Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!usc!apple!chuq
From: chuq@Apple.COM (Chuq Von Rospach)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Re: HyperCard 2.0
Message-ID: <36738@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 22 Nov 89 23:22:59 GMT
References: <31728@watmath.waterloo.edu> <14078@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <36655@apple.Apple.COM> <1564@intercon.com>
Organization: Life is just a Fantasy novel played for keeps
Lines: 49

> - Products are not stable until they ship.

>   Getting advance information only helps you plan if it is accurate.

Definitely, for a lot of reasons.

Suppose, for example, the Apple announces HyperCard 2.0 and the feature-list
includes things like multiple stacks, multiple windows, full-screen usage,
sticky buttons, color, stereo sound, a MIDI driver, a toaster-oven
interface and intelligent software for controlling your Mr. Coffee (TM).
When you announce something, people expect it to happen; they also expect it
to happen when you tell them it will (people in the computer industry should
know better by now, but that's another issue).

Now we find out that the folks who were building the Mr. Coffee interface
were a little optimistic about their schedules, and Apple has a choice. They
can either slip Hypercard 2.0 nine months waiting for the Mr. Coffee
software or they can cut it from the release. Now, they're going to get
yelled at either by the people who want it *now* or the people who *have* to
have the Mr. Coffee interface. Again everyone loses.

Then, of course, there is the "Osborne syndrome", in which you pre-announce
the neat new product and it's *so* good everyone stops buying the current
product so they'll be ready when it ships -- the result being revenues head
towards zero and the product never ships at all, since the companie dies.

There is this tap-dance-in-a-mine-field companies have to do between
disemminating information about things that need to be made public and
shooting themselves in the foot by saying the wrong things at the wrong time. 

The bottom line is this: there's a difference between "want to know" and
"need to know" -- if you have a product that's going to depend on product
futures of some sort, then you should talk to Apple about a non-disclosure
and getting a futures briefing. They'll tell you what's going on if you can
convince them it's necessary and are willing to not blab it around. You can
usually get the information if you need it. But the place to get inforamtion
about unannounced stuff isn't USENET -- and if a product isn't announced,
thre's usually a good reason.

chuq (disclaimer: I've got no idea what's going on in the HyperCard world. I
do Unix. And it's doubtful they're doing a Mr. Coffee interface....)


-- 

Chuq Von Rospach   <+>    Editor,OtherRealms    <+>   Member SFWA/ASFA
chuq@apple.com   <+>   CI$: 73317,635   <+>   [This is myself speaking]

All it takes is one thorn to make you forget the dozens of roses on the bush.