Open Letter to the Community

September 17, 1999

Open Letter to the Amiga Community

There has been a great deal of confusion and frustration expressed in the news groups and via email over the past several weeks. I apologize that we have not been more direct in our communications, and I want to set the record straight.

First, per my previous messages, I continue to be impressed with the passion and commitment of this community. You have "hung in there" through a number of upheavals over the past years, and through several false starts on next-generation Amiga platforms. You deserve better. I have received many, many emails over the past two weeks, expressing your opinions and frustrations. Let me try and summarize what I have heard.

Many of you acknowledge the fact that we are focusing on software for the coming generation of "Internet appliances." We are very excited about the new Amiga Operating Environment, the work we are doing with Linux (and other operating systems that support Java), and the huge growth curve in Internet appliances that we are going to ride. You have gracefully wished us well in this endeavor, for that, I thank you. As you know, we announced in July that we were pursuing the development of a "multimedia convergence computer" that would serve as the next-generation Amiga desktop computer. After the change in management at Amiga, we reviewed all our product plans. To be honest, the ability for us to deliver the MCC was unrealistic. Furthermore, I have fundamentally decided that it would be better to partner with a wide variety of hardware partners, rather than compete against them with a product of our own.

From your perspective, one big problem exists. Sounds great, but what does this new direction have to do with the original Amiga computer? Quite honestly, nothing! We realize that this does not satisfy the desire of the Amiga community for a next-generation Amiga. In response, I remain committed to seek out partners who are interested in developing a next-generation Amiga computer and operating system. We have been following the discussions amongst the newly formed "Phoenix Platform Consortium" and talking to companies interested in supplying the next-generation Amiga. We are open to the possibility of licensing the MCC product specification and design that is now on the shelf to companies that are interested in further developing the Amiga desktop computer product line. We believe that this could be an attractive business opportunity for another company.

In summary, we are continuing to focus our resources on setting software standards for the coming generation of Internet appliances. We are not planning to offer hardware devices, but will work with hardware manufacturers who want to license our technology. As far as offering next-generation Amiga systems, we are open to talking to companies who want to offer such a product. For those of you who are excited about the Amiga Operating Environment running on a wide variety of future Internet appliances, we invite you to track our progress and activities over the coming months. The Internet appliance software model that we are putting together will open up an exciting new era of software development that we think will be very interesting to the type of innovative thinkers who were drawn to the Amiga computer in years past.

Best Regards,

Thomas J. Schmidt
President and CEO
Amiga, Inc.