The Amiga's main market rôle was as a low-cost home computer, far below even the cost of current 'cheap' Pcs. Worryingly, the only company even thinking of producing a Iow cost Amiga style computer is PIOS, who is targeting the E500 S800 price bracket. The trouble is Phase 5 is going to compete with (by the time its A Box comes out) similarly priced and spec Pcs in a tricky market and QuickPak is aiming at the DecAlpha where the market is, again, already jam-packed. There is also the problem that the AI200 is woefully out of date. But then no one is really expecting the A1200 to do wonders, who ever does get the Amiga will have to go the PowerPC way. PIOS' first machine will be aimed at the desktop market, but the second machine it plans is the low-cost machine for the masses. With multiprocess- ing capabilities and standard PC compo- cents this is a computer that is inexpensive, expandable and powerful, attributes the Amiga bas always had. Looking back, albeit through a slightly rose tinted fringe, myself and many of my friends owned Spectrums, C64s, Atari Sts and Amigas. The unifying point with ail these Systems is that they were inexpensive and currently there is not a single machine out there that can fîll this gap in the market. This is a market the Amiga used to fill very well, ownershrp spread to over three million households in this country alone. Perhaps when a stable owner is found for the Amiga, it can get back to where it belongs.
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