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From: mckenzie@elaine29.stanford.edu (David McKenzie)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Some questions to APPLE
Message-ID: <1990Nov21.224701.22103@portia.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 21 Nov 90 22:47:01 GMT
References: <1990Nov15.182253.5628@portia.Stanford.EDU> <1990Nov16.040108.9863@phri.nyu.edu> <1990Nov18.110128.8081@world.std.com>
Sender: news@portia.Stanford.EDU (USENET News System)
Organization: Stanford University - AIR
Lines: 44

In article <1990Nov18.110128.8081@world.std.com> boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin) writes:
>roy@phri.nyu.edu (Roy Smith) writes:
>
>>mckenzie@elaine5.stanford.edu (David McKenzie) writes:
>>> They (and NeXT) are in business to make as much money as possible
>
>>	Folks, take that line from David's article I quoted above and print
>>it out in big type and paste it on your office/terminal-room/whatever wall,
>>right above where you read (and post) netnews.  The next time you are about
>>to post a "why does X do Y!" rant, re-read it, and think about it.
>
>I think few people would expect Apple to act like a charitable institution.
>The issue was the upgradeability of various Mac models.  Rightly or wrongly,
>Apple has been accused of arbitrarily limiting the expandability of some
>of its products (i.e. not providing upgrades that would be relatively easy
>to make available).  I submit that such behavior on the part of any for-
>profit company would not be moral, would represent a lack of respect for
>the customers thanks to whom the company enjoys such prosperity as it does,

I have a few comments: First, although the originator of this thread talked
about Mac upgradeability in part of their article, I was not responding
to this point - my post addressed the question of Mac prices vs. NeXT
prices. Second, I don't think that a corporation can be said to have morals,
good, bad or indifferent. Ethics, perhaps, but providing poor customer
support isn't a matter of ethics, but is instead just a management/policy
choice. (Probably a poor one in the long run, but that's another issue.)
If you don't like Apple's products or service, complain about them, or
refuse to buy them (in which case you should if possible tell the appropriate
person why you aren't willing to buy the product). Unless you have a contract
with Apple, they have no obligation to provide you with anything - customers
need to convince companies that it is in their best interest to provide
good service, lots of upgrade paths, or whatever.

[lots of stuff omitted]
 
>Sculley.  "The Market" is not this static thing, David, and your management
>is finally beginning to act on that assumption.

I don't have a 'management' - I'm just a lowly Stanford graduate student.
(I don't know where you got the idea that I work for Apple, although they'd
probably pay me more than I make now. 8-) 8-) )

David McKenzie
mckenzie@portia.stanford.edu