Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!gatech!bloom-beacon!apple!claris!krazy
From: krazy@claris.com (Jeff Erickson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: MacWeek article (NOT a rumor!)
Message-ID: <9138@claris.com>
Date: 22 Mar 89 18:49:50 GMT
Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA
Lines: 83

Here is the prophesied MacWeek article.  Sorry I couldn't post this sooner.
_____________________________________________________________________________

FATE OF APPLE II HANGS IN BALANCE
by Elinor Craig

Cupertino, Calif. -- Apple's low-cost Mac project is stirring heated debate
about the fate of the Apple II line, fed by apparent indecision within
Apple aobut whether to continue development of the 12-year-old computer line
that launched the personal computer industry.

"We gauge Apple's commitment by talking to many people.  Apple speaks in
many tongues about this subject, so we have to test the current," says Kevin
Harvey, product line manager for Apple II software at Claris Corp. of
Mountain View, Calif.  "We don't think it has made a decision."

[NOTE:  Kevin was the president of StyleWare, Inc.  -- Jeff]

Some industry analysts, however, speculate that recent Apple decisions may
have sealed the fate of its long-time cash cow, although the line is expected
to remain on the market for at least another year.  "We are probably looking
at the last iteration of the Apple II technology," said Bob Lindstrom, editor
of A+ Magazine.

[NOTE:  A+ is now defunct, having been bought by inCider. -- Jeff]

Apple is expected to announce and enhanced IIGS at AppleFest in May, sources
close to the company said.  The Apple IIGS Plus is expected to offer an
enhanced user interface toolbox, among other features.

But when asked if there is still an Apple II development team, Mike Smith,
product manager for the Apple II, declined to comment.

Apple holds 65 percent of the K-12 market share, according to David Grady,
author of the Grady Report on Computers in Education.  The Apple II's share
of micro-computer software sales, however, dropped from 8.4 percent in 1987
to only 6.2 percent last year, according to the Spftware Publishers Associa-
tion, while the Mac's share rose from 10 percent to 11.7 percent.

Apple said it expects the Mac to jump to 23 percent of Apple's K-12 sales for
the coming fiscal year, according to Sue Talley, manager of K-12 solutions
at Apple.  "Apple has been stressing the use of the Mac in K-8, thus com-
pleting the serious aspects of the transition."

Developers are responding with increased emphasis on the Mac.

"We will not be putting the resources toward the Apple II that we will for
the Mac," said Stu Robertson, group marketing manager for Mediagenic [formerly
Activision --J.] of Menlo Park, Calif.  "Our Mac Products will sell three
times what we expect from our Apple II sales in our next fiscal year.  And for
the following fiscal year, Mac sales will be 15 times greater."

Apple faces two main tasks if it decides to stop development on the Apple II
line, according to Grady and Ken King, president of EduCom, and non-profit
computer consortium:

* Provide a low-end Mac to compete with makers of low-priced PC's, which are
making a cancerted effort to grab a larger share of the education market.

* Create an aggressive strategy to encourage third-party K-12 development on
the Mac.  In the past, Apple steered educational developers toward the Apple
II.

"Apple has indicated to us that, especially for the high school market, it
wants us to transfer our software over to the Mac," said Philip Miller, 
director of product development for Scholastic Software of New York.  "It is
clearly Apple's machine of choice."

The last serious issue for Apple is whether to build a bridge between the
two machines, allowing a Mac to run Apple II software, or make a break with
the past.

"Why would you want to port Apple II software to the Mac?  Who are you really
serving?" said Grady.  "Compatibility cannot be the main issue.  You will end
up paying too much for yesterday's technology."

[from _MacWeek_, 21 March 1989, Vol. 3 No. 12, pages 1 and 8]

-- 
Jeff Erickson     \  Internet: krazy@claris.com          AppleLink: Erickson4
Claris Corporation \      UUCP: {ames,apple,portal,sun,voder}!claris!krazy
415/960-2693        \________________________________________________________
____________________/        "I'm so heppy I'm mizzabil!" -- Krazy Kat