News from Apple

From: Benedict Chong <bluesky6_at_ix.netcom.com>
Date: Wed Jul 23 12:31:23 1997

On Wed, 16 Jul 1997 01:44:04 -0700 (PDT), Sam Ismail wrote:

%
%I think you're reading too much into this. Jobs wasn't against the
II.
%On the other hand, he WAS for the Mac. John Sculley killed the Apple
][.

Zap me if you have to, but I have never been fond of Apple the company
nor its products.

The Apple II was great for the first few years. After that, it was
over priced and under powered. They stuck with a 1MHz processor when
other people did a 2MHz one (e.g. BBC Micro). Hell, even Ohio
Scientific had 2MHz 6502 boards in the 1970s! Lots of people also had
4MHz Z80-based computers (which are faster than a 1MHz 6502 but not a
2MHz 6502).

When people like Commodore had better sound and graphics systems, the
Apple II was 'upgraded' to IIe and IIc which did not add anything much
to the basic machine.

I was not surprised when the Mac 128K was over priced and under
powered too. That had been Apple's strategy for the II : get as much
profit as possible for lousy hardware.

If they had stuck with the basic promise of a computer for the common
man (the initial marketing line for the Mac), they would have had a
better long term success. The Ataris and Amigas were incredibly
successful in Europe because they were cheaper than the Apple IIs at
that time.

Interestingly enough, a very old issue of Byte magazine mentioned that
Apple was in serious trouble in 1985. I can't remember the exact
details. If anyone's interested, I can look it up (read the article a
week ago while going on a nostalgia trip).

That apple is still in trouble (12 years later) does not surprise me
at all.

Just blowing off steam. Sorry if it's off topic.


Ben
Received on Wed Jul 23 1997 - 12:31:23 BST