Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!apple!agate!ucbvax!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL
From: SEWALL@UCONNVM.BITNET (Murph Sewall)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Slot Assignments
Message-ID: <8907221733.aa11694@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 22 Jul 89 22:16:01 GMT
References: <APTC1%MKVAX1@MSUS1>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 47

>Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't it rather out of the ordinary to have a
>hard drive back in the first Apple ][ (before the ][+, heck even when the
>][+ came out).  That was back when the good drives were those huge Winchester
>packs that held a whole 15 or 20 megs.  Now if my first premis is correct,
>why would apple build a computer (targeted as a home computer) with the idea
>of sticking a hard drive on it?

The *BEAUTY* of the Apple ][ design was it was developed on the notion that
all manner of here-to-fore unheard of devices might become available to be
added in the future.  Any student of innovation in 1979 would have *expected*
pocket sized hard disks with 100+ MByte capacities by (probably) the turn of
the century if not sooner.  Woz had the idea that an Apple owner might want
to stick almost *anything* into it.

Somebody (Steve Jobs?) forgot the elegance of the original concept while
designing the Macintosh (a processor capable of addressing 16 Mbytes of
RAM locked into a box designed for only 512K)

Even without the benefit of hindsight, it was clear that Apple's excuses
were 'dense.'

1. DRAM is too expensive (RAM costs had been falling like the proverbial
   stone for half a decade with no sign of let up; anyone with a shirt pocket
   calculator could predict when the price for an Mbyte or RAM would be
   below the cost of 100 Kbytes in 1980).

2. Color is too expensive (the Japanese had already started development
   on HDTV; color TV prices had been falling steadily since 1965!)

3. The 'mass market' didn't want "open architecture" (so howcome the
   Apple 2 wiped out earlier closed CP/M machines wholesale and continued
   to outsell less expensive competitors, such as the Commodore 64, which
   were not nearly as adaptable?).

Although Apple does appear to be learning something from the market place,
I read recently that Apple (the MBA's at Apple, not DTS I suspect) is
surprised at the sales strength of the IIcx (with 3-slots) compared to the
SE-30 (with only one slot).

Murph Sewall                       Vaporware? ---> [Gary Larson returns 1/1/90]
Prof. of Marketing     Sewall@UConnVM.BITNET
Business School        sewall%uconnvm.bitnet@mitvma.mit.edu          [INTERNET]
U of Connecticut       {psuvax1 or mcvax }!UCONNVM.BITNET!SEWALL     [UUCP]
           (203) 486-5246 [FAX] (203) 486-2489 [PHONE] 41 49N 72 15W [ICBM]

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            (subject to change without notice; void where prohibited)