In the last days, both Ars Technica and Hot Hardware managed to poste quite positive news about AmigaOne X5000 and A1222 Tabor nextgen PowerPC Amigas from A-EON. However! Things seems to be a bit too dramatic. Amiga On The Lake out of sudden ceased all AmigaOne X5000 and A1222 Tabor support! So, they posted a message to A-EON and Amigakit.com on their website.
Amigakit.com is accused for Playing dirty in the Amigaland
Several Amiga stores have now discontinued all AmigaOne X5000 and A-EON support since last weekend. Because of the public message on Amiga On The Lake website and several other Amiga stores commenting the issue to me when I started asking about this. All of them writes to Amitopia, that Amigakit.com sells the AmigaOne X5000 motherboards cheaper to it’s customers than to it’s dealers and that it is unfortunate that both A-EON and Amigakit.com is owned by the very same person.
Here is a quoted comment from one of them:
It would be like Asus created a second company, with the same guy at it’s direction and sell the Asus products to end customers for same price than the first company to the reseller
This way, reseller can’t do business
Amitopia have taken away any sources in this case, as it seems like this case is very serious. Several of the resellers writes to me regarding having a hard time with AmigaOne X5000 and A-EON pricing policy. So, this seems to be a quite difficult case. Especially after all the positive vibes from Ars Technica and Hot Hardware. Amiga On The Lake message on their homepage is as following:
We have made a decision, concerning both A-EON and AmigaKit. The decision we made is grounded in our experience during the last 8 months in regards to both companies. As a result we have made the choice to no longer support A-EON or AmigaKit in any way, shape or form.
We are still here and “may” be carrying more stuff soon. However no more X5000 or A1222 or, frankly anything produced from either company. AOTL Donations is going on a temporary hold so we can refocus now that we are not supporting A-EON or AmigaKit.
Amiga On The Lake is the AmigaOne X5000 x-reseller, which is actually behind the positive article on Ars Technica. But they decided to publish this out of sudden on the net, after the positive posting by several none-Amiga magazines on the web. In my opinion! This shouldn’t be posted on-line. The author of Amiga On The Lake should have spoken with A-EON management about it! Not publishing it like this for several days. But on the other side. It seems as if Amiga On The Lake have been in talks about this for 8 months without any results?
Exactly the same terms and conditions, A-EON
I also wanted to see what A-EON biggest investor Trevor Dickinson had to say regarding this situation and he repplied to me saying following:
from an A-EON perspective ALL retailers, which includes AmigaKit, have exactly the same terms and conditions despite what some might be saying.
The recommemded base system price for the X5000 listed by A-EON is £1699 in all the adverts published by A-EON since October last year.
Of course different retailers can offer upgraded systems with additional software and charge more…which is what they didAmigakit have only just started selling systems at the recommended advertised retail price.
There is a discount plus free software (the Enhancer Software pack and Personal Paint PPC) if the retailer purchases 5 off boards.
It seems like Trevor didn’t know at all about the situation. Someone isn’t communicating well here!? Both sides in this quite dramatic condition, have their arguments about the situation. Some simply puts actions before having a fair business discussion. However! As long as Amiga On The Lake have their critical information about A-EON and Amigakit.com, regarding AmigaOne X5000 or A1222 Tabor. It is hurting the Amiga reputation and market. I am sure that a solution must be found in this state. So, someone needs to do a Skype meeting or a physical meeting where they fix it.
Please fix this! Amigaland doesn’t need this. All parts have been informed and Now I hope that they will solve this issue!
Source
Amitopia Own Information
Amigakit.com
A-EON
Amiga On The Lake
Ars Technica
Hot Hardware
