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From: mings@comix.cs.uoregon.edu (Ming Yau So)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Some questions to APPLE
Message-ID: <1990Nov15.044137.13223@cs.uoregon.edu>
Date: 15 Nov 90 04:41:37 GMT
Sender: mings@comix.cs.uoregon.edu (Ming Yau So)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac.misc
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of Oregon
Lines: 67

Did any of you out there have ever think of asking APPLE the following
questions ?

   1. Why did they make the IIsi so small so that only third-height
      internal harddisk could be used ?  I know someone (and probably
      APPLE, too) said that it is because APPLE want to lower the cost
      of IIsi, and a half/full-height harddisk needs a bigger power
      supply, which will raise the cost also.  I know this is true, but
      how much extra it cost to make a bigger case and use a bigger power
      supply ? $100 ? $200 ?  I guess it won't be more than $200.  But
      cares about that 200 dollars when your investment is about $3,000.
      And with that extra $200, you can buy a much bigger and cheaper
      harddisk to install it into the IIsi (the biggest third-height HD
      in the current market is ~80MB).
      So, APPLE, is this how you force people not to buy the cheaper IIsi,
      and go to buy the expensive IIci, if they want to put a bigger than
      80MB HD into the machine ?

   2. From the recent Mac vs NeXT war, we know that NeXT sells their '030
      and '040 workstation at about $3,000 to $4,000 (educational price),
      and this price already include a MegaPixel monitor, keyboard, mouse,
      HD, FDHD, bundled software, and _PostScript_.  So why do APPLE still
      sells the IIci cpu at about $4,000 and the IIfx cpu at about $6,000
      (with educational discount) ?  Remember that these prices does not
      include monitor, keyboard, bundled software except HyperCard), and
      PostScript; and given that the NeXTs has higher performance than the
      IIci and IIfx.
      So, APPLE, what's your pricing policy/scheme ?

   3. APPLE said that one reason why they decided not to put an expansion
      slot in the new MacClassic as they do in the SE is becuase they
      found that less than 10% of the SE have make use of the slot.  But
      why don't APPLE make the survey after they have officially released
      system 7.0 ?  Bare in mind that, if you want to take the advantages
      (TrueType, virtual memory) of 7.0, you must have a fast Mac, and
      have an MMU in the Mac, but since 7.0 hasn't officially released yet,
      all of the users, as well as the third-party hardware manufacturers,
      do not know if any accelerator card is compatible with 7.0 or not.
      It is very likely that many SE owner will make use of the
      expansion slot after 7.0 has officially released, not before,
      because they don't know which card should they buy.  Though we may
      upgrade the Classic just like we can upgrade the Plus, it is not as
      easy as upgrading an SE.
      So, APPLE, is this how you force your customers not to upgrade the
      cheaper Macs with third-party hardware and go to buy a more
      expensive Mac ?

   4. Why did APPLE cut the IIcx line ?  The IIcx is the only '030 Mac II
      which does not cause so many problems as the IIci and IIfx do,
      especially in software incompatiblilty.  Futhermore, it is the only
      not-so-expensive Mac II which gives you a lot of expandablilty: it
      has 3 NuBus slots, the IIsi only has 1 (optional), that means you
      cannot add an accelerator to the IIsi if you want to use it with a
      third-party monitor while it is possible on a IIcx and still 1 more
      NuBus left unused.  If APPLE could change the IIcx ROM to 512K (which
      is easy to do), I think more people will like it than the IIsi,
      though it might be a little more expensive than the IIsi.
      So, APPLE, is this how you force people who want a Mac II but does
      not have too much money to buy a new yet but not-so-good IIsi ?

   Any feedback is welcome, especially from APPLE (hear, APPLE ?).

___________________________________________________________________________
   Ming Yau So                         |       I only speak for myself.
   P.O.Box 3795 Eugene OR 97403        |              BECAUSE
   Internet: mings@cs.uoregon.edu      |       I only know what I think.
   American Online: Ming So            |___________________________________