Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
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From: rjc@geech.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Ray Cromwell)
Subject: Re: Toaster news
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.213337.3693@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu>
Keywords: Amiga Toaster Apple?
Sender: news@mintaka.lcs.mit.edu
Organization: The Internet
References: <1991Apr16.060721.4531@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Apr17.134058.4503@grebyn.com>
Distribution: comp
Date: Wed, 17 Apr 91 21:33:37 GMT
Lines: 86

In article <1991Apr17.134058.4503@grebyn.com> ckp@grebyn.com (Checkpoint Technologies) writes:
>In article <1991Apr16.060721.4531@neon.Stanford.EDU> torrie@cs.stanford.edu (Evan Torrie) writes:
>>
>>  There's an interesting tidbit of news in this week's MacWeek magazine.
>>Quoting from an article about the National Association of Broadcasters
>>show, to be held in Las Vegas next week:
>>
>>"NewTek Inc.  The maker of the popular Video Toaster, a Commodore
>>Amiga-based video editing system, will announce a standalone Toaster
>>that can read Macintosh files directly.
>>  Price at $3,995 and due in June, the new Toaster no longer requires
>>users to buy an Amiga.  "We've taken the cool parts of the Amiga and
>>put it together with the Toaster into a single box," said Steve
>>Hartford, NewTek product manager.
>
>It seems that NewTek has decided that betting their company's future on
>the Amiga platform is not a good idea.  And I think they're right.

  I think the Amiga will be around for a long while, especially
in Europe. In Europe the Amiga is selling like C64s used to, and
C= sold more 64's than Macs (almost 3x as more).

>In any case, they stand to profit more per unit. That $4K price surely
>does not contain an additional $2500 cost in parts, over the card in the
>Amiga box.  But they could never sell a $4K add-on to Amiga owners, no
>matter what it did.
>
>This now seems to be a common occurance.  Take a successful Amiga
>product, migrate to a different platform (or in the case of NewTek, no
>platform at all), and sell it for a lot more.
>And succeed in selling it.  ByteByByte did this with Sculpt-4D.
>It cost $250 on the Amiga.  The Mac version, not as powerful, sells for
>$2500. The Mac magazines gave it favorable reviews.

  This is the underlying reason. I don't think NewTek is in danger of
going bankrupt. They just want more $$$. Porting to the Mac market
is going to yield more profit. I don't blame NewTek for wanting more money,
I just wish they would have waited longer before porting the Toaster.
The Toaster was an incentive for people to buy Amigas. There's nothing
wrong with people who already own Macs purchasing a toaster for the Mac,
however, I don't like the idea of the Toaster generating Mac sales or
helping the Mac to become _thee Desktop Video_ platform which is the
Amiga's niche. NewTek didn't wait long enough so now anyone who
was going to buy an Amiga+Toaster is going to think Mac+Toaster.
I think NewTek will probably kludge the IBM+Toaster together too, since
the IBM market is much bigger than the Macs'. If the standalone
toaster has an Amiga in it perhaps it is a good idea since it profits
Commodore to sell Amiga chips. I wonder if NewTek just used the
custom chips, or whether they included the Amiga OS too. Otherwise, they
would have to port LightWave and Toasterpaint to the Mac OS.
I also hope NewTek's new fondness in other platforms doesn't take away
there support from the Amiga platform. (Like fixing the Toaster to run on
an A3000). I don't think NewTek's decision is going to hurt the Amiga
much. I heard there are other Amiga companies producing Toaster
clones which can't help but drive down the cost and drive up the quality
through competition. The Toaster could use some refinements like
real-time painting in 24bits instead of HAM mode with preview.

  Another point. The MacToaster is $4000, and to use a Toaster you need
atleast a 68030, lots of ram, a big HD, and a Fast HD interface.
You can do without these luxuries, but I wouldn't want to wait a long
time for framestores to save, or a render. Any Video Magazine could do
a price comparision and show the Amiga toaster platform is cheaper
and better. Lots of functionality will be lost on the Mac side, like,
what about Arexx? If the standalone toaster doesn't have a 68030
Amiga in it with OS, it looks like all you will be able to do with it
is DVE's and Switching. (No Arexx control)
 
 Perhaps Commodore should make a NuBUS card with the Amiga chipset on it
and sell it as a Mac video card. Better yet, sell a complete Amiga
on a card and call it an 'Amiga emulator' for the Mac. Better yet, package
the Amiga in a slick looking black case with a CD-ROM and sell it is
a consumer device/computer add-on. Oh? They've already done that.

>-- 
>First comes the logo: C H E C K P O I N T  T E C H N O L O G I E S      / /  
>                                                ckp@grebyn.com      \\ / /    
>Then, the disclaimer:  All expressed opinions are, indeed, opinions. \  / o
>Now for the witty part:    I'm pink, therefore, I'm spam!             \/


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| rjc@gnu.ai.mit.edu   |   //  The opinions expressed here do not in any way  |
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