Re: A Tale of Two Apples

[spec@vax2.concordia.ca (Mitchell Spector)]

In article "Paul Pietromonaco" <paulp@wrq.NoSpam.com> writes...

>P.S.  FYI - The Apple IIgs never competed against the Mac Plus.

    Not directly, considering it was mostly seen as either one of the
following two things: At worst, a fancy Apple IIe with ports and more
colors; or at best, a VERY SLOW color version of the Macintosh.

    Many were tempted by a color Mac-like computer being offered by
Apple Computer at the time, but the high price tag scared most away.
I believe the Apple IIgs was released as competition towards the
Commodore and Atari's Amiga and Atari ST machines. It was plainly
obviously Apple did _not_ want it competing against their own Mac
line, and measures were made to keep them separate (i.e. crippling
the Apple IIgs in many ways).

>The Mac Plus was out *long* before the Apple IIgs.

    Not really. The Macintosh Plus was introduced January 1986, the
Apple IIgs September 1986 (there is an 8 month gap between the two).

>What killed the Apple IIgs was the Mac SE, which was in the same price
>range (i.e. ~$2500.00 equipped like a IIgs, but the Mac SE had a hard disc)
>or if you wanted color and were willing to spend more, the Macintosh II.

    What killed the Apple IIgs was _Apple Computer_. Other than the fact
that the Macintosh SE had a higher vertical screen resolution and more
powerful 68000 processor (although not necessarily much faster in terms
of noticable speed) the SE was inferior to the Apple IIgs. As for the
Macintosh II, with a price tag near $10k, it was well out of any average
person's price range (making the IIgs a slow, poor-man's Macintosh II).

    It was absolutely disgusting that Apple was shipping the GS with just
256K of memory for the first 2 years the machine was out! Out of the box
the computer could not run any of the GS-specific software titles out
there, this was plain stupidity (it would be like selling a car without
a gas-tank and engine, later informing the customer they'd have to buy
that as an extra option when they discovered the car won't run!). It was
not until late 1989 that the GS shipped with a full 1 MB of memory out
of the box, pretty much towards the end of its life span (and by that
time most applications were demanding 2 MB or more).

    Another annoyance was the lack of a built-in SCSI port. The Macintosh
Plus had one from the beginning, the Macintosh SE even allowed you to add
a hardrive internally. In order to make a IIgs usable, as most here know,
that has always required a hardrive. Why did Apple not ever add that?
Or why was the 'Video Graphic Controller' chip never updated to support
a 400 vertical resolution mode, or more than 16 colors per scanline? Or
why was the Ensoniq chip given only half its usable memory capability or
no built-in stereo-out/sound-in connector on back? Where were the faster
65C816 chips in the machine?

    Leaving these things purposely out made it clear Apple was not serious
about the Apple IIgs, and if you wanted a "serious" product you had to buy
their Macintosh. The Apple IIgs was just there if you wanted an Apple made
product (as opposed to Commodore/Atari solutions) for school, home or hobby.

>Against both of these machines, with Apple not even informing the dealers
>that hard disc solutions were available for the Apple IIgs, or that they
>could be expanded beyond 1.25 Meg with 3rd party boards, the Apple IIgs
>didn't stand a chance.  The dealers made the IIgs look like a toy - and
>that was because they didn't know any better because Apple wasn't telling
them.

    Yep, yet another digusting thing Apple did. Despite the fact the IIgs
outsold all other computers Apple was selling (including the Macintosh)
they decided to completely cut all its marketing and advertising. Suddenly
it had become too popular and threaten Macintosh sales (actually it did
more than that, it beat Mac sales). Apple's solution was to just an hide
the fact it existed from the public eye, keep its price tag very high
(higher than a fully equipped Mac setup) and sit on its growth. It was
never discontinued as it remained an excellent cash-cow, at least for a
couple of years.

    There was one point Apple actually went around telling companies to
stop producing Apple IIgs software back in 1990 (one of the reasons so
many titles were never completed and sat in limbo). When the Apple it-
self refused to support the machine, drop its price or enhance its
features, many software companies didn't even need to be told to stop.
There was lots of potential in the machine, but how wanted to spend
several thousand dollars for a bare-bones computer, then spend several
thousands more to buy 3rd party solutions to put in what Apple LEFT OUT.
And after all that, find out software companies were dropping support
because Apple didn't want to back the machine? Once again, it was Apple
that killed the machine. Not piracy, not the Mac (not directly anyhow)
and not other reasons people out there may believe. I really don't think
there was ever any other computer more negelected by a company than the
Apple IIgs (the Amiga would be my second choice, but at least Commodore
kept the price competitive and updated the hardware). Its really sad
when you think about it, and Apple hasn't really changed its ways.

Mitchell Spector
spec@vax2.concordia.ca