5 is going
to be the standard or...
Petro: Both we'll choose! Because the one direction we would like to
go, is our operating system. This is the line, this is the streamline.
We will license them whatever they need, because there is a brilliant
technology there, what they develop. Phase 5 is great. I visited them
3 weeks ago, Wolfgang, Gehr[], so we had a perfect meeting and we know
exactly in which direction we go. This is one direction. What I don't
like to have is that we have a war in our community. Everybody's going
in another direction, and doing his own... cooks his own cup of tea or
whatever. But there is only one Amiga. And we are the roof, and you
can develop, and we will support it, and we will license it.Whatever
you need--but under one roof, in one direction.
Q5: ...And always keep a very consistent compatibility, []
applications compatibility?
Petro: Yes, we will maintenance our operating system. We have a lot
of things to do of course. We know this, right. We have to put out the
dust a little bit, right, so we know this. We will do this, and we
will license this.
Q5: ...There are things--I'm sorry, one more question,
Petro: One more, er...
Q5: There is something that has always amazed me, is to know why do
we have so much.. Why are we so arrayed on the PowerPC platform,
because there are already quite a few...
<petro laughs>
Q5: ...No, no no, let me... There are already quite a few 68000
emulator box running, the ones from Apple, from other competitors, and
it is not so difficult to cross-compile, as we have seen in the
PowerPC MacIntosh during the first years.
Petro: <joking> Yeah, but please don't forget--two bankruptcies!
Q5: Yeah, I know, I know, I know.
Petro: <plaintive> I'm getting crazy! They said I'm already [doing
up?] the third one!
Q5: <laughs> I just cross my fingers you never go to the third one!
[...]
Jim: He sent me an Amiga... I got a guy in my office who's from
Corporate Design. He stole my Amiga.
<laughter> <interjection (Petro?): I'll send you another one>
So, I guess it's No.
Q5: How do you know that this platform is so fantastic if you never
had one of them?
Jim: I'll tell you what happened. It was kind of interesting. I went
out to Wired Magazine to see Lou [Zeno?], who is both an important
publisher in our...Well he's a friend of mine. And in the last year,
Wired had become a Gateway shop. And Zeno took me to the back room
where they're doing the development for HotWired, and it was all
Amiga. And he said he wanted me to know that since he'd heard a rumour
we were in the process of acquiring Amiga, that we had bought the
finest multimedia platform for the development of the Web long-term,
and that his black box, er, I've forgotten the word for it, but his
people were great Amiga lovers, and I asked the people and they said
so, and then I wandered around the [Southland?] market Web site
manufacturing area with a lot of consultancies in the US and Amiga is
one of the dominant companies.
Then I talked to a friend of mine, his name's Chase Carey, who is on
the board with Fox TV and I found out that Amiga is widely used now in
the American television industry in deference to [Cairon?] and other
kinds of on-screen graphic application packages, and then I found out
that 50% of the cartooning in America is done on Amiga platforms. And
then we cut a deal with George Lucas to put Destinations in the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Museum in Washington,
for Lucas' Star Wars exhibit and in doing so, I found out that they
are important to their 3D special effects people.
So I took the word of people whose judgment I trust. I would never
take my own word about what's good technology because I am a marketer.
I'm not a technologist--I couldn't spell Computer if you [spotted me
the Comp?]. But I am compelled to believe that this is a great
platform.
Q6: Some questions first for Petro: Are we likely to see any updates
on the present Workbench or do we wait for 4 to come along?
Petro: We are working on this. I will not make any promises because
this would be out of style. If we say something, we will stick to
this. I hope that we can launch an OS upgrade in November.
END OF TRANSCRIPT --
Jeroen T. Vermeulen
jtv@xs4all.nl
jvermeul@wi.leidenuniv.nl
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P L A N S O F M A L Y S I A N C L O N E M A K E R
Mon, Jul 21 1997
INNOVATIONS Lights & Magic (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (ILM Malaysia), the
local distributor of Amiga computers, will embark on various
aggressive strategies to push the products further into the market.
For a start, the company plans to set up a network of dealers to
ensure that the products are able to reach users more
effectively.According to ILM Malaysia's managing director, Chiew Sin
Kwang, the company is negotiating with three parties which have shown
interest in distributing the products.
"As the local distributor of Amiga computers, we will concentrate on
marketing the products through the dealership network," he said.
Chiew claimed that the Amiga computers is still a useful tool for
designing post-production slides and animations. In fact, he added,
the Amiga computer is the only product that is able to connect to a
television display directly through a TV port that is built into the
hardware.
"As such, it is not necessary to use another medium to display slides
and animation on the television. With the built-in interlacing of
video modes, the Amiga is capable of supporting both the NTSC and PAL
system."
Chiew said Amiga has three products for users and new users to choose
from.
