Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!genbank!agate!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Is the Mac 512 still a semi-viable system?
Message-ID: <9298@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 15 Dec 89 09:48:33 GMT
References: <272@spot.wbst128.xerox.com> <9271@hoptoad.uucp> <285@fwi.uva.nl>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 40

In article <9271@hoptoad.uucp> tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney) writes:
>>Not so.  The Plus is the computer that made the Mac a going concern.
>>A large segment of the installed base is still Pluses, and it remains
>>a fairly strong seller.  No way Apple will be breaking it for at least
>>a few years.

In article <285@fwi.uva.nl> freek@fwi.uva.nl (Freek Wiedijk) writes:
>I know a way!  If Apple would produce a "Color Plus" it would replace
>the Plus in no time (I think).

No, not really.  You have to look at the characteristics of the
installed base; it's not going to roll over just because something
better is available.  An awful lot of universities have Mac clusters
made up primarily of Mac Pluses; they simply can't afford to spend the
millions of dollars to replace them.  Likewise, in corporations,
high-level and technical personnel do tend to get new machines as they
become available, but the old machines stay in the company, going to
new hires and to established low-level employees who didn't have a
computer at all previously.  The Mac Plus is here to stay, at least for
a few years -- probably at least four or five years.  And quite
possibly longer.

>It would have to be close to a Plus in
>price and functionality, just a 512 x 342 x 24 color screen (72 dpi)
>instead of the 512 x 342 black-and-white screen.  One thing I'm not
>sure of is: is it technologically feasible to put a color crt of this
>quality for this price in the case of Plus?

But it still isn't cheaper than keeping the old Plus!  It will never be
cheaper to buy a new computer than to keep an old one, unless the old
one is obsolete.

>Now, am I right or am I right?

Er, is this a trick question?
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"Genuinely skillful use of obscenities is uniformly absent on the Internet."
	-- Karl Kleinpaste on gnu.gcc