Re: GenieLamp editorial

[Jim Royal <jimr@eicon.com>]

wily@svpal.svpal.org (Paul Creager) wrote:

> My point was that Apple is losing marketshare every day.  This cannot 
> continue forever.  I'm talking percentage here.  There will be people 
> using Macs for years to come, just as we use our II's.  But the numbers 
> of PC units far outweighs the number of Mac units.  More so than ever.

[SNIP]

Apple has appeared to wake up to the fact that the Mac will never
beat Windows as platform of choice.  This is not because of any
failure on Apple's part, but simply because market forces dictate
that the public continue to make what they perceive to be "safe"
choices.

Apple has recently decided to focus on those areas where the Mac 
*does* have a market share advantage (graphics, video, animation,
dektop publishing).  By growing those areas, Apple's total market 
share will increase.

I, too, was dissapointed with Apple's handling of the Apple II's
phase-out.  I think a trade-in policy would have done wonders for 
their public image.  I still use my eleven year-old IIc to this day,
alongside my Mac.

> Oh and BTW, Xerox started what the Mac made popular, as I'm sure you 
> know.  Apple refined it and made it commercial.  As the Mac OS is now 
> approaching version 8, and Win95 is playing catch-up, I think the whole 
> concept is aging.  GUI I mean.  The next step in operating systems should 
> be radically different.  Interacting with the computer needs to become 
> simpler still.

The next step in operating systems will soon hit the market. The 
developer's beta version of OpenDoc was released recently.  OpenDoc
will radically change the way people relate to machines.  Imagine
a computer with only one application, whose "parts" (the text editor,
the paint brush, the sound editor, the video edtior, the comm tool) 
all come from different vendors.  If you don't like one company's
tool, buy another and plug it in.  Build your own custom application.
And only *one* file type to worry about.

In fact, it sound a lot like having AppleWorks 5.0 built into your OS!

======================================================================
Jim Royal                   jroyal@eworld.com        "No, I don't have
Technical Communicator       jimr@eicon.com              a home page!"
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