Re: Apple's ways

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Greg Buchner wrote:

>In article <20010831023531.10929.00000148@mb-mg.aol.com>,
> supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer) wrote:
>
>> Well, Motorola got to build Mac clones for about a year.
>> It actually did come out with CHRP computers as did
>> IBM (but IBM's never got to run MacOS).  Then Apple
>> panicked and called it quits.  It didn't want to share.
>> 
>> You have to wonder.  Mac users still actually think that
>> IBM was and continues to be hurt by clones.  In fact,
>> IBM's Aptivas (their current PCs) sell like never before.
>> It may be true that IBM has to share the market with
>> clones but thanks to clones, the market has expanded
>> many many times faster and that expansion has more
>> than made up for sharing the market.
>
>But you overlook that fact that this was killing Apple.  The Mac clone 
>companies weren't going after new markets, they were going right after 
>the Mac market.
>
>How many ads from Power Computing, Motorola and the other clones did you 
>see in computer magazines that weren't Mac related.  Not many if any at 
>all.
>
>IBM had a major advantage when it came to clones though...the letters I, 
>B and M.  No one ever got fired for buying IBM was how it went...
>
>If the Mac clone companies had siphoned off sales from the windows
>market, it would have been different.  But Apple couldn't compete
>as the big boy in the small marketshare that the Macs had and wasn't
>being expanded.

Yes, that't the problem with getting to the game in the fourth quarter
with less than a minute left on the clock...

Apple didn't understand in the early 90's--when they still had a chance
to capture what we now call "the Windows market"--that rapid platform
proliferation was the _only_ path to market share.  Their clone strategy
was too little too late.

-michael

 Email:  mjmahon@aol.com
 Home page:  http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/