Re: New Apple II (was Apple's next move ...)

[jamess@cts.com (Jim Stafford)]

RUBYWAND (rubywand@aol.com) wrote:

: In article <4m3u9g$ae0@news3.cts.com>, jamess@cts.com (Jim Stafford)
: writes:

: >
: >:      What prices are quoted for a 2GB hard disk (IDE and SCSI)?
: >
: >:      What prices are quoted for an x8 CD-ROM (IDE and SCSI)? 
: >
: >I personally don't care about x8 CD-ROM drives. I'm waiting for DVD to 
: >come out and I think that my x4 CD is fine until then. I do admit that 
: >IDE is about 10% cheaper. You seem to miss the point. I already have a 
: >CD-ROM and harddrives that are scsi. If someone came out with an upgrade 
: >to the GS and it didn't come with scsi it wouldn't do me any good. I do 
: >know that in our magazine that they have 1.06 gig hard drive scsi and ide

: >that are the same price. ....
: >

:      One notices that the above response is bereft of specific price
: quotations for x8 CD-ROM and 2GB hard disk. One is also well aware of the
: explanation.

:      If you really want to, we can analyze the magazine's advertised price
: for 1.06GB IDE/SCSI hard disks. In Houston, 1.08GB IDE hard disks sell for
: $182.95. 2.1GB IDE hard disks are at $288.95. Buyers who don't care about
: the 'best deal' can go to any of several shops and get 1GB for less than
: $200 and 2GB for less than $300.

:      As you might guess, 1GB units are pretty much considered "distressed"
: merchandise. A buyer would have to be pretty dopey to settle for anything
: less than 2GB. In a few months, 1GB IDE units will drop below $150 and out
: of many listings-- too small and too cheap to mess with.  (Hmmm, 16MB RAM
: is down below $180; maybe we should just plan on shipping GS-X with 32MB.)



:      Look, it's all very well to be pro-SCSI, pro-Firefly, or whatever.
: The hard truth is that GS-X has to come in at a sane price against some
: very tough PC competition.

:      In order for GS-X to impact the home market and force support by
: major software vendors it must _sell_. It must attract Apple II users who
: are thinking about jumping ship for a cheapo Pentium PC. It must attract
: non-II newbies; and, it must win over some current PC home users.

:      All of which means that GS-X must be delivered as a complete system
: including hard disk and CD-ROM.

:      Dose anyone seriously believe that even 5% of potential buyers care
: that SCSI may be a bit nicer than IDE?

:      With E-IDE, the _total cost_  of including x8 - x12 CD-ROM and 2-4GB
: hard disk will come to less than $450. How many II and IIgs users have
: SCSI peripherals worth adding to GS-X?


:  
: >How much you want to bet that the first DVD drives that come out are 
: >scsi?(remeber that I'm poor) ;)
: >

:      Good try! The first DVD's may come in SCSI, possibly because they
: will be grossly expensive and aimed at slurping high profits from SCSI
: users. Like write-able CD's and similar wonders, there will be no
: penetration of the home market and no significant vendor support until
: price cracks the $400 barrier. By that time, DVD will be tied to either a
: brand new, high-performance plug-in interface or E-IDE.

:      Either way, DVD will be available to GS-X owners.


: Rubywand

O.K. check this out. What is probably the biggest customer base to 
support a new GS. Schools? Now if someone did come out with a 
*motherboard* upgrade for the GS that was compatable with *all* the 
devices that one already owns it would be a lot less costly to upgrade. 
The kids could put the motherboards in to tower or desk top cases plug in 
the hard drives and there ready to go. The kids get hands on experience 
and the fun of building the computers in their lab, the school saves a lot 
of money.

How much do you think a motherboard with a super smart port (able to use 
1.4 3.5 drives), on bord parallel port, super high speed serial ports and 
scsi would cost? Maybe around $500.00? Now compare it to a system that 
comes with x8 CD and everything esle. The other poeple are right that 
high a price you might as well buy a PPC or Pentium.

Add svga graphics to the above mb. (almost forgot).

Anyway the bottom line is if a new GS came out that wasn't compatable 
with the devices I have I wouldn't be interested and probably 1000's of 
other GS, Apple II users probably wouldn't either.

Compatability is the key to the success of a new GS.

Last I'm gonna say about it. You do what you want. Good luck.

keep on computin'

jamess