Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pro-sol.cts.com!lbotez
From: lbotez@pro-sol.cts.com (Lynda Botez)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Comments from Michael Spindler (Apple COO)
Message-ID: <17918.apple.net@pro-sol>
Date: 22 Mar 90 05:47:45 GMT
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Organization: The Internet
Lines: 44

In-Reply-To: message from unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU

>Spindler also said the future of the low-priced but technologically outdated
>Apple II line is being reconsidered.  In the past, the company said that it
>would not discontinue the line.  "Actually, we're trying to figure out what
>to do with it over the long term," he said.

What a vision!  [note sarcasm here...]  Here's the President of a major
computer corporation, admitting in public that he doesn't know what to do with
it's older, but considerably profitable, product line.  Makes me feel good.
[more sarcasm].  Boy, I'd sure like to be some school executive that was just
about to lay down thousands of dollars for a few hundred computers.

An article in Newsweek this week also mentions the Apple II; using similar
unattractive metaphors.  "Apple is also in troublein one of its oldest
markets, education.  The Apple II, the standard machine for elementary and
high schools, is now more than a decade old and effectively obsolete; the
cheapest Macintosh, because it isn't color, won't really substitute.  Seeing
an opening, Tandy and IBM are pushing hard to seize the kiddie business. 
Macintosh remains hot on college campuses, although the recent portable
version has been criticized for being bulky, overweight and late to market.
New COO Spindler is dedicated to the education market and is expected to make
rapid changes."

I love the way these journalists refer to my computer...  "effectively
obsolete"... "technologically outdated"...  etc. etc.   DAMN.  I have a
computer that's not even FOUR years old!  [Yeah, sure... it's backwards
compatible with the older II's...  but I don't consider it ancient, obsolete,
etc. etc.).  

I honestly think these guys are thinking of 8-bit machines; and probably never
even came close to (or have been in contact with) and Apple IIGS.

I don't hear them commenting about the "ancient" MS-DOS machines.  Schools
that buy IBMs or compatibles aren't buying $4000 machines; they're buying the
old stuff.  Why?  Because it's cheap.

I still can't see how Apple thinks schools are going to go "Mac" in a big way.
First of all, programming on a Mac is a nightmare.  One reason high schools
have computers in the first place is to teach students *HOW* to program.  With
Macs, you teach 'em how to be a user, not how to program.  Macs could be great
file servers, but Apple II's or IBMs are better for learning programming.

Lynda