Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utcsrgv.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcsrgv!info-mac From: info-mac@utcsrgv.UUCP (info-mac) Newsgroups: ont.micro.mac Subject: price Message-ID: <4285@utcsrgv.UUCP> Date: Tue, 15-May-84 10:54:32 EDT Article-I.D.: utcsrgv.4285 Posted: Tue May 15 10:54:32 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 15-May-84 11:38:54 EDT Sender: peterr@utcsrgv.UUCP Organization: CSRG, University of Toronto Lines: 49 Date: Mon 14 May 84 10:09:50-PDT From: Chad Leland Mitchell Subject: price To: info-mac@SUMEX-AIM.ARPA Individually, a few of Jerry's points make some sense, but taken together I am not sure. For example: -Apple may be going for market share. I am sure that they are based on advertizing strategies, but we will not really know as long as they can sell every Mac they can make at the current price. If they drop the price as production catches up to sales THEN we will know they are going for market share. Until then we do not know. -To be useful by Jerry's definition, a Mac needs a second drive and a printer which does not bring the price to $4000. First he complained that the second drive was not available. Is he now complaining that it is available? -Jerry's main concern about software is that there is not enough software right now. I cannot understand how changing the certified developer program would help with that. If Apple approved everyone who applied from here on they would still contribute little software until soemtime next year. -If I see a BYTE article which says that there are only 7 or 9 (or however many there are right now) software packages currently available for the Mac, I hope it also reads "(as of May 7)" or something like that. The "Update" on the Macintosh and Lisa 2 in the current BYTE seems to have been written right after the January 24th meeting. With such a lag time, any claim to little software is likely to be very out of date. -I am not too worried that no software will arrive. I might be if it were all still in design or development phases, but much of it is in Beta test and very little that makes it to beta test does not really ship. -We all want the software to be well tested and really custimized to take advantage of the Mac. We complain about the MS-Basic which seems to be a quick port. We also want all of that software right now. I would rather wait till June for well tested software than get something now that works as well as some of the early software on some other machines. The ONLY editor that I am aware of for the IBM-PC when it was announced was EDLIN which as you might guess is a line editor. I do have a possible correction to make. Rumors still seem to indicate that in the early days of the Certified Developer program there was a 90% acceptance rate. When they reached about 1000 certified developers (far more than anticipated) they seem to have decided to change that acceptance rate significantly (this is just a rumor to me, but others seem to support this). Perhaps when their staff figures out how to support the volume of developers already accepted they will change the acceptance rate again. Thus I stand corrected. Back when they told me that anyone with the right qualifications would be accepted that was true, but it may no longer be true. Chad -------