Re: Why emulate?

[stuart <s.d.birchall@surveying.salford.ac.uk>]

Supertimer wrote:

> I submit that a repackaged Apple IIGS with 4MB of memory, a faster
> CPU (like ZipGS...ideal, but NOT necessary) and pacakaged with
> AppleWorks GS plus Spectrum and SIS and an offer for a shell account
> at crl.com being sold for $150 would have a market.
>
> The reason is simple...the market IS there.  The Brother GeoBook is
> an IBM XT class computer that has been repackaged and sold with
> GeoWorks and "BrotherWorks"...a GeoWorks based word processor,
> spreadsheet, and database plus a lynx like web browser and subscription
> to a shell account and is targeted squarely at the market the C64 left
> behind.  The GeoBook runs slower than an unaccelerated IIGS.
>
> TYPEWRITERS are being sold to the former C64 market.
>
> The IIGS is much more functional than a typewriter or a GeoBook.
>
> Sell it at $150 and they will come.

  A number of companies have tried this approach. Here in the UK, Amstrad
re-released their PCW series as a basic spreadhseet/WP and printer combination.
If you re-packaged and beefed up the apple II, it could sell, although something
would have to be done on the user unterface front: More capable machines such as
the Atari ST and Amiga have the advantage of a GUI interface and 16 bit
processors for what would be a marginally higher manufacturing cost - and that's
the snag; because of the massive economies of scale in the far east, the grey PC
market could easily match the manufacturing costs of Apple II machines, supplying
more powerful equipment at a comparable cost.