ttavolij@praxis.cs.ruu.nl (Thomas Tavoly) (10/01/90)
Here follows a straight translation (without prior consent of the publisher :)
of an interview with Helmut Jost, the Managing Director of Commodore
Germany in the no. 1 german Amiga publication: Amiga Magazin of October '90.
(Which is IMHO the best in the world, much better than AmigaWorld; yes I
read them both, plus others) pages 10 and 11, BTW.
I found it important (and interesting) enough to redirect some of my spare
time; sorry Georg, the TeX docs will have to wait :)
AMIGA - COMPUTER OF THE FUTURE
an interview with Helmut Jost
Caption:
Where does the Amiga's way lead? Will there be an Amiga UNIX? We have
visited Helmut Jost, the Managing Director of Commodore Germany, who
answered our questions.
Many hard- and software developments for the Amiga are near completion.
But even now a few questions remain unanswered: Can you incorporate the new
operating system 2.0 in all the Amiga models? When will the 'baby' CDTV
(Commodore Dynamic Total Vision) be available? Will there be an Amiga 4000?
All of these questions have been answered by the Managing Director of
Commodore Germany.
Helmut Jost (37) has been the new Managing Director of Commodore Business
Machines GmbH (= Ltd. -TT) in Frankfurt since April 1990. He has previously
been Sales Manager at Commodore and has led the consumer department in the
time between 1984 and 1987 successfully. After that he has been Managing
Director of the german daughter of computer manufacturer Amstrad.
AMIGA: When will the Amiga 3000 only cost 3000 Marks (~1920 US$)?
Jost: It will not cost 3000 Mark that soon, since the machine is very
expensive, from the production's point of view. The A3000 can get cheaper
only, when we go into mass production. The mass production will come when
the background is there, the software is there and the product has found
its niche in the market.
AMIGA: When will there be a wide base of specialised software for the
Amiga 3000?
Jost: Experience teaches that there are three stages for software: a half,
one and two years. After two years you can count with optimal software,
adjusted to the product. After one year there is relatively usable software.
After half a year, there are adaptations, which make already available
software usable on the machine. You can count on software becoming available
on the Amiga 3000 in the spring of 1991.
AMIGA: The Amiga 3000 is equipped with a new operating system. Will this
OS benefit the entire Amiga line of computers?
Jost: Yes and no. The difficulty is to make the existing software downwards
compatible. This is surely a handicap. The other side of things is, if you
want to grow on and integrate technological advancements, then you will
have to say at a certain point: OK, the thing is only 80% compatible and
20% are the new features. We want to develop the systems further. I believe,
that the biggest part of user software is compatible and the software, which
uses specific parts of the old operating system is not quite compatible.
Caption: "We will support innovative new companies in the future."
AMIGA: What will Commodore undertake so that current professional software
on the Amiga 2000 also will run on the Amiga 3000?
Jost: We are most interested in software running on the A3000, as presently
where the software is compatible, we have a large field of software, which
we of course intend to use to get into the market quickly. We have recently
had a developer conference here, which was attended by about 60 software
houses, all of which expressed the intent to develop software for the A3000.
These people have had information from first hand on this conference.
AMIGA: When will the new operating system be available for all Amiga models?
Jost: As far as I know, October '90 was planned. The price is as yet unknown.
AMIGA: Will it be possible to upgrade the different models of the A500?
Jost: The Amiga 500 has by now, by its number of machines on the market, its
own domain. Thus it is - in our opinion - not necessary to supply the A500
with a new operating system.
AMIGA: What will the Amiga 4000 look like?
Jost: With us, in the developers department the ideas are surely already
very clear, what the Amiga 4000 - and higher, i.e. following models - will
look like. It would presently only be too soon to reveal information on
this.
AMIGA: Where does the Amiga's way lead? Will it be a games machine or
a computer for professional solutions?
Jost: Future developments of the Amiga are oriented to the High End domain.
In the domain of the A500 - in the semi professional domain - there are new
markets emerging. Were are already represented with CDTV in the semi-
professional field as well as in the High End applications.
AMIGA: When is software for the High End domain expected?
Jost: Here, negotiations with the particular software houses are in
progress. A major part of the negotiations are closed already, so that
shortly - within a year - these packages will appear on the market.
These packages concern several products of Lotus and Microsoft.
