On Wed, 26 Jan 2005, Tony Duell wrote:
> I feel somewhat odd saying this to you (with your love of the Apple ][,
> etc)... I believe the Apple ][ design was offered to HP, but they turned
> it down, the often-stated reason being that they couldn't see the point
> of small computers. I have often wondered if the real reason was that HP
> were already making superior machines (albeit at about 10 times the
> price!), and HP (at that time) were not trying to go for the mass market.
> Whether or not that was a good decision is another matter...
A little but of all those reasons, I'm sure. Woz's proposal to offer the
machine to HP first was done so out of his obligation to his employer. I
read that it went up a couple levels in management and that there was no
interest (I'm sure Owen Linzmeyer's book _Apple Confidential_ has the full
scoop). Unless you really knew the hobbyist computer market of the 1970s,
which HP obviously did not, there wasn't anything to differentiate Woz's
hackish, minimalist design (which was probably foreign to the HP culture)
with what HP was already producing.
The people who made these decisions are most likely still around. It
would be interesting to ask them about this if I ever bump in to them.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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Received on Thu Jan 27 2005 - 08:19:30 GMT