Open Letter to the Community

Thanks for your notes and comments about our plans for Amiga. In the past couple weeks, we've received hundreds -- if not thousands -- of emails and messages from loyal Amigans worldwide, many of you expressing a concern about Amiga's future based on recent reports in the media and in numerous chat rooms. I am so impressed with the spirit and passion of this great community and I wanted to make sure I told you that.

The fact is... to borrow from Mark Twain... the reports of Amiga's death have been greatly exaggerated. To that end, I wanted to provide a little more detail about our plans for Amiga... both as a product and as a company, and hopefully clear up any confusion that exists.

First, I hope you'd agree that Amiga was never about a box. It was never about an operating system either. Sure those things were part of what made the original Amiga great, but at its heart, Amiga was simply about a better way. Amiga was ahead of its time. Amiga promised to change the world. It ran against conventional wisdom and was better than anything out there at the time. In fact, we could all argue that it's still better than anything out there.

The ideals and spirit of that original Amiga are alive and well today. But to limit Amiga to just one box, one product, one OS, is to keep Amiga from ever seeing its full potential. Think about it.... The original Amiga never did really reach its full potential despite its technical advantages and its cost and ease of use advantages. Why? Because it never became ubiquitous. The company's early vision was probably too limited for the vast potential that Amiga offered.

The original Amiga was all about multi-media, so why not have Amiga running on every type of device imaginable, on top of every other OS out there? That's the beauty of Amiga and where we are as an industry. We're in the midst of a revolution unlike anything the world has seen, and Amiga has never been better positioned to change that world and make a bigger impact. Limiting Amiga to just one box and one OS at this point would be like offering the world a better horse and carriage at the dawn of the automotive age. Amiga and its revolutionary spirit deserve better than that. Amiga is going to produce software technology that will enable Internet services on an emerging category of products commonly referred to as "Information Appliances". It is an exciting new mega trend in the industry and we are excited about being at the forefront of this next great wave in computing history. In addition, we have decided to work with business partners who will deliver our software technology on their systems, rather than enter the hardware business directly.

So long live Amiga, but if you think that Amiga was just a box, you've missed the point. Amiga is about a better way. In the coming weeks and months, we promise to keep you posted on progress against our plans for Amiga, and we thank you for your continued support. Let's work together to enable Amiga to revolutionize the industry and change the world!

Long live Amiga,

Thomas J. Schmidt
President & C.E.O.