Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!ucsd!rutgers!apple!shebs
From: shebs@Apple.COM (Stanley Todd Shebs)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Re: replacing the desktop metaphor (Why any metaphor?)
Message-ID: <364@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 3 Jan 89 19:33:03 GMT
References: <850@mtfmi.att.com> <620015@hpsemc.HP.COM>
Organization: Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, CA
Lines: 24

In article <620015@hpsemc.HP.COM> mbk@hpsemc.HP.COM (Miles Kehoe) writes:
>People here on the net are the hard core computer people of the world.
>What we see every day is graphical interfaces, ideas of the future...
>the kinds of people who come up with ideas like Apple's 'Knowledge
>Navigator'.  But please, let's not forget the real paying customers
>and consumers of the world (yes, many of them *DO* have 2 digit IQs)
>who are the ones to buy any product any of us develop.

It's certainly true that there are many people who don't need the latest
and greatest technology.  Hey, there are plenty of 8-bit machines in the
world still performing quite adequately.  That's fine.  But as a result,
"average people" are mostly irrelevant to the "hard core computer people"; if
the "average person"'s needs are being met, then there's no reason to be
spending all that money on us over-educated professionals with flaky ideas.
Apple could stop all its R&D tomorrow and still make billions of dollars
selling Apple IIs and Macs.  We have to either decide that the "average
person" needs/wants more capability, or that we want to sell to non-"average
persons" (i.e. new markets).  I don't know exactly what the bigwigs here
intend (in fact I don't even know who the bigwigs are this week! :-) ),
but I still have a job, so presumably Apple has at least some interest in
advancing computer technology...

							stan shebs
							shebs@apple.com