Re: ANN: Retiring from A2 world - Good Bye All!

["Tom Zuchowski" <tzuchow@attglobal.net>]

Uh, you seem to be disregarding the fact that the Apple II+ was the original
"business machine" and was very, very successful in that role. Apple created
the Apple /// as their successor business machine, and it failed because of
some VERY stupid cost-cutting decisions made in its manufacture that
poisoned pubic opinion.

Meanwhile, the Mac was largely a toy for years until the SE30 finally hit
the streets. Even then, it was a poor excuse for a "business machine" and no
competition for the PC. And let's not forget that IBM was well on its way to
market dominance by the time the first pitiful Mac128 hit the street.

It wasn't that Apple was unable to penetrate the business market. Rather, it
was Apple's breathtaking arrogance (and yes, the Mac figures prominently in
that equation) that let the business market get away from them after they
had once pretty much owned it. The Apple /// was a vastly superior machine
in every way to the early PC.

As for the Apple IIgs, more than 90% of the GS's in schools were used as
ProDOS machines, as "fast IIe's." That would in part explain why the IIe
outlived the GS in Apple's education-only catalog.

Tom Zuchowski

"chippy" <apnemh@earthlink.net.invalid> wrote in message
apnemh-51BAA5.11141814062002@nnrp01.earthlink.net">news:apnemh-51BAA5.11141814062002@nnrp01.earthlink.net...
> In article <1fdr9qs.mshviub5c020N%swmarks@telepak.net>,
>  swmarks@telepak.net (Stan Marks) wrote:
>
> > It has always been my impression that the IIgs was offered up to Apple
> > II users as a "peace offering", of sorts, for not having made the
> > Macintosh compatible with the Apple II platform. Unfortunately, for
> > Apple (and us?), it was too little too late.
>
> Well, I think your impression is just a pregnent chad :) The majority of
> the market for the Apple II, and I have seen figures as high as 80% of
> the market, was schools. A million hobby users would still be just a
> small percentage of the overall Apple II sales (and I doubt there were
> ever a million hobby users). The Macintosh was conceived as a business
> machine that was intended to replace the IBM PC in offices, not replace
> the Apple II (which was in schools). When Apple was unable to penetrate
> the business scene (and as a consultant during those times, I can tell
> you that the lack of cursor keys kept more Mac's off of secretaries and
> accountants desks than anything else about the Mac) Apple tried to push
> Macintoshes into it's base, the schools.
>
> The IIgs was intended to be a migration path to the Macintosh for
> schools, since it allowed them to keep their significant investment in
> software while introducing the interface and functionality of the Mac.
> Major 3rd party developers began to curtail Apple II development by 1987
> and by 1989 only had a token presence as most of the significant IIgs
> software developed after 1989 was from small or medium sized publishers.
> The three big fish (in my opinion) in that small pond being The Byte
> Works, Vitesse and Seven Hills Software.
>
> That doesn't discount the fact that some businesses bought IIgs' and
> many, many hobbiests did too. However, by 1986 Sculley had already
> decided that the Apple II line was history and the direction Apple chose
> was to attempt to migrate the schools via the IIgs. Apple's own
> engineers may have had other ideas but Apple's business plan was set,
> even in 1986.
>
> Regards,
> Chippy