AMIGA: What place has the CDTV at Commodore?
Jost: CDTV is rounding off the product palette in the entire Amiga spectrum.
We are certain that this will be a very important product within the Amiga
product line. Because the field of applications that is covered by CDTV,
is today still not forseeable, and will constantly change dynamically.
CDTV is a machine, which will surely become available for under 2000 Marks
(~1280 US$). The markets for the CDTV are only emerging now, be it medicine
data for pharmacies or dictionaries on CD-ROM. That is a young branch, which
is evolving so fast because, in the meantime, you do not need to go to
excessive trouble to press a basic CD, from which you can make the
appropriate copies. You can presently take around 1000 Dollars for the basic
CD (the original) and every following copy ca. 1,5 US$.
AMIGA: When will CDTV be available?
Jost: The machine was planned to be released in Germany in the end of
October '90 but will only be available at a later time.
Caption: "Once someone has bought an Amiga, he will never buy a PC."
AMIGA: When will DTP be a professional solution on the Amiga?
Jost: You can assume spring 1991.
AMIGA: Which role is UNIX playing on the Amiga?
Jost: UNIX will play an important part as the Amiga is concerned. We have
to this end installed an own UNIX project group within the company. We will
form an own UNIX group here in the european support-department, as well as
in the german corporation. This shows, that we will take UNIX and the
Amiga 3000 very seriously in the future. In our opinion the Amiga 3000 will
be the machine in the UNIX world, which will be present in universities and
in all fields where today UNIX machines are installed that are simply too
expensive (This one is tricky: 'preislich jenseits von Gut und B\oese' -TT)
AMIGA: When will this system be available to the end user?
Jost: The UNIX projects are near completion now, so that we will have a
showcase this year already on the ORGATECHNIK in K\oeln. The UNIX machine
will be available from spring '91. Presently, no statements can be made
on the price.
AMIGA: Who is the competition/competitor of the Amiga? How do you plan on
subdueing them?
Jost: I believe, that in case of the Amiga 3000, the competition will have
a hard time to bring a comparable product at all. Concerning the applications,
we have a competitor in the Apple world and partly in the MS-DOS world.
However, the performance of the Amiga 3000 is difficult to reach with MS-DOS.
Thus we see the actual competitor in the Apple world.
AMIGA: How does it look with the competitor Atari?
Jost: I believe, that Atari has currently nothing to put up against the
Amiga 3000. Commodore puts so many innovations on the market, that we are
standing very well against Atari.
AMIGA: What does the support for the Amiga 3000 look like?
Jost: We will travel different roads with the Amiga 3000. We will install
Amiga High End System Centres. These will be centres, which will be supported
by us with all means necessary, to become absolute High-Tech centres, who
will support the next layer, dealers and other distributors of the Amiga
High End line of computers. We will hereby utilise the know how, which is
present on the market, to be able to provide the appropriate support to
the dealer, who will market this product in his particular field, and if
necessary for him, to be able to fall back on these Amiga System Centres.
AMIGA: What does the support for the Amiga 2000 look like?
Jost: The Amiga 2000, which is marketed widely today, has had, due to its
Open System Architecture, many (third party) peripherals, so that a larger
support is necessary. We are presently engaged in training vendors
intensively. Not all dealers are capable of marketing the Amiga. Here it
is necessary to give the dealers the support, which they need to support
corresponding products.
AMIGA: How do you plan on supporting young, innovative companies in the
future?
Jost: The young, innovative companies have to be managed better in the
future. Mostly they are very bright people with very good ideas, can
handle the machine and create very good products. However, they do not have
the marketing power, to bring the products to the particular clients. We
will gather this information in the future and direct it towards the
appropriate client. These projects are in the make and could bring the first
results this year already.
AMIGA: The Pentagon has ordered many Amigas. Has there been a federal order
here in the Federal Republic of Germany too?
Jost: It is correct that we have received a very large order from the
government in the USA. However, over there our mother company has had an
advantage in terms of time, since they have developed the Amiga 3000
themselves. In Germany we also negotiate intensively with several clients.
I am sure that we will have large successes over here also in the not too
distant future. As of what clients are concerned, we cannot reveal anything
at this time.
AMIGA: What does it look like with the Amiga in the USA?
