Largely thanks to phase 5's efforts, it is now possible to build truely next generation Amigas, which compete with top end PCs - and blast a Playstation to dust.
We have of course the PowerUP cards, and the CyberVision and BlizzardVision PPC graphics cards from phase 5, which do not require Zorro slots. Thanks to Micronik, PCI cards may soon be a reality, bringing the likes of RIVA 128 and Matrox Millenium to the Amiga, not to mention cheap sound cards. For those wanting to spend less, '040 cards may soon be available for under £100, and £50 on a PCI graphics card will get something still far better than AGA.
It is difficult to comprehend just how more advanced such 'new' Amigas are (I put new in quotes, as we only have to take an old A1200, and put new cards in it). Even the 'mighty' '060 is nothing compared to a PPC chip, some benchmarks showing PPC 10 times or more faster. As for graphics, we tend to think of a Cybervision 64/3D or PicassoIV as being way better than AGA (and indeed, they are). Yet now we have the Cyber/Blizzardvision PPC which promises to be just as much a jump in power again.
So what does this mean for the average Amiga user? Even if the average Amiga owner had an '060 and graphics card, this new technology would represent a huge leap in power. But the average Amiga user probably has more like an '030 and AGA.
Another thing to note is that this new technology is far better value than anything we've had in a long time. Only a few months ago, a 50MHz '060 cost about the same as a 603e board, which is far faster (and includes SCSI 2 as standard). Okay, there are the problems that you need a 680x0 processor too, but long term, PPC is far better value. It wasn't too long ago that a 25MHz '040 accelerator cost £300 - for that money, you can now get 25MHz '040, 160MHz 603e and SCSI 2!
As for the Cyber/BlizzardVision, well, costing around the same as a PicassoIV (if anything, cheaper), and being far superior; which would you choose? Even better, you don't need Zorro slots - on an A1200T system, this could save you anything from £100 to £180 (assuming you don't need Zorro slots for other cards, that is).
Another problem is that there is no clear upgrade path. Until recently, the only realistic way to get a high powered Amiga was to take an A1200T, and shove loads of expansions into it (a Blizzard PPC and BlizzardVision being on the list, of course). But now we have new Amigas being released (which presumably will be better value), and hopefully more will follow. Okay, obviously this is good; the problem is that apart from all the 'must haves', many people who are interested in upgrading will wait and see what happens (especially regarding what Amiga International are up to), and result in fewer sales of PPC.
But hopefully, PPC will make less people leave the Amiga for the PC. I believe that many people leave the Amiga when they decide they want to spend a lot of money on a new computer (say, around £1500) - and in recent years, there hasn't been much Amigawise you could get with this. But now you can get a PPC machine with decent graphics card, as opposed to '060 machine with average graphics card for that money, hopefully such people will be persuaded to stay with the Amiga.
Looking at it from another point of view, supposing the Mac never made it to PPC (imagine it was Apple who went bust in 1994). Most Mac owners seem to have a PowerMac these days (even if it's an older model); how many do you think would have been happy to stick with '040 and '060 machines? How many do you think would have just given in and bought a Pentium, despite the fact that, in an ideal world, they'd rather have a Mac?
Ideally, new Amigas will not be marketed just to existing Amiga users. If we had an Amiga that was PPC equipped, and had either a PCI graphics card, or Cyber/BlizzardVision (presumably based around a new motherboard, and not just an A1200T), it ought to appeal to more than just the remaining Amiga community.
Okay, I'm not suggesting that every PC owner is suddenly going to rush out and buy such a machine. Likewise, a first time buyer is unlikely to buy such a machine, because he believes that only Wintel machines are worth buying. But think about it; what about all the Amiga users that left for the PC in the last couple of years? These are not the Digitiser idiots who have owned a PC for years, the last Amiga they owned being an A500. No, these are people who stuck with the Amiga after Commodore going bust, through the year when no Amigas were available, and after Escom had bought Commodore out, and then just rereleased the A1200 at a ridiculous price. These are people who left the Amiga simply because nothing was happening, no new machines were happening, and sadly, PC hardware had become better value (not to mention getting all the games).
Such people, don't have anything against the Amiga; rather, they may be only to happy to buy a new one, as long as it as good, or better, than the latest PC.
Mark