Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!unix.cis.pitt.edu!mpmst1
From: mpmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (metlay)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Info on new low-end Mac
Summary: Apple reinvents the Mac...again *sigh*
Message-ID: <25979@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Date: 17 Jul 90 23:48:39 GMT
References: <46200101@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Reply-To: mpmst1@unix.cis.pitt.edu (metlay)
Organization: Atomic City Music, a division of MysTech Productions
Lines: 47

In article <46200101@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu> ragg0270@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu writes:
>Here's the scoop on the new low-end Mac (from McWeek mag.)
>Name: Mac Classic    (Apple paid $1M for the rights to the name)
>Drives:	1 1.44 Meg floppy
>ROM:    enhanced SE
>Price:  $1500
>40 Meg Hard Drive Model:  $2100

Oh, for crying out loud!

This is the most obscenely stupid move on the part of a computer company
I've had to swallow since, well, since IBM announced the PS/1. Who the
hell do these people think they are, anyway? They're offering the barest
smidgin of an improvement over the Mac Plus, and charging an arm and a leg
for it-- and this is supposed to be the "low end"?

Wake up, Commodore. If you're out there and you have any interest in cutting
their heart out and eating it, you should stop laughing yourselves sick
at this latest piece of narishkeit that Apple's committed, and start to
capitalize on it. You guys can't tell me that you couldn't bring to
market a low-LOW-end Amiga with capabilities exceeding the Mac's for less
than half the price. Getting a share of the Mac's APPEAL, though....

Seriously, though, let's think about this. What's the Mac got that the Amiga
doesn't? The Apple name and the megacorporate push behind it (and all of 
the third-party hangers-on as well), for starters. You aren't going to 
get that any time soon, so keep looking. An all-in-one construction with
a small footprint, for people who want to save space more than they want
to add slots. That's perfectly feasible for a machine like the 500, with
a little thought. Hell, go them (and Atari) one better and make a laptop 
version. It's a sad statement that the STacy is the most cost-effective
laptop going right now.... 

I envision a new case for the 500P that contains a built-in monitor, and
a keyboard with the option of a trackball module attached to the left or
right side for those who don't have room for mice, all in a smaller
footprint than the old-style 500 has (considering the monitor). Make
it simple to set up and simple to use, and offer it for half the cost of
a Mac, and MARKET IT AS SUCH. Am I dreaming the impossible dream? I don't
believe so, but if I am, I stand ready to be corrected. Apple's inertia 
won't let them shift gears away from producing the Mac Classic for a while;
I'd like to see that time used in a profitable way by CBM to get a Real
Mac Buster out where the public can see it.
-- 
metlay			| MYSTECH, P.O.Box 81175, Pittsburgh PA 15217-0675.
			| Home of Beamline Records, Atomic City Music, and
metlay@vms.cis.pitt.edu	| the Oberheim Xpander Users' Group. Write for data.