Re: The IBM PC's slavish devotion to the Apple II

[mjmahon@aol.com (Michael J. Mahon)]

Roy wrote:

<snip very reasonable rebuttal>

>They [IBM] might 
>not have succeeded if the [Apple] /// wasn't such a disaster.

Very good point, although one cannot overestimate the huge
credibility that IBM had with large corporate accounts.  The
saying that "nobody ever got fired for buying IBM" was based
in fact.  This would have been a huge barrier for Apple to
overcome, even given the great success of Visicalc.

Ironically, the hippyish flair of Steve Jobs and the generally
"countercultural" image that worked so well for Apple in the
early days, worked against them in the halls of corporate
decision making.

And the almost laughable trip-ups embodied in the Apple ///
gave credence to the notion that Apple was a "one hit wonder",
unlikely to get businesslike and stay the course.

The Apple /// is an excellent example of how the maker of
a successful product can utterly fail to see _why_ their
product succeeded, and what is required to extend their
success.  It is also a great example of how easy success
breeds painful failure.  Genius, luck, and great timing don't
just roll off an assembly line.  ;-)

The Apple /// must go down as one of the finest examples
of the "second system syndrome", where creeping featurism
and overconfidence result in "hitting the wall at high speed".

Conversely, Apple was strong enough financially and in
corporate character to take the heat, learn from their mistake,
and come back with renewed dedication in a cutthroat market.
Even in the face of the market failure of their "third" system,
the Lisa, they (or at least Jobs) persevered and finally had
another hit with the Mac (although it took several years for
it to "ripen" into a machine truly capable of all that users
need, rather than a quirky "art" machine).

-michael

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