Re: How Apple beat IBM in Steve Jobs' first retail war (Apple //c vs IBM PCjr)

[Michael J. Mahon <mjmahon@aol.com>]

Kevin Dady <kevin@hackaday.com> wrote:
> On Nov 27, 7:48 pm, Michael J. Mahon <mjma...@aol.com> wrote:
>> Kevin Dady <ke...@hackaday.com> wrote:
>>> On Nov 27, 2:21 pm, Greg Buchner <n...@none.invalid> wrote:
>>>> This was a good read about Christmas 1984 sales:
>> 
>>>>> <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/25/charles_eicher_christmas_1984/>
>> 
>>>> Greg B.
>> 
>>>> --
>>>> Actual e-mail address is gregbuchner and I'm located at gmail.com
>> 
>>> yea I read that as apple defeated a computer that was already a total
>>> stinker and had nothing but bad press at the time while trying to come
>>> back for a second round, its not quite as glorious when said that way
>>> =)
>> 
>> But one should recall that most of the purchasers were not into computers
>> or the trade press, so they saw the two machines as toe-to-toe competitors
>> for their gift-giving dollars.
>> 
>> I think the story makes a valid point quite dramatically.
>> 
>> -michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II:http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon
> 
> apples / oranges, these uninformed consumers were not the mindless
> sheep that it seems they were, that is how we were an apple family,
> about this time is when my dad wanted a computer for his business and
> wanted something for me to do educational type stuff on, he must have
> spent months reading crap before even setting foot in the stores. Due
> to how much praise he had read in the local ham community a TRS was in
> the future, an IBM PC for the serious biz applications but at the end
> of the day it was an Apple IIe due to its mix of serious apps, and
> educational titles from years of software and decent support ...+ a
> little talking up from a buddy or two.
> 
> But even before looking he was scoffing the PC Jr. as it "did not run
> PC software" (semi half truth but mostly correct), he was not "in to
> computers" nor reading trade press, just a guy making a shopping
> decision, and never saw the PC Jr. as something toe-to-toe to really
> anything.
> 
> 2 cents, take it for what its worth

Read the article again. It's quite clear that the sales rates were
determined, not by the capabilities or quality of the computers, but almost
solely by whether it was running an interactive demo. 

Your dad was unusual in the Christmas season of 1984. 

-michael - NadaNet 3.1 and AppleCrate II: http://home.comcast.net/~mjmahon