RISCOS Ltd Press Release 3rd Feb 2006
Paul Middleton
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RISCOS Ltd is proud to announce that it has just started its 8th year of
trading. Formed on 7th January 1999, the company has the widest range of
shareholders in the RISC OS market. It has continued to focus on the
development of RISC OS 4 for both 26 bit processors, and more recently 32
bit processors.
On 8th March 1999 Element 14, a then wholly-owned subsidiary of Acorn Group
plc agreed an exclusive licensing deal with RISCOS Ltd to complete the
development of RISC OS 4 and bring it to market as an upgrade for Risc PC
and A7000 users and for new machines dedicated to the desktop market.
Since the launch of RISC OS 4 in July 1999 there have been over 6,400 copies
of RISC OS 4.02 sold, with upgrade copies alone generating over £370,000
(exc VAT) sales over the last 6 years, until sales of RISC OS 4.02 were
ceased in favour of the newer RISC OS 4.39 "Adjust" ROMs in mid 2005. Over
1,900 copies of RISC OS 4 have been supplied for use in new computers from
Castle Technology, MicroDigital, RiscStation and Advantage 6.
RISC OS 4.39 first went on sale in April 2004 and has recently sold its
500th copy. RISC OS 4 is now available on a wide range of platforms, with
users who have to use PC hardware still able to enjoy the RISC OS experience
via the Virtual Acorn platform. Sales of Virtual Acorn products using RISC
OS 3, 4.02 and 4.39 add several thousand more copies to the total number of
current RISC OS users.
The personalised special offer for RISC OS 3.X and RISC OS 4.0X users who
want to upgrade to RISC OS 4.39 is still available. RISC OS 4.39 ROMs are
suitable for Risc PC, A7000/+, RiscStation R7500 and MicroDigital Omega
users. It is NOT suitable for MicroDigital Mico users as those computers do
not have the required ROM sockets.
RISCOS Ltd will shortly be acting on the decision taken at its 2004 AGM to
proceed with a further issue of 50,000 RISCOS Ltd Ordinary Shares. Anyone
interested in investing in RISCOS Ltd should write to the RISCOS Ltd Share
Offer, c/o The Company Secretary, RISCOS Ltd, 3 Clarendon Road, Cardiff,
CF23 9JD for further details.
The proceeds of the share issue will be used to fund further development of
RISC OS 4 beyond the limits of the cashflow generated by sales of RISC OS
"Select" subscriptions and RISC OS "Adjust" ROMs. It will also be used to
fund the development and acquisition of complimentary technologies for RISC
OS.
Managing Director, Paul Middleton went on to say that "subscribers to the
RISC OS Select scheme who have not yet renewed in the past year, are
particularly requested to renew their subscriptions as soon as possible. The
level of subscriptions is important, not only to provide funds for the work
to be undertaken, but also to give accurate figures of the number of users
who are actively interested in the work being done. There is no point us
spending £30, 000 developing the next version of RISC OS if there are only
150 people who are going to buy it." He further explained that "the major
reason for moving over to the 32 bit neutral source for RISC OS 4 was to
enable the production of a unified source that could build versions for both
Risc PC generation computers and newer computers such as the A9 and Iyonix.
The full launch of the A9 computer, and then Select 4, are currently
targetted for around May this year and once completed attention can be
focussed on the Iyonix. However despite the encouraging level of interest
shown on the Select for Iyonix pledge group, the current level of pledges is
insufficient to cover the full amount of work needed. It is likely therefore
that the first stage will be a limited release of features to users who have
continued with their Select subscriptions and who pay a supplement. We will
be contacting those who have pledged and/or expressed their support for
Select for Iyonix setting out the options later this month."
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Paul Middleton
Managing Director
RISCOS Ltd
Tel +44 (0)29 2046 4020 Direct, Fax +44 (0)29 2049 2326
Email: mailto:ris...@paulmidd.demon.co.uk Web http://www.riscos.com/
--
n.g.b...@durham.ac.uk, Backup Moderator of comp.sys.acorn.announce
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