Re: USB input devices-- Second Sight ... and the new IIgs market

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Supertimer writes ...
> 
> Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net> wrote:
> 
> >
 ....

> 
> In fact, most of the advanced stuff for the IIGS came after
> 1989.  You have the final version of the TWGS.  You have
> the ZipGS, the BlueDisk, the SuperDrive controller
 ....
> 
> The Apple II market really did not start to implode until
> the demise of InCider/A+ and even then, because the
> programmer-oriented turned user-oriented GS+ Magazine
> had so many of the diehard IIGS users onboard, the IIGS
> market in particular survived until about late '95/early '96.
> 
> >     By 1995 we are at least four years past the end of Computer Wars I.
> >PC had won and the majority of remaining GS owners were also PC users.
> >Most were not interested in major non-PC investments in hardware.
> 
> Buying a new Apple IIGS, perhaps.  Apple killed the IIGS
> in 1992, so this observation seems correct.  However, just
> because I have a Windows 95 unit does not mean I don't
> buy stuff for the IIGS anymore.  In fact, some of my Win
> peripherals have ended up on the IIGS!  ;-)
> 
> Same with IIGS specific stuff.  I got the Second Sight after
> I had a PC.

     When it comes to major IIgs purchases, most of mine were made in
the 1990's, too. (As you observe, this is when the best, most affordable
upgrades became available.) Probably, the same is true for most current
users. Of course, the majority of late '80's/early 90's GS owners did
not follow our example.


 
> >     An expensive 24-bit card in 1995-- one which, even with a VGA
> >monitor, could not completely replace the existing display-- was not
> >much help to II computing.
> 
> That's not how it was like back then.  Because GS+ Magazine
> was still around and the IIGS market was alive, there was
> actually a very very strong interest in the card and its
> competition, the TurboRez.  In fact, there was a large preorder
> of the Second Sight that took Sequential months to fill.
>

     Sure, there was a market for Apple II products in 1995. But, it was
nothing like the II market of 1983 or, even, 1988. Basically, it was not
a market into which you could dump just any kind of $200 video upgrade
and expect to find enough 'live ones' to get the thing off the ground.  

     My reason for saying that the SS card was not much help to II
computing in 1995 is that it flopped and, in the process, damaged the
chances for other upgrades.

 ....

> However, relating to the
> last days of the IIGS market and GS+ Magazine in particular,
> I am sure that the fall of GS+ had a drastic effect on the IIGS
> market.  With GS+ Magazine, there was a IIGS market.  Without
> a GS+ Magazine, there was not.
 ....

> 
> Look at the list of businesses that fell after GS+ Magazine:
> 
> Tulin, TMS, LRO Computers (stopped selling IIGS stuff),
> Softdisk GS, Memory Distributors Plus, etc.
 ....

     It seems more likely that GS+ was one of the businesses which
suffered from the marked decline in Apple II activities in the
mid-1990's. The decline had much less to do with any magazine than with
PC and the fact that the exploding internet significantly favored PC
users.

     As to "the last days of the IIgs market", the notion is a tad
premature. User numbers seem clearly to be on the rise and there are
many opportunities for creators of new hardware and software. As in any
market, the main 'trick' is still to come up with something users want
and to offer it at the right price.



Rubywand