Re: 200 apple II clones confirmed

["Ernest" <x@xnoarchiveyes.com>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote

> Great site, Ernest!

Thank you, Mr. Mahon. I also agree with your ideas about why companies would 
clone the Basis 108. From what I was able to read between the lines, it 
appears that the Medfly might also have been a case of industrial espionage. 
Apparently, the company in China (I think) that built their motherboards was 
a bit dodgy, and the company thought it might be able to make money 
producing their own Basis (on the cheap) for local consumption. Somehow, a 
few of the Medflys escaped to Australia, where they were reviewed by a 
computer magazine. Basis got wind of this, and decided to form some sort of 
partnership. The alternative was to sue their production company and go to 
the trouble of finding a new producer, etc. Basis probably didn't have the 
money or time for that, so the partnership makes sense in a way. Some of 
this is clear in the letter, but other parts are conjecture -particularly 
the part about why Basis would work with a company that would rip them off. 
Its ironic considering that Basis was ripping off Apple.

E.