Re: Action needed or Apple becomes a looser!

[markvan@earthlink.net (Mark Van Nordstrand)]

Apple could do what they used to do best: Innovate.
They failed by trying to compete in other people's markets, like
business. They should have solidified their position in their own
market. They also depended on artificially inflated prices to survive,
by restricting sales to "authorized resellers". 

They already own a single-chip Apple II, right? It could be used to
build all kinds of special purpose devices that don't exist already.
Any general purpose computer they built would have to be completely
open, to be hackable for hobbiests. It would use common PC slots,
connectors, pinouts. Also USB. It would use flash-rom, which would
have both the operating system and common apps available all the time,
upgradable without expense. It would be easily openable, include
schematics, and include sockets for chips likely to fail, like I/O
chips and CPU. It would use regular DIMMs or SIMMs, maybe the 30-pin
type that's abundant. It wouldn't need 16mb, four would be plenty.
It could use PCMCIA cards instead of slots. It would be PlugNPlay. It
would include the best improvements of late, without the development
expense.

Specialty devices might include:

	A home appliance controller, graphically programmable, using IR
to control TV, stereo's, other computers, and X10 for appliances.
Using TV or LCD for display, with a trackball / screen buttons to
program. 

	A dedicated net machine. TV or LCD (color) display. Good
keyboard. Netscape in flash ROM, hard drive storage of pages / news /
email. First year's net access free with purchase. IR connection to
other APPLE II computers. Could include quickcam and Cuseeme for vid-
conf. and a VERY cheap ISDN adapter. Would also have one-chip ethernet
port for cable modems out soon. And cost <$600. 

	A dedicated video toaster kinda thing. 

	A dedicated music toaster. One that's portable, less technical,
records results, prints as sheet music on screen or paper. USB
keyboard port, IR connect to other apples.

	A black box for cars. Records events, even pictures around the
car. Gets owners off the hook for wrecks. Includes GPS receiver to fix
direction / speed. 2.5" hard drive, IR port to connect to other
Apples, LCD display on dash.

	A medical management tool for high-risk patients. Records pulse,
etc. Calls for help when events happen, maybe over cell phone. Lives
in fanny-pack. Maybe pager-sized. Downloadable on demand without
patient interaction. NurseMan?

	A robot. With arm, and wheels. IR connection to other devices.
Programmable with the New AII or it's own plug-in USB
keyboard/display. Flash ROM firmware, upgradable free. Support for
lots of add-on sensors, arms, treads, GPS, voice, vision modules.
Internet access when connected via IR, to allow remote control and
video feed back. This wouldn't be cheap, but it would be unique.
Support for several interacting (Huey Duey and Louie?).

	A robotic vacuum cleaner. Unplugs itself, runs a course, avoids
obstacles, goes home and plugs itself back in. Error messages via IR
to other apples. I see people paying $200 for regular vacs, I think
you could get $400 for this.

The idea is, if you can't sell one big computer well, sell lots of
small specialized ones that can interconnect. These are niche markets,
some will fizzle, but one might take off. Who would have expected the
Amiga to capture the video production community? Since Apple has
little to lose at this point, and already paid to develop the core
hardware / software, I think they should try it. I'm available if you
need a concept guy.
http://home.earthlink.net/~markvan