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Re: The apple 2, the PC, and the clones
Supertimer wrote:
What I am saying is that those other cheap computers sucked.
Of all the non-PC computers, only Apple could deliver productivity
software like AppleWorks, WordPerfect, SuperCalc 3a, and VIP
Professional. While the other computers were doing 32 and 40
columns and using TVs as monitors, the Apple II had 80 columns
Gee, it might help if you get the whole picture, first.
The Acorn Electron (and more so, the venerable BBC) and the C128 did
80x25 and resolutions of 640x200 and up, while being faster than the
Apple II (2 Mhz 6502 vs 1 MHz) as well.
And before you throw in the notsocheap IIGS - which I have and like as
well - remember the BBC Master, MSX 2 and the C128D.
you wanted it to capture a market not held by the PC, right?
No, but Apple had to keep the Mac expensive and so it was
Don't forget that the Mac entered the market as a cheap Lisa, which was
a whole bucketload more expensive ($10000 vs 2500) and don't forget the
original IBM PC wasn't exactly a cheapo computer either; it was the
clones that became cheap.
The home market did not get truly inundated with PCs until
the K6-2 was released by AMD. Even Maximum PC
magazine noted this. The K6-2 made sub-$1000 PCs not
The market was pc-saturated *way* before this. In the UK Amstrad's 8086
PC1512 broke cheapness records years beforehand. In my old magazines,
around 1988, non-pc's were already on their way out, given the coverage
they were getting (barely any).
The IIGS had tremendous potential to be this machine but
it was Apple that prevented it from being so. They kept
prices high, dropped advertisement, witheld support to third
Don't forget that at the time, the GS was already being rapidly
outdated. As a 65816 8/16 bitter, it was around 1987 already being left
behind by 16/32 bitters like the Amiga 500 and the ST, not to mention
the Acorn RISC machines.
Yes, Apple could've put more technology/development in. But that would
also mean keeping the price up, and competing with yourself, given the
Mac. It would probably have been better/easier to integrate the GS into
the Mac thru emulation, like the IIe card did, so that people could
upgrade easier.
Regards, Rudy