Commodore will start to sell Smartphones

***Update – 2015-05-28 – 09:50 CEST***

As people have been asking me to digg around and find some more information about “who owns what” in the case with Commodore Business Machines LTD, and their upcoming Commodore smart phone. I decided to contact Commodore Business Machines LTD directly. And this is my mail which i sent to them:

“Hi there

My name is Robin Ek, and i´m the owner of The Gaming Ground (thegg.net). Not so long ago i wrote an article about Commodore´s upcoming Smartphone (http://thegg.net/mobile/commodore-takes-on-the-smartphone-market-a-new-beginning/). And a reader of ours asked the following question:
“They own zero Amiga IP (Acer and Cloanto own the IP) and I suspect CBM LTD is like recently closed (owner, Barry Altman passed away and family did not want to continue the business) Commodore USA, licensees of the Commodore name from Commodore Holding. I am just hoping that Robin Ek would dig in and find out for us if this was Commodore Holding or a licensee of Commodore Holding.”

So i just wanted to check with you guys directly. So what´s the truth in this case?

Have a nice day. Robin TGG” – Robin Ek The Gaming Ground

And this Commodore Business Machines LTD´s answer:

“Hi Robin

First of all, thanks for your coverage of our incoming smart phone, we all hope the final product will meet your favour.

Commodore Business Machines Ltd is a brand new company, recently incorporated in the UK, operating in a different market than old Commodore, and it’s not linked to C= Holdings BV. We have registered our own name and trademarks under the terms and conditions of european laws, and we don’t retain any Amiga intellectual property. We’d been, of course, Commodore and Amiga users and lovers in the past, so we’re still interested in emulation and open to any kind of collaboration with IP owners.

We also understand Amiga has been struggling for all these years to survive, and we guess current Amigans can be happy with its current developments, like UAE, AmigaOS 4, MorphOS, AROS and all the devices they run on. Our current mission, however, is not living in the past but developing new products and new technologies: we strongly believe that the C= brand should live in the present and the future.” – Commodore Business Machines LTD

So in other words. Commodore Business Machines LTD is not linked to Holdings BV, and they do not own the Amiga IP. Commodore Business Machines LTD also operate on a different market than the old Commodore brand did. However, CBM LTD aims to bring some new and awesome Commodore products to the market (such as the Commodore Smartphone for example).

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Commodore has had a really rough ride since it was originally founded back in 1954 in Toronto, Canada by Jack Tramiel and Irving Gould. Because even though Commodore has created some really awesome computers over the years (such as Commodore 64 and the Amiga 500), the company was bleeding money (and fast). And that took it´s told on Commodore in the end, so the company was eventually forced to close down for good back in 1994 (when Commodore wascially declared defunct).

And since 1994 the Commodore/Amiga rights has changed hands several times (KMOS bought the rights back in 2005. Then Cloanto bought the rights in 2012). But even so, there hasn’t been all that much news about the current status of the Commodore (new products and such).

Well, that´s just about to change. Because this morning i found out that Commodore is about to release their own smart phone. (You can sign up for the Commodore newsletter to get more information on the Commodore smart phone).

I wonder how much Commodore´s smartphone will cost? And what kind of specs and services it will offer?

And it seems like Commodore also has a new CEO and founder as well. An Italian businessman called Massimo Canigiani. And mr Canigiani stated on the Commodore homepage that a “new beginning” awaits us..

“Commodore Business Machines is reborn and we are working hard to create new compelling products. Follow us on Facebook or subscribe to our newsletter, we will soon amaze you with a new Commodore era.” – Massimo Canigiani, CEO and Founder Commodore Business Machines LTD

That sounds really interesting of course. But i´m somewhat curious to find out what this “new beginning” really consits of? I also wonder if Commodore´s smartphone will stand a chance on the super competitive smartphone market?

What do you guys think about Commodore´s smartphone? And will you buy one on release?

Source:
Amiga news

Commodoresmart

Robin “V-Act” Ek
The Gaming Ground
Twitter: @TheGamingGround