Jost: The Amiga 3000 is the absolute parade product in America now. We are
certain, that with the Amiga 3000 we have the product with which we will
reach a high percentage of turnover in a short period of time. The
expectations for the Amiga 3000 in the USA are very high.
AMIGA: What are the expectations in Germany?
Jost: We have several product groups in Germany which are going very well,
so that the percentage of the Amiga 3000 will not reach the volume in the
USA. But we expect the percentage in turnover of the Amiga 3000 to rise
continuously.
AMIGA: What will the Amiga look like in the future?
Jost: The A3000 is today a product in the High End domain. Building on
the A3000 developments will come forward, which will be even more
interesting than the present ones in this field. We are certain, that there
are many technical possibilities to shape the products user friendlier.
Caption: "Till the end of 1990 we will have sold 20000 Amigas in the DDR."
AMIGA: Why did you leave Commodore twice already and have returned in spite
of that? How long do you plan on staying this time?
Jost: That already that I came back, shows how interesting I find Commodore.
Otherwise I surely wouldn't have done it, since I had different professional
ideas, moving in the direction of making myself independant and found my own
company. But Commodore has eventually convinced me, to return again and take
the direction of business. They are convinced that I have certain insider
knowledge and know the market very well. I'd like to stay as long as the job
pleases me. I have to be pleased by a job. The prospects of a longer alliance
are most favourable, as Commodore provides me with the space I need.
AMIGA: In this context, we wish you much success and a pleasent job at
Commodore for the next few years.
<End of interview>
There are also four pictures in the middle with Helmut Jost depicted, and
the following captions:
Upward trend - The sales figures of the Amiga are rising. The Amiga 3000
will have a large percentage next year.
The number one - The Amiga 3000 will be the Multi-Media computer of the
future, as 90% of the competition's products are not
predestined as such.
UNIX - will play an important role for the Amiga. Already in the spring of
'91 the first UNIX machines will be delivered.
Slept - we have that, at Support. This will be changed fundementally.
especially for the A3000, we will install High End System Centres.
And some personal notes:
Don't worry, the A500 will be supported more than enough by third party
developments if not by Commodore themselves. There have been ads for
example in some german magazines about Kickstart2.0/1.3/1.2 switch boards
for the A500. I guess, this would be a modified Kickstart, since some of
the hardware it expects is not available on the A500. So expect some
level of incompatibility. (Until some hardware hack will be released,
"the A500 rejuvenator" maybe? :)
Where IS my A3000???? (Or the money for it) - Someone? Anybody?
(You would already be of great help if you expressed your sympathy :^)
Now we will return you to your regular keyboard bashing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thomas Tavoly, CS, Univ. of Utrecht, The Netherlands (somewhere in Europe..)
E-Mail: ttavolij@praxis.cs.ruu.nl Disclaimer: These opinions are rented,
Yes, it ^^ IS a typo! not mine. -TT
This is result of years-long research & artificial intelligence, not sense.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~akk@trantor.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Andy Klingler) (10/04/90)
>In article <3928@ruuinf.cs.ruu.nl> ttavolij@praxis.cs.ruu.nl (Thomas Tavoly) writes: > >Here follows a straight translation (without prior consent of the publisher :) >of an interview with Helmut Jost, the Managing Director of Commodore >Germany in the no. 1 german Amiga publication: Amiga Magazin of October '90. >(Which is IMHO the best in the world, much better than AmigaWorld; yes I >read them both, plus others) pages 10 and 11, BTW. Aaaargh! The Amiga Magazin the best in the world? I will not comment on this (I have seen the IMHO), but if you have read the article you should know that the publisher of the Amiga Magazin (Markt&Technik) does make some real big money with Amiga products (didn't want to say they are deeply involved, which should't be to make neutral journalism). I am not going to comment on the article either, but notice Mr. Jost is not a technician, so take the technical parts with a grain of salt. > >And some personal notes: > >Don't worry, the A500 will be supported more than enough by third party >developments if not by Commodore themselves. There have been ads for >example in some german magazines about Kickstart2.0/1.3/1.2 switch boards >for the A500. I guess, this would be a modified Kickstart, since some of >the hardware it expects is not available on the A500. So expect some >level of incompatibility. (Until some hardware hack will be released, >"the A500 rejuvenator" maybe? :) > Sorry. But you are clearly wrong here. The ADOS 2.0 does *not* expect *any* special hardware (well that's not true for the KS shipped with the A3000, but this has nothing to do with the new possibilities of 2.0). If you can get it into the right address space it does run even on a A500. -- Andreas Klingler akk@trantor.informatik.uni-erlangen.de A business is no business until you have shown the revenue office it was no business
