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                © 1999 Quest Technologies/Bedlam Enterprises

          Gateway: You've Got An Enemy In The Business - By Dunkie

"Seems Gateway Isn't The Friend That AMIGA Fans Thought It Was!" headlined
Business Week Online on September 10th 1999, and no more could the truth be
summarised.  Recent developments at AMIGA Inc have given the AMIGA Community
a real cause for concern, with the abrupt departure of Jim Collas (CEO Of
AMIGA Inc) on September 1st 1999, who despite reports of leaving to pursue
other interests and opportunities, officially announced that he had resigned
and then went on to sell his entire 118,000 Gateway Stock, netting £8.3
million in the process...hardly the actions of a man who had supposedly left
AMIGA Inc amicably!!!

Jim Collas had been a senior figure at Gateway before taking on the post of
Chief Executive Officer at AMIGA Inc 8 months ago, and his sudden departure,
along with the sacking of Bill McEwen (Jim Collas' second man), sent warning
bells ringing through the AMIGA Community as to AMIGA Inc's plans for the
future of the AMIGA platform.

AMIGA Inc had announced in July the specifications for their new next-
generation AMIGA Computer, known as the MCC (Multi-Computer Convergence),
and for the first time in years, it actually looked as though AMIGA Inc were
going to deliver what the AMIGA Community had been promised since 1994...a
new AMIGA Computer!!!

Jim Collas' enthusiasm and drive towards this new next-generation AMIGA
moved the AMIGA Community, the MCC would have really put AMIGA back into the
Home-Computer Market with a bang, and would have really upset the PC Market,
by delivering the world's first 128-Bit Home-Computer System, capable of
emulating almost every Computer Platform currently on the Market.  So much
was the power of this next-generation AMIGA, that big Software names like
Corel and Adobe were rumoured to be developing versions of their most
popular applications for the new machine...but alas, this dream turned from
reality to fantasy when AMIGA Inc decided to U-Turn their plans yet again,
and halted any further development of the next-generation AMIGA, despite
promising the AMIGA Community on several occasions, including the World Of
Amiga Show in London, that they would be delivering the next-generation
AMIGA around Christmas 1999/January 2000!!!

Jim Collas' replacement Tom Schmidt, tried his best to reassure the AMIGA
Community that the next-generation AMIGA was NOT dead, but less than a week
later, he too U-Turned, and officially announced the death of the next-
generation AMIGA :(

Gateway paid $13 million for the rights to AMIGA patents in 1997, and since
buying AMIGA Inc, has constantly changed AMIGA Inc's management team and
kept the AMIGA Community hanging on with false promises and countless
U-Turns in publicly announced decisions.  Now Gateway has announced that
AMIGA technology is going to be used in the Internet Appliance Market, and
that no further AMIGA Computers are going to be built by AMIGA Inc.  This
may sound very exciting to Gateway, but the excitement is far from matched
by the AMIGA Community, who feel totally and utterly betrayed by Gateway.

So...what does the AMIGA Community do now?  Do we wait with baited breath
for an outside Computer Developer to license the next-generation AMIGA
technology and build the new AMIGA, or do we give up on the notion that
the AMIGA is never going to resurface again as a Home Computer?

My personal opinion on this matter, is that AMIGA Inc has just committed
suicide by effectively hammering the final nail into the AMIGA's coffin,
effectively ending the AMIGA era.  The AMIGA Community is now going to have
to wake up to the fact that the Home Computer Market is going into the next
millennium WITHOUT the AMIGA!!!

To quote Gateway's advertising slogan "You've got a friend in the business",
from the AMIGA Community's viewpoint, these words couldn't be further from
the truth, and as has always been the case...actions speak louder than
words!!!
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