Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!aplcen!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!grian!alex
From: alex@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us (Alex Pournelle)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re^2: Low-Cost Macintosh
Message-ID: <1990Feb6.104107.11244@grian.cps.altadena.ca.us>
Date: 6 Feb 90 10:41:07 GMT
References: <126900165@p.cs.uiuc.edu> <25c8e25c.62bb@polyslo.CalPoly.EDU> <6192@ncar.ucar.edu> <20475@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Organization: Workman & Associates
Lines: 42


Uuuuh, guys, there aren't tens of millions of Mac Pluses and SEs.  Apple
ain't even close to Motorola's #1 customer for ANY chip, especially
the 8MHz ("Now!  In this box of cereal!  A free fully-functional, 32-bit
microprocessor!") 68000.  Try instrument controllers, or IBM.

A CMOS, plastic, 68K?  Why, for a piddling few hundred thousand sales?
Don't make me laugh.  Remember, this is the company that laid out the
68000 and 68010 BY HAND ON PAPER--flexibility and speed of design are
not the hallmarks of Motorola (a company I admire, anyway--I want my
Johnny space command wristwatch pager!); more of a few competitors, I'd
say.

The '030?  Hmph, Moto is their own best customer, according to the
trades.  Embedded applications lead the sales here, too.

Only Intel can sell enough 386sxes to make its market position as "the
queen of the PC" stick; their volume here is about ten times that of the
Mac, and climbing.

The man trying to push the 286 against the 386 has forgotten one key
point: there is MUCH software ALREADY which wants the '386 or 'sx, and
more all the time.  Unless you just want a fast XT, *DON'T* buy a 286.

BLITTER for the Mac: why didn't Apple just use ANOTHER 68000 in the Mac,
at nearly any time?  Can't get much more compatible than that!  But they
haven't in eight years, why now?  Instead, we got a huge project to
"purify" the code 'n' make QuickDraw work on an AMD29000--a laudable
goal for the high-end, but us poor Plus users are getting chillier all
the time.  It'd be dead simple, and $8.00 to add.

Yes, make the SE (or even Plus) cheaper, instead of a "Mac-junior".
It's not like the (very automated, highly admired)
factory can't turn them out for pennies!

Who knows?  Maybe the latest personnel shakeup, or other unpredictable
phenomena, will gain some market share for Apple.  I don't think the
Mac-/// will, unless they plan to sell it for well less than the ][c...

	Terminally disgusted by Apple's history,
		Alex