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From: Isaac_K_Rabinovitch@cup.portal.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.sys.apple
Subject: Re: Comparing Apple and IBM: Same fate?
Message-ID: <1818@cup.portal.com>
Date: Sun, 6-Dec-87 13:39:38 EST
Article-I.D.: cup.1818
Posted: Sun Dec  6 13:39:38 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 12-Dec-87 12:23:44 EST
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mithomas@bsu-cs.UUCP (Michael Thomas Niehaus) writes:
->Well, the last version of DOS for the Apple II was DOS 3.3.  Currently,
->IBM is also at version 3.3.  Does this mean that this will be the last
->update of MS-DOS, or is this just a coincidence?
->
->WILL MS-DOS DIE AT VERSION 3.3?  Stay tuned, same time, same channel...
->
->
->Michael Niehaus
->UUCP: !{uunet,iuvax,pur-ee}!bsu-cs!mithomas

I seem to recall that Apple DOS 3.3 was succeeded by PRODOS, which is
still in use.  Anyway, the main "serious" OS for the Apple was CP/M.

Premature to predict the end of IBM's dominance of desktop computing,
though hopefully they will never regain the stranglehold on the marketplace.
They still have the strongest marketing muscle and always will.

This points out one of the reasons the Apple II (the machine that first
brought us electronic spreadsheets) lost out so quickly to the IBM PC:
simple inability to market and distribute the product.  Shortly after
the PC came out, there was a story floating around about a VP of a Fortune
500 company that became enamored of the Apple IIe/Z80 configuaration.  He
actually convinced his bosses that this was far more cost effective than
the PC.  But the company ended up buying PCs anyway.  Why?  Because
there was no one source they could buy as many machines as they needed,
since Apple then had no corporate sales office and no one retailer
was capable of filling the order.

Curious to imagine what life might be like today if Apple had got its
marketing act together sooner...

Isaac Rabinovitch
Disclaimer:  Just because I think you're wrong, doesn't
             mean I don't think you're a fun person!
:-)