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From: jabernathy@pro-houston.cts.com (Joe Abernathy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: the whole apple II line.(warning: long market stats)
Message-ID: <8909301222.AA13109@trout.nosc.mil>
Date: 30 Sep 89 08:27:32 GMT
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Network Comment: to #499 by philip@pro-generic.cts.com

> I doubt the accuracy of those statistics.

You doubt in error. Every discussion along these lines that I read misses the
point completely. The point is not hardware, not at all. It's software.

The Apple II create the personal computer market, and by that very fact it
body-slams IBM and Macintosh. (Mac worse than IBM, in fact.) IBM drifted into
the home and schools years late, and even after its introduction, the IBM was
billed as a business machine. Fine. It's a business machine, and I'm sure it
can recalculate a mean spreadsheet, although I'll pit the speed of my IIGS
against any IBM, including 386's, and any Mac up to a IIx.

The point is that nothing has the software to touch an Apple II in the home
and in the school. The software and the presence. Introduce any technology you
want. Market it any way you want. Price it any way you want. The simple fact
is that schools have the Apple II, educators like the Apple II, and when
everybody goes to do their lesson plans and homework, they do it on an Apple
II. The people who run and attend our schools have neither the money nor the
interest in switching to anything else. And regardless of what you may think,
these people are very wise: They have chosen the best machine -- the best
machine for WHAT THEY DO -- and it is these people who determine what is the
best machine. 

It's a popular pasttime to second-guess Apple's marketing, and that of the
other computer manufacturers. Will Apple do this or that, and is the II gonna
die. This reminds me of a common misconception in my business, journalism --
that is, that the news always takes precedence over advertising and marketing.
That mindset -- and the mindset that believes Apple actually cares what
anybody thinks of its product line -- is garbage. Journalism exists because
somebody is making money -- power of the press belongs to those who own one.
And Apple exists because somebody is making money selling Apples.

The Macintosh has only been supporting itself now for a mere three years, and
I absolutely promise you that this hasn't escaped Apple's bankers. The Apple
II is established, mature, sophisticated in what it does, and it won't go away
until all of this changes. Technology be darned. The people in our homes and
schools want something that works, and not many things work as well as an
Apple II.

Joe Abernathy


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