| From: | michael.slyfield |
| Date: | 23 Mar 2001 at 21:07:43 |
| Subject: | Re: TAO & PSion Should we get excited? |
Mikey C Wrote
> Well, as you know by now, TAO and Psion have got in bed together.
I think you'll find that TAO are also closely involved with a good
many others.
> Obviously, Amiga appear to have indirectly benefited from their
> partnership with TAO. Or is it bigger than that?
Amiga are inextricably linked with TAO, their Java engine sits at the
heart of the AmigaDE. TAO's Elate can now run on over a dozen
different OS (including the one we all love to hate) and so by extension,
could the Amiga. Despite what many still say, this affords us
incredible flexibility and potential.
> Only time will tell, but with PALM appearing to be the dominant force
> in handhelds, should we as Amigans get excited here?
In a positve sense yes, certainly in the short term Amiga will need a
fairly fast and decent return on their investment and it will benefit all of
us if they can pull this off. If that means high volume PDA sized games
production, so be it. They can only really survive by breaking into a
lucrative market, no-one (other than us "dinosaurs") will even look
at anything called an Amiga unless it a) does something so radically
innvative that it can't be ignored or b ) they buy it by default, bundled
up symbiotically in some other device which can provide them with
new content and/or features etc.
I would suggest that option b) is the likely and least risky way for Amiga
to go. It certainly would be if my house was riding on it and that is
essentially is the bottom line for someone. It does not necessarily have
to be Psion, Palm and even WindowsCE would do it, what we need is
the flexibilty to capitalise on the most appopriate hardware for any given
application - irrespective of what that happens to be.
> Anyone here want to shed some optimism?
Yeah, I do. I've seen Elate running piggyback and it works - it works WELL!
With Amiga running as it's front end on small powerful hardware we
will be presented with an immensly significant window of opportunity.
However, to fully realise this there is a role for us: the "Legacy Amiga
Community". Go to any User Group and what do you see? A variety of
speced up machines laid open across table tops, undergoing varying
forms of surgery - whilst they're still running! People modifying and
enhancing hard AND software to meet their particular needs - pushing
their computers to the max. The Amiga Community has always contained
the kind of innovators and mavericks that kicked the whole personal
computing industry off in the first place.
People with open minds and unbounded curiosity is what the AmigaDE
needs right now - it needs accessible and compelling content to
make potential customers WANT to buy it. Think about it, an modern
game for a PC or Playstation etc now costs around the same money to
produce as a major Hollywood Film. Yet millions of teenagers now choose
a Nokia mobile simply because it plays "Snake", a totally primitive game
yet one which they find totally addictive.
Amiga must find the market then exploit it and I believe that is what Bill
and Fleccy are about to do. PDA size computing is massive and it
represents he future .... if that offends he purists, then tough! I believe
it's our best hope for the future. Get some volume sales, then all
the rest will come.
Mick
PS Learn Java, it might prove useful!
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