Here are some of the things that we expect to happen, predict to happen, as well as the things we want to happen (realistically...) in 1998.
New Amigas from 3rd party companies. With over 400 companies apparantely wishing to obtain Amiga licencing, 1998 should see plenty of truely new Amigas. Expect to see the versions of the Micronik towers with active PCI slots, the A5000/6000 (and maybe 7000?), the Connect and InsideOut from Index, new machines based on the BoXeR motherboard, the PIOS ONE, and the NitroSupreme and a notebook from Nova. We may even see set-top boxes in the form of the WonderTV, and possibly one from Micronik. By the end of 1998, it should hopefully be possible to buy a new Amiga with 680x0 and PPC, with AGA and PCI slots, at a reasonable price. We may see machines from Amiga International; they were promising them for Christmas '98, but have more recently stated that they won't themselves be producing new machines.
New AmigaOS. 3.5 update promised in Spring '98, with 4.0 to follow later. Few details are available: Will it have any support for PPC? Will it be on CD? Will it need ROM upgrades? How much will it cost?
Further developments in PowerUP The release of all the remaining PowerUP cards, and the CyberVision and BlizzardVision PPC graphics cards. For later on, Phase 5 have talked about multiprocessor cards, including one with an '060, and 4 350MHz 604s, or even 750s...
PowerPC software for the Amiga. Now that AI have chosen this processor officially, expect to see ports of the major Amiga applications, along with plenty of Amiga freeware and shareware.
NewTek to release Lightwave for PPC Amiga. This would be very good news for the high end Amiga market.
More Ports of PC Games to the Amiga. This depends a lot on how well current Amiga games sell, particularly Myst and Quake.
Games Companies Returning to the Amiga? Rumour has it that LucasArts are considering releasing Monkey Island 3 for PPC Amiga. Sunsoft state on their website that a port of Riven, sequel to Myst, is under consideration. Needless to say, sales of games such as Myst will be crucial in deciding if this will happen.
More High-Spec Amiga Only Games, such as Foundation, Trapped 3, Explorer. Expect to see PPC and (3D) graphics card support (and maybe PPC / graphics card only?), along with requirements of 8MB RAM or more, and CD ROM.
Decent Web Browsers at last! We should be seeing Java for the Amiga very soon from Finale Developments and Haage and Partner. Also, there will be plenty of Netscape ports as soon as the source code is released, and we may see a port of Opera.
Cheap '040 Accelerators. Although this chip has been discontinued by Motorola, sources of cheap '040s have been rumoured. Also, the PowerPC boards should push prices down. An '040 for under £100?