Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!ucsd!nosc!cod!rupp
From: rupp@cod.NOSC.MIL (William L. Rupp)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Apple VS IBM
Message-ID: <1392@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 8 Feb 89 20:24:28 GMT
References: <8901270656.AA01616@crash.cts.com> <6258@boulder.Colorado.EDU> <25073@apple.Apple.COM> <2312@uokmax.UUCP> <2804@m2-net.UUCP> <9592@smoke.BRL.MIL> <1389@cod.NOSC.MIL> <9615@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Reply-To: rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp)
Organization: Computer Sciences Corp., San Diego
Lines: 31

In article <9615@smoke.BRL.MIL> gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>) writes:
  >
  >I don't think you understand my complaint.  There are companies that
  >cater to the mass market and there are companies that cater to
  >specialized markets.  Apple, like DEC before them, changed from the
  >latter to the former.  It seems that success becomes the goal instead
  >of the result.  I could go on about this but I'll spare you; read "Zen
  >and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" instead.
  
With respect, I really think you are not seeing this siutation entirely
clearly.  The fact is that virtually the *entire* microcomputer industry
has stopped catering to the hobbyist market. You say "specialized
markets" vs mass markets, but even specialized markets these days are
quite large compared to the hobbyist market of ten years ago. Digital is
a good case in point.  You say they once served a specialized market.
Without trying to sort out the semantics of what a specialized market
is, I feel confident in saying that DEC never targeted the kind of
hobbyists that once were Apple's mainstay.

Anyway, as I have said before, let's encourage, cajole, wheedle, plead,
or do anything else we can to influence Apple Computer, Inc. to be more
forthcoming, but let's not kid ourselves by not realizing that cries of
"Apple is forgetting its roots" will fall, deservedly, on deaf ears in
Cupertino.

Bill

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This is the Gary Sloane Memorial disclaimer... it's all my doing, every
bit of it !!!!!!!!!!!
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