Re: Newbie Apple IIgs questions

[aaron@kitten.net.au (Aaron Howell)]

In article <1111097624.844400.100520@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>,
 <heuser.marcus@freenet.de> wrote:
>> And lastly.. Just a general question.  I used IIgs systems back in
>junior
>> high and didn't realize they were any better than a IIe because all
>we
>> were allowed to do was write programs in BASIC.  I was unaware of the
>
>> existence of GS/OS until a few days ago.  Knowing what I know now, at
>the
>> time the IIgs came out if your choices were a Macintosh SE or an
>Apple
>> IIgs, why would you pick the SE?  I mean, other than higher clock
>speed
>> it seems like the IIgs was a superior system.  Of course, I had an
>Amiga
>> back in Junior High and thought that Macs generally sucked back
>then..
>> but I like them now, but that is another story..   So the main thing
>is,
>> why did people choose the Mac?
>
>Can't say. Had an Amiga at the time ;)
>
Marketting, mostly.
Apple switched in 1984 to heavily promoting its Macs as the computer to own.
For several years after that, it allowed the a2 division to continue to produce machines, including the gs and the //c+,
but it never really promoted them. So what was pushed in the face of the consumer was the mac,
with computer stores saying, "oh, and we also have this 2gs..."
One of the things that also let the 2gs down was its lack of a hard disk as a standard peripheral,
vs the mac se which did have one.
Mostly though, it was just a case of a missed opportunity, Apple failed to promote the 2gs the way it should have,
and failed to maintain confidence amongst its users and developers that support would continue to be forthcoming.
There were already rumours of the demize of the apple 2 line as early as 1988,
even though the eventual final death didn't come until 1992/3.
Steven Weyhrich has an excellent essay which covers all of this in a lot more detail at http://apple2history.org
Regards
Aaron