The low-end model is the Amiga A1200 Magic Pack which features a
Motorola Blizzard 68030 microprocessor with a clock speed of 50
megahertz (MHz). It has two-megabyte (MB) random access memory (RAM)
on board with the user having to choose the hard disk capacity, from
170MB to 2.2 gigabytes (GB). Naturally, the higher the capacity, the
higher the price of the system unit.
Using its own operating system (OS), Workbench 3.1, the Amigaclaims
to be one of the first computers to design a graphical user interface
(GUI) OS. Looking very much like a DOS-based GUI application, the OS
is actually capable of multithreading and mutitasking capabilities.
And it takes a mere 880 kilobytes of the hard disk space.
The next version of the OS, AmigaOS V3.5, is scheduled to be released
in December this year.
In addition, the Amiga also has software bundling which includes a
word processor, organiser and spreadsheet.
The other two models are the Amiga A4000T Workstation, which comes in
a tower casing), and an Amiga clone, the Magic 1200, which is set to
be released in November this year.
ILM Malaysia also distributes various parts and add-on devices for
the Amiga computers. Some of them include a SCSI-II kit, external disk
drive, additional M68882 50MHz floating point unit and hard disks
among others.
Chiew said local Amiga users would no longer have to worry about
support and servicing, adding that ILM Malaysia is committed to
deliver good services to them.
He said Amiga users, like their Macintosh counterparts, are
"religious" about their computers. "I suppose you can call Amigausers
fanatics."
One of the plans of ILM Malaysia is to compile a list of local Amiga
users. With the list, the company intends to set up an Amigacommunity
to create greater awareness of the computer, said Chiew.
The Amiga has been a cause of joy and pain to users, going through a
roller-coaster ride since its humble beginnings in 1982.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
A M I C O N I N O H I O
17 Jul 1997
AmiCON - The Amiga Central Ohio Network is once again proud to host
the Midwest Amiga Exposition. Last year was the first year ever for
this event and all who were involved we very pleased with the results.
Over 500 people attended the two day event that took place in
Columbus, Ohio. Many dealers who attended sold out of product in only
the first day. Along with such companies as Nova Design, Silent Paw
Productions, and Wonder Computers, many Amiga user groups also
attended and rented table space to showcase their talents. This year
we expect close to 1000 people to attend the event and many more
vendors. We, at AmiCON, would welcome your attendance at our show this
year and sincerely hope that you can fit this event into your
schedule. Please let us know if you plan to attend as soon as possible
so that we can plan our floor layout or any training/demonstrations
you may be interested in doing.
Thank you for your continued support of the Amiga community.
Sincerely,
AmiCON
The Amiga Central Ohio Network
DATES AND TIMES:
Dates for the show are: Saturday, November 1st, and Sunday, November
2nd. The show floor will be open from 10:00am to 3:00pm Saturday and
Sunday. Companies and user groups renting tables may have access to
the facilities by 9:00am.
LOCATION:
The 1997 Midwest Amiga Exposition will be held at the beautiful
Concourse Hotel at Port Columbus Airport. The Concourse Hotel is at
4300 International Gateway, 43219, 614-237-2515 or 800-541-4574.
Located on the grounds of Port Columbus International Airport.
Indoor/outdoor pool, exercise facilities, airport shuttle are also
available.
TICKETS:
Tickets for the event will be $15.00 the day of the event and $12.00
presale. Tickets are good for both days of the event.
TABLE RENTALS:
Table rentals for Vendors & Dealers are $175.00 for the first table
and $125.00 per each additional. A discounted table rate for Vendors
and Dealers is available (please see "Training/Demonstration
Sessions") Table rentals for Vendors & Dealers include 2 tickets good
for admission both days. Additional tickets are extra.
TRAINING/DEMONSTRATION SESSIONS:
AmiCON feels that showing new products to potential users is of
utmost importance to the Amiga community. Therefore we have provided a
platform for Vendors and Dealers to accomplish this. We believe these
sessions should be more than just advertisements. An informative
session where people interact with the product is an essential, and as
such, we have established a few guidelines:
A discounted rate of $75.00 for the second table (and every table
rented thereafter), is available if the Vendor/Dealer provides show
attendees with a training session in one of our several training areas
set up for the event. The training demonstration will be no less than
20 minutes in length and must have prior approval by AmiCON. To
qualify as a valid session, Vendors/Dealers must provide a format that
informs users about new products and/or provides a step-by-step
tutorial about the operation of a product. The session must be staffed
with presenter, who would be able to answer questions from the
audience about the product. Slide shows and video taped demonstrations
are welcome, but the session cannot consist of these items only.
If you have any questions or concerns about a demonstration you would
like to do, please contact dpearce@infinet.com. Please explain your
planned demonstration in detail.
Please print out and fill-in the form below to purchase tickets or
rent table space.
