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In this interview with Fleecy Moss of Amiga Inc, Amiga Flame attempts to learn more about Amiga Inc's involvement in the PDA market, their relationship with Sharp and their attempts to persuade Amiga developers to work on PDA content.
1. Amiga Inc announced only a few months ago that an agreement had been reached with the Sharp Corporation, which will see Amiga Inc provide content for the Zaurus PDA. In your opinion what are the features of this particular Personal Digital Assistant, which makes it stand out from what has been made before?
It is a very modern, high performance product but it only represents the first device from the Sharp stable that we shall be supporting. Their new range of products offer even more exciting possibilities. Please understand as well that whilst we are providing content to Sharp for their devices, the point of the DE is to provide an environment in which content can exist independent of devices. Thus the deal with Sharp allows DE content to run on their devices but we are also working with other companies, and in the lab back at Snoqualmie we actually have it running on a variety of devices, including almost all of the most popular present and soon to be released PDAs, and the Windows and Linux desktops. The advantage of this to content producers is that with one product, one distribution, they can sit back and watch their markets increase, as Amiga Inc extends the reach of the DE, whilst to the content consumers, they can buy one copy of a DE app and it can be used on any of their devices which are supported and for which they have a DE environment or DE player.
2. Amiga Inc seems to emphasize the potential market to be exploited by developers producing software for Personal Digital Assistants. Is the market truly that big when you consider that many people wouldn't regard the Personal Digital Assistant as the traditional device to play games on?
As I said, this question is moot because we aren't restricted to PDAs. The motto of the DE is 'the new WWW - Whatever, Whenever, Wherever'. They are digital devices, just like desktop computers, just like cellphones, just like STBs. In the end the companies that make these devices know that it is content that will sell them, and by working with Amiga to provide a DE environment or player, then they suddenly have a cool device with a load of cool content - a much more sellable product.
3. Has the Sharp Corporation been impressed by some of the PDA games produced by Amiga developers?
They are over the moon 8-) Our series 0 games are far superior to any other content they have for the Zaurus, and given that our developers are only just learning how to use the DE, this bodes really well for the future. However, Amigans don't have to take my word for it. The DE player for Windows and
Linux will be available soon, and they can experience them for themselves, and then with OS4.2, they should be able to experience them directly on their AmigaOnes.
4. With the Zaurus PDA only available in Japan will it be necessary for the games produced by developers to be translated into the Japanese language, and will Amiga Inc and the Sharp Corporation help in such task?
Initially the games are being done with as iconic as possible with minimum text but a localisation service is just around the corner.
5. Once a PDA game has been fully developed where will it be available from?
For someone like Sharp, who also want to be a content broker, we simply provide them with deliveries of content and they provide a mechanism for accessing it. Amiga itself will soon launch its own content brokerage, so that consumers can purchase the DE player and then DE games and apps to use with it. This is being done initially using Internet technologies but will eventually become an integral part of the DE itself.
Fleecy Moss
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In this interview with Fleecy Moss of Amiga Inc, Amiga Flame attempts to learn more about Amiga Inc's involvement in the PDA market, their relationship with Sharp and their attempts to persuade Amiga developers to work on PDA content.
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