Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!rutgers!uwvax!gumby!bezanson From: bezanson@gumby.WISC.EDU (Brian Bezanson) Newsgroups: net.micro.apple Subject: Re: //x & //gs etc... Message-ID: <430@gumby.WISC.EDU> Date: Sat, 25-Oct-86 21:27:28 EST Article-I.D.: gumby.430 Posted: Sat Oct 25 21:27:28 1986 Date-Received: Sun, 26-Oct-86 04:09:54 EST References: <1754@drutx.UUCP> <822@ihlpf.UUCP> Organization: Manta Software Corporation Lines: 57 Summary: Do you really mean flops? In article <822@ihlpf.UUCP>, lyourk@ihlpf.UUCP (Loran N. Yourk) writes: > > Dan Vachon writes: > >production when it got tabled. I'm glad Apple finally came out with a computer > > that looks to be promising....Sure they have had some great computers... > > (Apple II/II+/IIe, The Mac, now the IIgs), but they have had a couple of flops > > at crucial times in the computer industry (i.e. IIc / Lisa / IIx > it>)... > > You forgot the the all powerful forgotten Apple III as one of the flops. > > > Later Days -=> Dan Vachon <=- > > Loran Yourk I can't agree with your listing the //c and Lisa as 'flops'. The //c was the backbone of the // line for the last year or so. A lot of home shoppers bought a complete //c system (//c,monitor,stand) for under $850. A comprable //e was over $1000. There is nothing wrong with the //c so long as you know what you are buying. A //c owner shouldn't worry about slots, hard disks, or those things that a //e is suited for. A //c is ideal for someone who only needs floppy storage (you still can add unidisks & a hard disk), power of the Apple // line, and portability. The bombs on the //c were that it came out during a depression in the industry, right after the Mac, and finally that some of it's companion products (LCD monitor and scribe printer) were the REAL FLOPS. I don't think the //c was or is a flop. The Apple /// was a flop because of bad quality in the early units that blacklisted it for life. It did flop. How could the '//x' flop if it never made it out. But if you look at the videocassette that goes with the GS promotion, the engineers talk about the GS as 'cortland', 'rambo', 'vegas', and '//x'. The original //x dies out, but the GS rose from //x ashes and is in part //x because of that. The Lisa I would not call a flop. I would call it unfortunate. It was and still is, Apple's most powerful micro. It has slots that Mac people have been yelling about. It also has true multi-tasking. It was UNFORTUNATE that is was originally proced at $10,000. When it was renamed the XL and put as the psuedo-head of the 32-bit line, everyone bought one up. During Apple's Lisa trade-in program, only a small percentage of Lisa's were sold. As a sales item, the lisa might have flopped, but wouldn't any micro with a $10,000 price-tag? On the Lisa/XL I will say I am biased, I am using one right now. I run mine in full Mac mode and use it exclusively for communications, word processing, and other 'business-like' things. I use my MacPlus for development. As surprising as it may seem, the Lisa is having a revival with 800K floppies now available, SCSI ports, 4 megs of RAM, new/modified MacWorks to allow HFS, and 68020 cards. Some of these products are available now, and the rest are due by the end of this year/first quarter '87. In summation, the only real flop was the Apple ///, it was doomed by initially bad hardware and other failures. The Lisa sold well (not great), but was plagued by a high price-tag. The //c's only flop was in it's peripherals (LCD flat-panel display and scribe printer). The computer has and is selling well. -- Brian Bezanson {seismo,ihnp4,allegra,topaz,harvard}!uwvax!gumby!bezanson Manta Software Corp. bezanson@gumby.wisc.edu