AMIGA
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AMIGA
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Rumours, which said that the Amiga parent company Gateway was very dissatisfied about the things done up to now, seem to become true. In a press release the development department of Amiga, Amiga, Inc., announces changes in the management of the two Amiga subsidiaries of Gateway, Amiga, Inc. and Amiga International, Inc.: The new president of the joint companies will be Jim Collas, previous executive vice president of the parent company.
Petro Tyschtschenko will continue to work for Amiga International as manager of the sales and marketing depratment and keep the Amiga community informed regarding the status of the NextGeneration-Amiga.
At the same time the development of the new Amiga generation moved to San Diego. First products of this series are to be on the market before the year 2000. At first a developer system, an Internet machine as well as a lowcost homecomputer following the tradition of the A500 are planned. Detailled plans and various strategic partners are to be announced within the summer.
The product development remains in the hands of Jeff Schindler, while a software development center is to be built in San Jose, managed by Dr. Allan Havemose. The team programming the new Amiga operating system based on QNX is to be rapidly expanded within the next months.
And here is the press release:
»Amiga Announces New President and Fast-track Development Plans
SAN DIEGO, California. - February 26, 1999 - In a series of meetings in San Diego, representatives of Amiga Inc. and Amiga International met to hammer out the details of technical, strategic and marketing plans which will see the launch of a range of new Amiga-based computers for the next millennium. The company has relocated its headquarters to San Diego and Jim Collas will be serving as the new president of Amiga.
"Amiga is an amazing opportunity that we must act on now or it will be lost forever," said Collas. "The Amiga platform is ideal for Internet-ready, consumer-oriented digital appliances of the future. The Amiga name is associated the world over with user-friendly, low cost, powerful computing. We will take this philosophy into the next generation, enabling products from hand held Internet appliances to high-end graphics computers that help the user rather than frustrate them."
Collas, formerly a senior vice president for Amiga's parent company, Gateway, will be running Amiga as a wholly independent subsidiary operation and will integrate Amiga Inc. and Amiga International under the new Amiga corporate structure. His leadership will allow the company to step up a fast - track development program that is currently underway.
Amiga is planning to launch next generation products worldwide before the New Year. They will be announcing detailed product plans and introducing several of their strategic partners over the summer. Products currently targeted for the initial launch are a development system, an Internet appliance, and a low cost home computer in the tradition of the Amiga A500 that dominated home computing in the late eighties and early nineties. The developers system will be available with a software development suite for low cost development on the new platform.
Jeff Schindler, in charge of product strategy for Amiga, is planning the new Amiga product line. "The Amiga community has been doing incredible things on a platform which hasn't had an official update in eight years," said Schindler. "They deserve a system which lets them show off their talents."
Amiga's administrative center in San Diego will shortly be complemented by a software development center under the leadership of Dr. Allan Havemose, vice president of Engineering for Amiga, in San Jose, California. The Silicon Valley team will be rapidly expanded over the coming months to develop revolutionary Amiga multimedia layers over the real-time Neutrino OS core from QNX Software Systems Ltd.
Petro Tyschtschenko will continue on as managing director of Amiga International and will also play a critical role in guiding the current Amiga community through the transition to the new Amiga architecture. "The new Amiga plans are a rebirth for Amiga and an exciting journey into the future," said Tyschtschenko.
For further information on Amiga and Amiga products, please refer to www.amiga.com and www.amiga.de.
(Source: Amiga)
Conclusion:Now Gateway lost their patience - at last. The introduction of a new president for both Amiga subsidiaries allows the speculation, that the parent company was not satisfied with the work of the development department nor with Amiga International, responsible for sales and marketing. It is most likely, that Petro Tyschtschenko was evaluated better than Jeff Schindler, because the press release mentions the marketing department, located in Germany, only in passing. In addition it seems not to be target of big changes.
Quite different is the situation for the development department: In addition to a moving of the headquater in the neighbourhood to the hightech center Silicon Valley, what isn't bad at all, it seems that all efforts are made to speed up the development of the new Amiga. No other conclusion can be made considering this press release. That the previous manager of Amiga, Inc. remains in the company Amiga does not necessarily mean that the new president is just a slave driver and a watchdog: Jim Collas absolutely has the knowledge of technic and programming. Last year in London, on the World of Amiga, when he was Senior Vice President of Gateway, he and his staff announced the details of the planned Amiga developer system. He is familiar with the project of the "NextGeneration-Amiga" and is absolutely competent enough to introduce own ideas.
One thing is certain: Jeff Schindler and Petro Tyschtschenko work in very good positions at Amiga - but the important decisions are being made by someone different: Jim Collas, the new manager of Amiga.
The addresses of Amiga:
AMIGA Headquarters
4545 Town Centre Crt., SD-130
San Diego, CA 92121, USA
Phone 888-252-6442 (toll free within the US) or +1 619 799 2512
Fax +1 619 799 3425
AMIGA Office Research & Development
San Jose, California
AMIGA Office Germany
Robert-Bosch-Str. 11 B
63225 Langen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)6103/5878-5
Fax +49 (0)6103/5878-88
AMIGA Logistics & Service Center Germany
Hansestr.19
38112 Braunschweig, Germany
Phone +49 (0)531 31089-0
Fax +49 (0)531 31089-77
Bank Account AMIGA Germany
Name: AMIGA International, Inc.
Bank: Deutsche Bank AG
Account: 78 16 16 800
Bank Code: 505 700 18
SWIFT: DEUT DE FF 505
