Amiga like computers in a shrinking market

[Zak]

Hello,

I don't know if such a question has been asked before, I couldn't find one.

You see, Apple's computer sales are declining and Apple makes it's money selling Iphones.

If we assume, Commodore would have solved all technical issues and didn't go bankcrupt in the 90's, would there even be a market today for an alternative computer like Amiga? Isn't it inevitable that the Amiga would have vanished today?

[Locutus]

...What would you want from an 'alternative computer' in 2023?

[Megalomaniac]

Looking back, the Amiga was always going to be the last of its kind, a 'home computer' with custom hardware and its own architecture that needed its own code compared to PCs and Macs (which were never affordable in the way Amigas were for the mass market in those days) and couldn't be cloned relatively cheaply.

Even between 1987 and 1994 (the Amiga's main 'home' lifespan), PCs got more powerful and cheaper in a way no single home computer ever could have, and as computing grew into the mainstream, the amount of people who needed or wanted a computer at home that was identical to what they used at work also skyrocketed. While a 1987 A500 demolished the performance of PCs costing 2-3 times as much, to match a £1000 early 1994 PC with Amiga components would cost, conservatively, £8-900 - and the PC was ready to go and did what people were used to. Nobody - Commodore, Acorn, Atari - could really compete with that. Apple had their niche, but that's about it.

[Bren McGuire]

here we go another wet fantasy post **sigh**

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Zak

If we assume, Commodore would have solved all technical issues and didn't go bankcrupt in the 90's, would there even be a market today for an alternative computer like Amiga?

No.

Originally Posted by Zak

Isn't it inevitable that the Amiga would have vanished today?

Yes.

Don't know where you found the info that Apple's computer sales are declining, but this is what I found: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/11/appl...e-quarter.html

[phx]

Originally Posted by Locutus

...What would you want from an 'alternative computer' in 2023?

There are indeed some points I would want in an alternative computer today:

• Freedom (to do what you like, update whenever you like, own everything forever)
• Privacy (no online-coercion, no data collection in any form)
• Open platform (OS and system hardware is fully documented)
• Good games
• A nice CPU and architecture which is fun to program at low level

You get the first two, and maybe half of the third point, with any Open Source Unix (Linux, BSD) system. Modern hardware is never documented.
The Amiga was all of it.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by phx

The Amiga was all of it.

It's only because of how it was in the time period it existed in, and other machines (including early PC) were not much different back then.

Which is why I don't really bemoan Amiga's demise. The machine had a great run and left an unforgettable legacy. If it has survived it'd have became just another awful corporate behemoth like Apple or MS.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

If it has survived it'd have became just another awful corporate behemoth like Apple or MS.

[Megalomaniac]

I guess Commodore were an awful corporate behemoth, they just weren't as good at it as Microsoft or Apple, hence why they're not here anymore and those two are (though maybe they'd've adapted to a more cut-throat world - were the leaking battery capacitors an unintentional early example of planned obsolescence, for example?)

[Zak]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

here we go another wet fantasy post **sigh**

Don't know if it's a wet fantasy that the Amiga hasn't had a chance to live on.

Originally Posted by TCD

Don't know where you found the info that Apple's computer sales are declining

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23...20patterns.%22

Also many other sources when you enter 'Apple computer sales declining' at the search engine

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Zak

https://appleinsider.com/articles/23...20patterns.%22

Also many other sources when you enter 'Apple computer sales declining' at the search engine

Your source is from April. Apple is the only 'PC' maker that is currently coming out of the low that the whole 'PC' market hit. It wasn't a Macintosh specific issue and it looks like Apple handles it better than the rest.

[dreadnought]

People like to dump on Commodore these days, but even if they were awful they somehow managed to produce the best selling (C64) and the most advanced (Amiga) microcomputers of that era. Not too shabby, if you ask me.

They flopped like everybody else who was locked into the evolutionary dead end of single brand / custom chip computer ecosystems. Apple only managed to wiggle out of this by riding their boutique image and MS's handouts.

[van_dammesque]

Amiga OS, running x86 hardware and current 3d rendering. The same path as Apple. Would they have done something like ipods/ipads, I don't know. Possibly Amiga OS on a phone?

[robinsonb5]

A modern OS which supports virtual memory, memory protection and all that jazz, but which is well enough designed that nothing required for interactivity can be swapped out, ever.

Runaway process eating all your RAM and causing a swapstorm? Click its close button and it's gone. Now - not in three or four minutes' time!

[rothers]

Originally Posted by Zak

Hello,

I don't know if such a question has been asked before, I couldn't find one.

You see, Apple's computer sales are declining and Apple makes it's money selling Iphones.

Isn't the Macbook M series the best-selling computer in the world? Their sales are probably lower this year as they made those beasts a little TOO powerful.


If Amiga (or whatever) had gone down the custom ARM chip earlier they could have got a decent market share I'd have thought with the longer battery life etc.


What's funny is Apple ALMOST did this in the late 90s, they had a chip designed and everything but then just decided it would be easier to go with PowerPC.

[Retro1234]

I think the only way would of been if two or more companies had joined teams i.e Atari and Commodore.

Now we do have ChromeOS and Android I think people forget that. I suppose PlayStation could release an OS as long as it is easy to use it would have a pace.

[Locutus]

Originally Posted by robinsonb5

A modern OS which supports virtual memory, memory protection and all that jazz, but which is well enough designed that nothing required for interactivity can be swapped out, ever.

Runaway process eating all your RAM and causing a swapstorm? Click its close button and it's gone. Now - not in three or four minutes' time!

As phx also pointed out above. That's just Linux.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Retro1234

Now we do have ChromeOS and Android I think people forget that.

I think that people that wish to get away from "MS' evil monopoly" [patent pending] aren't exactly the crowd that would flock to Google's products.

[dreadnought]

Originally Posted by TCD

I think that people that wish to get away from "MS' evil monopoly" [patent pending] aren't exactly the crowd that would flock to Google's products.

I hate with a burning passion what these two are doing regarding privacy rape and monopolization, but in modern life there is just no getting away from using them. Apple's walled garden model is not for me so, on PC, while I really wish I could use Linux (even if we disregard learning curve and need to DIY things) it's impossible because of work related soft and modern gaming.

On the phone there's only Google then. I used to run degoogled custom roms but recently some apps I need for work won't work with these, so...

And so if there was some miracle and Amiga would still be a major player, I'm pretty sure it'd do the same bad things like the other big boys, and I'd be forced to hate it too. Prefer to be left with awesome memories and modern hobbyist scene instead.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by dreadnought

...while I really wish I could use Linux (even if we disregard learning curve and need to DIY things) it's impossible because of work related soft and modern gaming.

The last point might get 'fixed' by another big and evil corp Valve We are spoilt for choice between large evil corporations these days, aren't we?