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IContain - Rent-to-own Amiga systems

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IContain - Rent-to-own Amiga systems


Bring out your popcorn and sodas. Close your curtains and turn off your mobile phone. It's time to watch another episode in the Amiga soap-opera series.. Can you contain yourself?

On the 24th of February 2011, an article was posted on amiga-news.de concerning a company called IContain. I've included the news item in its full below, so you can see for yourself what's going on:


IContain announces Amiga branded TVs, cell phones and computers (Update)

When a certain Todd Kleperis contacted the Aminet team two days ago to "discuss your library of Amiga titles" and ask for "guidance as to how to work with the existing fan base", the initial reaction over at Aminet was confusion. According to Kleperis, his company IContain is operating from China and about to revive the Amiga line of electronics. Why he choose to use Aminet as his first contact with the actual Amiga scene was not explained though.

At icontainprotects.com, Kleperis' company is indeed advertising cell phones, tablet PCs, various types of TV screens aswell as all-in-one PCs with integrated monitors - all of them sporting prominent Amiga logos. Obviously these devices are third-party products which have been rebranded as Amiga products by IContain.

You can't actually buy these products from IContain though: The company is mainly operating in the socalled Rent-to-own business. Using devices developed by IContain, furniture or consumer electronics devices leased to end users by Rent-to-own providers can be tracked or even remotely disabled should the customer stop paying its fees in time.

Asked about the reason for introducing a line of Amiga products, Kleperis told us that he was approached by a Rent-to-own provider that intended to buy not only the tracking technology from his company but also the actual consumer electronics - provided IContain could offer a "branded solution". As Amiga "used to be all about innovation in the past" (Kleperis) and other businesses like Lenovo or Sony were not interested in cooperation, Kleperis decided to offer Amiga branded devices.

We were told that the licensing deal was "cut just recently by the executor of an estate", that product just started shipping and that we should expect "worldwide press" soon. The IContain president would neither give any further information nor comment our hints that another company has already announced various Amiga products.

Interestingly, while Leo Nigro, Chief Technology Officer of Commodore USA, states in public that his company obtained a license from Bill McEwen and is free "to do with [the Amiga brand] as we please" - Kleperis mentions the executor of an estate as his business partner. The estate in question would likely be that of former Amiga Inc. investor Pentti Kouri, who deceased in 2009.

What's going on here? Suddenly there's a rent-to-own company that has many "Amiga" products available on their website. We're talking all-in-one PC's, mobile phones and TV's! I repeat:

- What the banana is going on here?

I'll tell you what's going on.. IContain have bought a licence allowing them to slap an Amiga-sticker on their products. Those stickers can be printed out for pennies. No tech-development necessary. A TV suddenly becomes powered with the force of the Amiga after being stickerized. How things have changed.

IContain is apparantly a business that operates in the rent-to-own market. They lease out products (like PC's) to customers for a monthly fee. If the customer can't pay, they can disable the machine from a remote location. Man.. would you own a machine that could be rendered useless due to a delayed payment or something? Innovative? Not "Amiga innovative", but perhaps innovative for the money makers.

The news has sparked discussions all over the Internet. Amiga.org, Amigaworld.net, commodore-amiga.org.. it's all over the place. It will be interesting to see how this turns out.

I remember being positive about the future of the Amiga back in the 90's. I dreamt about new wonder machines and the further development of the OS. I thought about demos with mindblowing effects, hungered for an Amiga laptop and I truly believed that the vision and philosophy of Amiga had a future. IContain and all that new stuff is NOT what I dreamt about.. Not in my wildest dreams could I have imagined the ups and downs of my favourite computer from 2K and onwards. I wonder what Tony Horgan from CU Amiga, Nick V. from Amiga Format and the other magazine-chaps would have thought about this if I told them this story 12 years ago.

Fortunately there are lot's of stuff to be happy about for us Amiga fans. We've got the Natami project rolling along (exciting news was posted there not long ago), AmiBay is still rocking, and Individual Computers released turbo-cards for both the 600 and 1200. Other projects are humping along as well.

Eat your popcorn, pour down your soda and follow the threads on all Amiga-boards concerning the latest news. This will be interesting.

Have a good one!
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Comments

  1. Stephen Coates's Avatar
    Hehe. I read about this one the other day. It is certainly a bit odd. But this kind of stuff often happens with old brand names.

    Now I wonder who would actually rent an Amiga brand mobile phone or television.

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