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From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn )
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Apple VS IBM
Message-ID: <9631@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 8 Feb 89 22:31:04 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> <1392@cod.NOSC.MIL>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn (VLD/VMB) <gwyn>)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 32

In article <1392@cod.NOSC.MIL> rupp@cod.nosc.mil.UUCP (William L. Rupp) writes:
>The fact is that virtually the *entire* microcomputer industry
>has stopped catering to the hobbyist market.

That's exactly what I'm complaining about!  They all ran after the mass
market bucks instead of "honest" money (exaggerating to make the point).
I'm sure there is adequate profit to be made in catering to more
specialized markets; in fact I help support quite a few companies that
do just that.  Such companies are typically "small", and that is fine;
sheer corporate size is not a value (often quite the contrary).
Unfortunately there aren't as many such companies as the market would
bear, while there are too many all competing for the mass market.

I think that's because this culture has evolved the notion that the
proper purpose of an organization is to "make money", as opposed to
being productive.  These are NOT the same thing.  The stock-market
system reinforces that notion; of course we're starting to see some
of the problems it causes, with hostile takeover specialists etc.

>I feel confident in saying that DEC never targeted the kind of
>hobbyists that once were Apple's mainstay.

No, they used to provide useful stuff for laboratory instrumentation.
That was downgraded to just their Marlboro LDP division, which I haven't
heard anything of lately (it may not even exist now).  The laboratory
instrumentation people are much worse served by DEC's "IBM is our
competition" mindset than they were by its former "lab applications are
our main customers" attitude.  I mention Digital because I got to watch
that transformation happen at first hand.

P.S.  Most of the Apple newsgroup readership probably isn't interested
in the philosophy of business, alas.