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From: tmaster@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Master)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Subject: Re: Apple ///
Message-ID: <8573@darkstar.ucsc.edu>
Date: 6 Nov 90 09:58:52 GMT
References: <0B88F2251FFF80AE0F@snybufva.bitnet>
Sender: usenet@darkstar.ucsc.edu
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz; Open Access Computing
Lines: 53


In article <0B88F2251FFF80AE0F@snybufva.bitnet> NOWAKO09@SNYBUFVA.BITNET (APPLE //GS - THE POWER TO BE YOUR BEST) writes:
>
>        Why did Apple kill off the ///? It seemed like an enhanced //e
>before the //e existed. Was there marketing troubles? Backlog? This was
>before the Mac so it had no internal competition (not he ][ 'cause it could
>be considered to have evolved from the ][ line). It sounds like it was a
>respectable machine for the day.
>        BTW whats the differance between a Lisa and a low end Mac? I've been
>seeing ads for reconditioned Lisa's and was wondering....
>                                                        - Joe Nowakowski
>                                                        - Nowako09@snybufva

 There were a few problems..

 1) It had early reliability problems because apple used cheap sockets for
the chips, so the chips became disconnected through thermal expansion/
contraction.

 2) There was not alot of initialy software released for it.  The hoped
for market was business, but with not alot of software, not many places
bought them.

 3) It was fairly expensive.  I believe at the time it came out, you were
looking at around $5000 (this included a 5 meg profile I believe.).

 The //e also came out a little while afterwards, putting many of the
new features of the /// (80 col, lowercase, more memory) in that computer.
The //e was cheaper however, and with the fact that there wasn't much software
for the /// that was for the //, that started eroding it probably.

 I remember some old apple adds in Solftalk and such where they had an
apple /// displayed and next to it was a //e.

 3-EZ Pieces (appleworks for the apple ///) was an attempt to revive it also
(could use same files on a /// and //e).  Apple did release a ///+.  The
main things it added was a //e type keyboard (normal apple /// keyboard
has no direct delete key, but by pressing control \ (or is it control |)
a delete code can be generated on the old apple ///.  The ///+ also
included the clock chip and interlaced graphics/text (a switch on the
side could turn this on/off.).  It might have also included 256k ram
standard.

 All of these additions were available for a normal apple /// however.  The
clock chip is pretty much a doit it yourself job, the interlace (I believe)
is largely a rom upgrade for the video rom.  The keyboard is getting a new
keyboard.  Apple ///'s are uncommon, apple ///+'s are downright rare (I don't
think I have ever seend a ///+ personally.  Not including the ///'s I own
I have probably seen about half a dozen other ///'s around however (a few
for sale at swap meets and so forth..)

	The Master
	tmaster@ucscb.ucsc.edu