Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pro-pac.cts.com!tsouth From: tsouth@pro-pac.cts.com (System Administrator) Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple Subject: Re: Why, why, why? Message-ID: <8903222336.AA13007@crash.cts.com> Date: 22 Mar 89 18:24:52 GMT Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Reply-To: pnet01!pro-simasd!pro-nsfmat!pro-pac!tsouth@nosc.mil Organization: The Internet Lines: 97 Re: > Date: 18 Mar 89 09:49:06 GMT > From: Jeff Erickson > Organization: Claris Corporation, Mountain View CA > Subject: Why, why, why? >> From jm7e+@ANDREW.CMU.EDU ("Jeremy G. Mereness"): >> I would hate to go to all that work and read something in MacWeek that >> Apple has canned the Apple //. I think that such a concern is reasonable, > When next week's MacWeek comes out, read it. If the rumors I've heard > recently around here are correct, it's going to generate a lot of heat > on comp.sys.apple. Just in case this supposed article does not make it to me in a timely fashion, I would appreciate someone reposting the message of doom, if in fact it does make it to MacWeek. >> My example of Softswitch was to demonstrate what could be done with the >> Apple //GS's hardware. [...] > There are no Andy Herzfelds for the GS, that's why. If Herzfeld hadn't > been around, the Mac might be in the same dump the GS is in now. > [Oh Lord. Look at the flames coming. Where'd I leave that asbestos suit?] Jeff, can you expand on this analogy -- then we'll talk about flames. :) >> I am under enormous pressure here at CMU to give the machine up, that it is > Because Apple doesn't push AppleII's at universities. The idea (and I've > Gee. Quite a self-fulfilling prophecy. The problem there, as I see it, is that hackers (in general) are a dying breed in the collegiate atmosphere. There are CS majors that I know who have no idea how to do anything outside what they have been taught, and I am talking about upwards of 75 people who I have been involved with in certain projects. More often than not, 'they' are amazed how much an un'learned' person, such as myself, can learn from simply being interested in what one is doing. People like Don Lancaster seem a dying breed in some parts, and quite frankly, the reason that the Apple II does survive is that some of the more ingenious people simply can't afford to by a Mac II with $2000 video cards. Jeremy is a classic example, IMHO. >> The Ensoniq chip is for >> the most part unexplored as a MIDI instrument. Why? > They don't want to get sued by the Beatles? (Oops! Too late!) ----[} Low blow, Jeff! >> I just want to know why, and then I will shut up. I cannot ignore these > Answer: $$$$ Apple IIs don't make enough money. $$$$ > I don't really care why. Internal politics, economics, Jean-louis Gassee's > horoscope, the failure of Woz's US festival, ANYTHING could be the reason. > >I'll< shut up when I see >results< from >Apple<. Sometimes, you just have to sit back and wonder about the humor one can find in a situation. Now, if I were some big conglomerate and I found that a new version of a product (not unlike the //gs :) sold over one billion dollars gross in 1987 I would do my very best to improve this product, look into who purchased the thing, and then make a better version and try to sell it to the target market, at the very least. In a way, the lack of _apparent_ initiative on the part of Apple is humurous. They make a machine that is kin to a mercy product in the eyes of the majority of the market analyst and then the thing goes on to outsell almost all other PC's in its class. Yet, because of the seemingly lack of support from the parent company the machine is dying in the software and third party industries. The only thing that I can figure out is that there must be one helluva number of Apple II loyalists left in the world. But, it is hard to believe that they are going to stay that way forever if the machine does not start coming up to at least average market specs. To my knowledge, there have been no nation wide sales of machines running at such a low speed in the last four years which can compare to the Apple //gs. You want sales (Apple)? Give us, the consumers, what we have been asking for, for almost the past three years, in this machine. > On the other hand, it may be too late. c)^K > -- > Jeff Erickson \ Internet: krazy@claris.com AppleLink: Erickson4 I'm really starting to like you, Jeff! :) Todd South -- UUCP: {nosc, uunet!cacilj, sdcsvax, hplabs!hp-sdd, sun.COM} ...!crash!pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-pac!tsouth ARPA: crash!pnet01!pro-nsfmat!pro-pac!tsouth@nosc.MIL INET: tsouth@pro-pac.CTS.COM - BITNET: pro-pac.UUCP!tsouth@PSUVAX1