On Sun, Apr 15, 2001 at 12:12:54PM -0500, Jeffrey S. Sharp (jss_at_ou.edu) wrote:
> I have recently found an Apple II that is a bit interesting. Its
> color is very dark gray, almost black, and so is the color of the
> matching Disk II. The labels on both the Apple II and Disk II say
> "Made for Belle & Howell by Apple Computer, Inc" and have the logos
> of both companies. Is this a special machine in any way?
Well, not *particularly* special -- just a bit of marketing creativity
on Apple's part. Bell and Howell make audiovisual equipment -- slide
projectors, transparency projectors, filmstrip stuff, multiple-headset
listening stations, and so forth -- and have a contract with pretty
near every elementary school board in North America, I bet. So, Apple
wanted to get their machines into the schools, so they arranged for
Bell and Howell to brand Apple IIs; that way, the machines were on
the standard Bell and Howell price list, and teachers/administrators
could just add one to their order instead of going through the
complexities of setting up a new supplier (and this at a time where
computers in the classroom were rare, but audiovisual teaching aids
were all the rage). A particularly clever bit of marketing,
indeed. :-)
There are certainly fewer B&H Apple IIs than normal ones, and as we
all know, black computers are faster :-), but I don't think it's
particularly /rare/.
-Rich
--
------------------------------ Rich Lafferty ---------------------------
Sysadmin/Programmer, Instructional and Information Technology Services
Concordia University, Montreal, QC (514) 848-7625
------------------------- rich_at_alcor.concordia.ca ----------------------
Received on Sun Apr 15 2001 - 12:45:58 BST