Re: Christmas 1984: The Great Apple//c vs. PCjr Battle

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

Roger Johnstone <rojaws@es.co.nz> wrote:

> History/Nostalgia alert:
> 
> There's an interesting item on Charles Eicher's site about selling home 
> computers during the 1984 Christmas shopping season.

You know, Consumer Reports did an article around this time
that compared several home computers including the PCjr
and the Apple IIc and you know what their conclusion was?
The Apple IIc was the better machine.  They pointed out the
bad video of the PCjr and the terrible "chicklet" keyboard
(as in the chewing gum that came in the little squares) and
the fact that it couldn't out of the box run many programs
of the full IBM PC.  Meanwhile the Apple IIc had a great
keyboard, a fast 5.25" drive (fastest of all the computers
compared in the article), a sharp 80 column display, and
it was actually MORE capable than the Apple IIe of the
day.  In fact, the Apple IIe later became "Enhanced" to
match the watershed features ushered in by the Apple IIc.