Re: Why the Apple II was on the right track...

[shack@deimos.frii.com (Randy Shackelford)]

In article <5epsaq$ks6$1@scramble.lm.com>,
Matt Portune <mportune@telerama.lm.com> wrote:

[snip]

>        My intent wasn't to start an argument, and if you'll read my original 
>post closely, you'll realize I was only speaking about the Macs of that time 
>period.. NOT ALL MACS.  I was simply trying to say that if Apple had kept the 
>"invite the user inside" approach after the Apple II, they'd probably be a lot 
>better off today.  Yes, they have it now, but they didn't have it THEN, and 
>that's why a lot of II users (myself included) went the PC route.  THAT was my 
>point.

I don't really think it has a bearing. Keep in mind that the first Mac II, with
its easy opening top and six expansion slots, came out at the beginning of
'87. It wasn't until into the '90s that computers became prevalent enough for
the average Joe Blow to have one. Bad marketing on the part of Apple and
deceptive marketing from Microsuck brought us to where we are today. With a
press which for some reason is very hostile toward Apple thrown in which sure
isn't helping. Then there was the look and feel lawsuit which Apple should
have won, which would have made things very different now. Just think where
PCs would be market wise if Macs still had the only GUI available and PCs
only ran DOS with pretty colored characters instead of graphics.

Since I mentioned MS' deceptive marketing, I'll give an example. They have
an ad for Internet Exploder in the current Macworld trying to convince Net-
scape users to switch. One thing they say is Netscape doesn't have an uninstall
program. So? You drag the folder it's in to the trash and empty it and it's
gone. MS is the one who's in the habit of putting crap all over your system
folder when you install their stuff. I don't think they'll find Mac users so
gullible. I currently have a Microsoft free Mac and it'll stay that way.

The Macworld from a month or two ago had an article which defined techno-terms
in a tongue-in-cheek way. One of the best said to excel at technology but
fail at marketing is to do an Apple - the reverse is doing a Microsoft. I'll
go along with that.
-- 
Randy Shackelford                                 
shack@frii.com