Re: Apple II Commercials

[pubpc1@library.ucla.edu]

Edhel Iaur wrote,
in response to my reply (about an Apple IIc commercial in which
the Apple IIc was controlling a skyscrapper office building):
>>shaft with the elevator zooming up.  The camera then zooms in
>>on one office with an Apple IIc displaying a schematic of the
>>building and its functions.
>>
>>"The Apple IIc has 128K, twice the memory of the IIe and enough
>>power to run an office building..."  The announcer says.
>>
>>Anyone remember this one?
>
>Wasn't it more along the lines of "It's good to know that your //c
>still has the ability to do the little things...like turining off the
>lights [cut to outside of skyscraper, all lights in skyscraper go
>out]"

That may have been it.  It's been so long ago.  Anyone remember
other commercials?  The IIc was a best seller back then and it
was clearly superior to that stupid PC/jr., which had toy-like
"chicklet" keyboards.  Even Consumer Reports gave the nod to
the IIc over the PC/jr.  Remember when John Sculley lifted a new
Apple IIc over his head and proclaimed "Apple II Forever"?

That was really a turning point for Apple, for it gave false
hopes and dreams.  Apple had a full house then.  Had they
continued to develop the very technically competent Apple II
line then they would have never lost so much market share to
the PC clones.  Clones like Laser were beginning to successfully
clone with cleanroom (legal) methods.  Apple II sales were going
through the roof.  When the Apple IIGS came out, it was so
superior to the Mac Plus (the Mac of its day) that anyone who'd
use a GS would laugh at the Mac Plus.  In fact, the GS was so
ahead of its time that even when the Mac LC was released four
years later, a properly equipped GS could actually outperform
the Mac LC.  But Apple would not give us a new, modern GS.
Imagine had Apple continued to develop the GS.  We would be at
least four years ahead at this time.  If the GS was four years
ahead of the Mac Plus (able to match the Mac LC evolved from
the Mac Plus) today's PowerGS would be an awesome sight indeed.
Imagine a fast RISC based machine with an Apple Interface GUI
and a modern GS/OS with modules such as FST's to read many
file systems rather than that clunky "PC Exchange" thingy.
Imagine having GNO/ME built into the OS as a UNIX integrated
into the GS/OS and under the Desktop.  Imagine this modernized
GS/OS UNIX platform, now with a modernized RISC CPU running
at 300MHz or above with full protected memory and virtual
memory implementation.  Imagine an ultra-fast bus, perhaps
with a few (like ISA in modern PC) Apple BUS slots in addition
to PCI for your old peripheral cards.  Imagine a built in
dedicated video acceleration subsystem and a modern wavetable
synthesis system from Ensoniq.  Now imagine that in a small
window on the 1024x1024 screen is the original AppleWorks GS,
still compatible, running hundreds of times faster.  Round
this off with an Apple announcer saying: "PowerGS.  The power
to be your best."

Microsoft wouldn't have stood a chance against Apple and the
GS clones at this point (and Apple would not be able to
control such clones: there were already independent clones
for the II such as Laser that legally and independently
cloned the II.  Laser won court case after court case proving
this point.  Totally unlike the lame licensing arrangement of
MacOS clones, where Apple in their unwiseness could pull the
plug).

-Scott G.