Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pro-houston.cts.com!jabernathy From: jabernathy@pro-houston.cts.com (Joe Abernathy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Apple's committment to the // line Message-ID: <8910261319.AA18962@trout.nosc.mil> Date: 26 Oct 89 09:19:55 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Organization: The Internet Lines: 39 Network Comment: to #1415 by gem.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!nyser!rodan!djhill@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Doug Hill writes: > Joe, you've got to be kidding! Not kidding, but perhaps exercising the debate a bit. Yes, I agree Apple does a fine job innovating and keeping good new things coming our way. GS/OS version 5.0 is a landmark upgrade, for the cost of a blank disk. Kudos to Apple. But is cutting edge where the Apple II needs to be? Arguably not. If you want cutting edge, the Apple II just isn't equipped to offer it. The point of my diatribe was that the Apple II IS equipped to offer other things, most notably serviceability at a low price, with a broad existing user base. If Apple wanted to do so, they could make this platform the de facto standard of American life. And I even think that selling $500, low-end Apple IIs, they could still afford to provide reasonable R&D ... the computer were sold into an audience perhaps 10 or 20 times as large as the audience that now can afford it. Don't forget: The average Apple II buyer has an income of over $50,000, and lots of folks aren't in that neighborhood. > IBM has good old stodgy corporate management, and look what it's done > for them. Yeah, look. Who entered the market late, but created the industry standard based on technology quite inferior to what should have been by that time an existing Apple standard. Say what you will, but something went awry in Cupertino. The only good news is that things have been awfully encouraging over the last year. Joe Abernathy UUCP: crash!pro-houston!jabernathy ARPA: crash!pro-houston!jabernathy@nosc.mil INET: jabernathy@pro-houston.cts.com