Re: Apple IIx

[Rubywand <rubywand@swbell.net>]

Forrest writes ...
> 
> Rubywand wrote:
> 
> >As you say, the Apple II and its user base was still in good shape
> >in 1984. Even so, the II series certainly was not "hot".
> 
> In 1984 the II line sold 800,000 units, its best performance to that
> date and possibly ever; according to the February 1985 issue of
> Personal Computing it sold well enough to retake the top spot in
> market share that IBM had won for the first time the year before.
>

     The simple fact is that established II users were aware of being 'in the
doldrums' regarding hardware development. From the momement the PC arrived, we
were aware that, obviously, the keyboard should be detached. The Mac was in B&W;
but, anyone could see that the high-res mouse & windows interface was way ahead
of ours. And, some of the clone PC's were showing very nice text displays using
fonts and colors.

     You talk about 800,000 sales in 1984-- so what? How did this make our
machines faster or increase graphics resolution? Remember, with the possible
exception of double-hires, the Apple II series had not changed in any major way
since the II+. We still had the best game machine and plenty of new software;
but, we were acutely aware of falling ever farther behind the leading edge.


 
> >Apple had already committed its fatal bad business decision with
> >release of the first 68xxx-based Mac. Yes; it was a cute, clever
> >machine which sold well.
> 
> Not all that well:
> 
> "...the world around them was crumbling. Macintosh sales in September
> [1984] were less than two-thirds of the 30,000 projected; October
> sales were projected at 50,000 and came in below September's.
> In November, after the October sales figures came in, Steve walked
> into his regular Wednesday-afternoon staff meeting and cast a chill
> across the room. The usual cocky dynamism was gone; he looked like a
> man who'd been blind-sided by--fate, numbers, whatever.
> I've failed, he announced. What's the price I have to pay?
> What's the cost?"  [Frank Rose, _West of Eden_ p217]


     Of course, the problem with niche markets is they dry up. That Jobs was
gloomy about the drop in Mac sales is understandable-- at those prices and
profits, anyone would be.

     In fact, the //c was yet another reasonably successful product which proved
to be a disappointment. As with the Mac, the real disappointment was that the
great mass of current and potential users had no interest in closed-box,
non-expandable computers.

     Translation: Tricks are for kids; you're going to have to battle PC
head-on. No major computer maker, including IBM, wanted to face the prospect of
matching rapidly developing PC clone features and cutthroat pricing.



Rubywand