peter@sugar.hackercorp.com (Peter da Silva) (10/07/90)
In article <3928@ruuinf.cs.ruu.nl> ttavolij@praxis.cs.ruu.nl (Thomas Tavoly) writes: > AMIGA: Will it be possible to upgrade the different models of the A500? > Jost: The Amiga 500 has by now, by its number of machines on the market, its > own domain. Thus it is - in our opinion - not necessary to supply the A500 > with a new operating system. Blow that for a joke... why should a developer take advantage of 2.0 features if 2.0 doesn't run on the largest installed base of Amigas? Without the 500 they might as well not bother with a new O/S at all. One hopes that this guy in Germany is out of touch with C= USA here... (and I was upset enough when they abandoned the 1000... I still think an A750 (A500 in a low-profile A1000-like case and detachable keyboard) would help the image of C= immensely. The A500 looks like a C64 or Atari 800) -- Peter da Silva. `-_-' <peter@sugar.hackercorp.com>.
ttavolij@praxis.cs.ruu.nl (Thomas Tavoly) (10/09/90)
akk@trantor.informatik.uni-erlangen.de (Andy Klingler) writes: >>Here follows a straight translation (without prior consent of the publisher :) >>of an interview with Helmut Jost, the Managing Director of Commodore >>Germany in the no. 1 german Amiga publication: Amiga Magazin of October '90. >>(Which is IMHO the best in the world, much better than AmigaWorld; yes I >>read them both, plus others) pages 10 and 11, BTW. > >Aaaargh! The Amiga Magazin the best in the world? I will not comment on this >(I have seen the IMHO), but if you have read the article you should know that >the publisher of the Amiga Magazin (Markt&Technik) does make some real big >money with Amiga products (didn't want to say they are deeply involved, which >should't be to make neutral journalism). Nice to know your opinion as well, it was meant as a personal opinion though, shall we discuss this on e-mail? >I am not going to comment on the article either, but notice Mr. Jost is not a >technician, so take the technical parts with a grain of salt. Did you really think that Mr. Jost was going to make a fool out of himself by talking about something he hasn't got the slightest idea of? He has the whole technical staff behind him, to advise him on anything. Besides there were no 'technical' subjects in the article. Unless...GULP, I just swallowed a real sharp remark here..:) >>Don't worry, the A500 will be supported more than enough by third party >>developments if not by Commodore themselves. There have been ads for >>example in some german magazines about Kickstart2.0/1.3/1.2 switch boards >>for the A500. I guess, this would be a modified Kickstart, since some of >>the hardware it expects is not available on the A500. So expect some >>level of incompatibility. (Until some hardware hack will be released, >>"the A500 rejuvenator" maybe? :) > >Sorry. But you are clearly wrong here. The ADOS 2.0 does *not* expect *any* >special hardware (well that's not true for the KS shipped with the A3000, but >this has nothing to do with the new possibilities of 2.0). If you can get >it into the right address space it does run even on a A500. Right, you need an MMU to get it into the right address space, which the A500 hasn't got. I should have mentioned that I was talking about the present situation. 2.0 is not final yet. When it will be, all will be OK. Until then, whoever wants 2.0 so badly has to install a hacked version of 2.0 which needs the MMU, hence the hardware it expects. And if you'd read the article, Jost said that the A500 may not be supplied with a new OS. They are however probably going to release the upgrade kit for the A2000 in a way that it will be usable on the A500 too. (Like now with the fatter Agnus: here it is, do whatever you want with it, but if you install it, you'll void warranty) >Andreas Klingler >akk@trantor.informatik.uni-erlangen.de ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Thomas Tavoly, CS, Univ. of Utrecht, The Netherlands (the rain-all-day land) E-Mail: ttavolij@praxis.cs.ruu.nl Disclaimer: These opinions are rented, Yes, it ^^ IS a typo! not mine. -TT "What a piece of MaxiComm!" - Larry Phillips .sig version: sysVr4 (hmm...) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~