******* begin form ********
Vendor/Dealer Registration Form for the
1997 Midwest Amiga Exposition
Company/Organization Name:____________________________________________
Contact Name:_________________________________________________________
Address:______________________________________________________________
City:______________________________State/Province:____________________
Zipcode:______________________________Country:________________________
Daytime Phone:___________________________Evening Phone:_______________
E-Mail address:_______________________________________________________
Quantity: Price: Total
*TICKETS: _______ _____ (@ $12.00 ea.) ______
*(Table rental comes with two free tickets)
FIRST TABLE: $175.00 ($175 for 1st) ______
EXTRA TABLES:_______ $125.00 (per additional) ______
CONSIDER ME FOR A TRAINING/DEMONSTRATION SEMINAR (circle one): Y N
(This entitles the Dealer/Vendor a $50.00 discount for each extra
table rented.)
******* Please note: There is no discount for the first table *******
DISCOUNT: _______ _____ ($50 each xtra tbl)- ______
SUBTOTAL: ______
TOTAL: ______
Please include a check or money order for the amount above. Make
check or money order payable to: The Amiga Central Ohio Network (or)
AmiCON. All returned checks will be assessed a $15.00 processing fee.
Please send your form and your payment, no later than October 10th,
1997, to:
AmiCON
Atten: Midwest Amiga Expo
P.O. Box 18311
Columbus, Ohio
43218
******** end form ********
CONTACT INFORMATION:
If you have questions about the information listed above, please
contact: Dave Pearce dpearce@infinet.com
Additional information is available at http://www.amicon.org/mae.html
and will be updated regularly.
Thanks,
Dave Pearce --
+------------------------------------------------+
| dpearce@infinet.com - www.infinet.com/~dpearce |
| AmiCON - The Amiga Central Ohio Network |
| For info on the Midwest Amiga Expo and AmiCON: |
| visit http://www.amicon.org |
+------------------------------------------------+
----------------------------------------------------------------------
P M P R O D E S C R I B E D
19 Jul 97
Subject: Info: PMPro - Update (fwd)
From: Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de (Andreas Kleinert)
Picture Manager Professional V4 (PMPro) is an excellent commercial
image catalogization program with a large number of features for
creation and handling of thumbnail tables.
It is a powerful database and allows loading, processing and
displaying images via SuperView-Library and includes an automatic
conversion function for catalogs of images, which allows to convert
between all file formats SuperView-Library does support ... AND MORE
...
It even can directly scan LHA and LZX archives for images.
- The ENGLISH version of Jürgen Schäfer's Picture Manager can be
obtained from
Blittersoft
6 Drakes Mews
Crownhill Industry
Milton Keynes, MK8 OER Voice: +44-(0)1908-261466
United Kingdom Fax: +44-(0)1908-261488
Or from any distributor. The official pricing as of August 1997
has been 49.95 UK pounds (no guarantee). Ask them for it.
Blittersoft also are the distributors of many other Amiga hard and
software products, among them Village Tronic and phase5.
Blittersoft WWW page: http://blittersoft.wildnet.co.uk/pmpro.htm
Blittersoft: sales@blittersoft.com
- The GERMAN version of Jürgen Schäfer's Picture Manager can be
obtained from
IrseeSoft SPCS
Meinrad-Spieß-Platz 2
D-87660 Irsee Voice: +49-(0)8341-74327
Germany Fax: +49-(0)8341-12042
Or from any distributor. The official pricing as of May 1997
has been 129 DEM (no guarantee). Ask them for it.
IrseeSoft also are the manufacturers of the TurboPrint V5
high quality printer driver enhancement system.
A CD-ROM containing catalogues of more than 25000 graphics from
Amiga CD-ROMs as well as a full version of PM 2.0 and demo versions
(german) of PMPro 4 and TurboPrint 5 is available for 29 DEM (no
guarantee). It's the first one of a new CD-ROM series - the second one
just has been released and does contain graphic catalogues for
Aminet 1-16 and Aminet Set 1-4 CD-ROMs.
IrseeSoft WWW page: http://home.t-online.de/home/IrseeSoft/
IrseeSoft: IrseeSoft@t-online.de
*********
Thanks a lot !
-- Andreas_Kleinert@t-online.de | ARK@amigaworld.com | Fido
2:2457/350.18 ARK@superview.ftn.neckar-alb.de | ARK@News.wwbnet.de | -
SuperViewn - PerSuaSiVe SoftWorX -
http://home.t-online.de/home/Andreas_Kleinert/
Image Engineer Registration Site Europe --- Software Engineering
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Amiga Update on the net: some issues available at:
http://www.sharbor.com/amiga/news/ (in html format)
http://www.amigacom.com (in ASCII text)
Australian Mirror Site: http://www.comcen.com.au/~paulm/index.html
All back issues available (in ASCII text) at:
http://www.globaldialog.com/AdventureCentral/AU/index.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 1997 by Brad Webb. Freely distributable, if not modified.
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/\\ |\ /|| || / ` /\\ || Brad Webb/AmigaUpdate
/__\\ | \ / || || || ___ /__\\ || bandr@globaldialog.com
/ \\_ | \/ ||_ _||_ \__// / \\_ ||
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