Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple2
Path: utzoo!utgpu!utstat!philip
From: philip@utstat.uucp (Philip McDunnough)
Subject: Re: Apple's II plans...
Message-ID: <1991Jun9.052217.18553@utstat.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Statistics
References: <6D583AE48062A9F8@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu>
Date: Sun, 9 Jun 1991 05:22:17 GMT

In article <6D583AE48062A9F8@ctrvax.Vanderbilt.Edu> EWINGRA@CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU writes:
>I like the Apple IIgs as much as everyone, but this notion of the Mac LC
>as being the anti-Christ has got to stop.

Well this certainly makes sense. I've never
understood the rational for hoping the LC would fail.

> The Mac LC was created for the
>sole purpose of creating an entry-level color Mac that didn't cost
>mega-thousands of dollars.  We were getting killed in the college
>sales ranks because we couldn't directly compete against the IBM Model 55SX.
>Sure the SE/30 will run computational rings around it, but a small nine-inch
>black and white screen didn't help our cause at all.  The next machine at
>the time was the IIcx which was too expensive for most students.
>We needed something cheaper.  Plain and simple.

The LC was still too expensive. Most scientific software just wasn't being
followed up for the Mac. It's not clear why but many significant projects
just seemed to disappear. Moreover at a higher level A/UX has not been a
raving success.This isn't to say that the GS could have filled in the gap.
It could not. However the target market and the price/performance of the LC
just didn't coincide. Furthermore, the LC came to be an ill defined
computer.

The Mac has headed away from the scientific community. As a long term Mac
user I must tell you that people just don't want to spend all that much on
it when they can get X-terminals, NeXT's, clones,etc...for much less. Moreover
the lack of a CLI in the Mac OS is truly a retrictive environment. 

It's one thing to spend $1000 on a Classic which you can regard as a throw
away computer, but any more and you have to ask why.The future does not lie
in proprietary systems which is why PC's have been so successful. The Mac and
the GS( and NeXT,etc...) need clones. Price is now a major factor. 

I suggest you look at what happened to plans to move S+ to the Mac, at what
happened to the evolution of MathCad for the Mac( compared to the Windows'
version it really doesn't hold its own). There is MathWriter which is an
excellent technical word processor for the Mac. But much development has
shifted away from the Mac and towards Windows, Risc Unix machines( with X as
the windowing scheme),....

The GS could stand as a low cost computer for the home which would enable
people to communicate with work, do some programming, be a family asset,etc...
It may be too late, I don't know. I do know that a commercial that Apple
Canada runs which compares a model 70 PS/2 and a IIci and basically conveys
the notion that people like using the Mac( and not the PS/2) is simply 
misleading. I suspect people don't really like using either. That's why you
have to pay them to do it.

>Marketing of the LC has been poor lately (read nonexistant) which is really
>a shame because early shortages no longer exist, and its really a neat
>little machine.  It's far from dying, but it could be selling more.
>That's part of the reason why Apple introduced two new LC configurations
>to sell to business since the LC is a perfect 386SX competitor.

The LC simply costs too much. So does the GS. Colour "loaded" versions of
the 386sx can be had for around $1200( not IBM), and the prices are dropping
every month. People know about the LC. They simply feel more comfortable
living in a world, which although may not be as elegant, has more choices
and costs less in the long run.

I hope the LC does succeed. It's a nice computer. I just wouldn't bet on it.
The same goes for the si. Perhaps Apple made a mistake in dropping the cx?


>--Rick Ewing
>  Vanderbilt University

>P.S.  And yes I did work for Apple which is where this perspective comes from.


Philip McDunnough
Professor, University of Toronto
philip@utstat.utoronto.ca
[my opinions,...]

