PROJECT APPLE STORM pt2
By Kenrick Mock
Copyright (c) 1993 Apple Users' Group, Sydney
Republished from Applecations, a publication of the Apple Users' Group, Sydney, Australia.
The following is a discussion taken from Internet between members of the User Group Connection and the Apple // Engineering contingent at Apple Computer Inc., regarding the Apple //.
From: mock@madrone.eecs.ucdavis.edu (Kenrick Mock)
Date: 02 Dec 1992
PROJECT APPLE STORM - Part II
Kohn: Somethings wrong here and users are really confused. Apple is making all of these wonderful cards and peripherals, but they aren't showing it to anyone. No one knows that they exist. You need to tell people what you're doing and why you're doing it.
Santoro: That's a point well taken. OK, let me summarize this. What you deem as ongoing support from Apple is 3 things.
1... A source for cards and peripherals etc should my system break down.
2... Get me some software. Let me walk into Egghead and see Apple // software.
3... Service my program.
Given these things, let people know about them.
Moore: Number 4, actively promote and market items 1,2, and 3.
Santoro: Here's what we've done on each of these items. We have a new Apple // software newsletter. We're doing the next version at this very moment. Previously it was available only through user groups, but now we're going to take an ad out in A+/inCider and make it available to everyone, free of charge. No sales are involved in this we're giving developers a free plug. We're spending all this money just for the sake of letting Apple // users know we're still behind them.
Moore: Ah ha..! heh, how goes Mac third party development these days? Actually John, that's exactly what we don't want. If Apple dosen't make money off of the //, it only serves to act as nails in the coffin and hasten the systems demise.
Santoro: Let me just finish telling you what we're doing. Service. Service is a big problem. You can't get it. All I can do is propose a PowerBook type of program. Especially for schools because they have 75% of all the Apple //'s sold. Here's what I'll propose. A mail order service for Apple //'s. You put your system in a box and sent it to Apple. Three days later you have your system back. We want to make peripherals available to the direct public. If we can manage to break even then that will make the company happy.
Moore: If you do this it's definately a step in the right direction.
Santoro: Not *if*, we're doing it!
Kohn: From the viewpoint of A+/inCider, you'll probably be able to get the space for free. What about Apple dealers? Can the dealer be sent something so that if a user brings his system in to them and they can send it to Apple? They can also give a copy of the catalog to people that are interested.
Livingston: Yes, the catalog is working. We only sent about a million copies out and we've had very good response so far. People are anxious to get them.
Santoro: About 8 million Apple //'s have been sold since 1977. Approximately 25% of those are in people's homes. So we now have an installed base of roughly 2 million Apple // users and 11 million Mac users that we want to get the catalog to.
Garvey: Could you take that to the next step and have a second printing?
Apple: {In unison} YES, yes yes!
Kauup: We most assuredly will. We want the dealers espicially to have them in stock. It would make their customers happy and also benefit them if they don't have to maintain low profit additional inventory stock. They want to sell Macs.
Lunatic: What I'd like to see would be for dealers to have a bunch of cards with an 800 number on it to give to Apple // people. When the user calls, he'd be able to get three things immediately. The software guide, the catalog and the Apple // guide, all from that one number. Then his call for service or maintenance would be handled.
Moore: John, you may know this. Rye, Ray, you may not. There's one primary reason for the Apple // enduring as long as it has. Throughout the history of Apple, it's been know as the friendly company. The company that was willing to touch base with the little people while IBM was the beast or the orge of the industry. IBM's belonged in the subterrain of huge corporations and were servers etc. Believe what you will, if Apple loses this image and tries to compete nose to nose with IBM in the corporate level, it will signal the end of Apple Inc as the home computer specialist. The current trend places Apple in the "Novation" mode if you know what I mean.
Santoro: Well your point is well taken but I don't think you'll see IBM taking in user group members for the PC Jr and telling them about how they're going to continue support. I don't think you'll see Ford have a user group meeting about 1977 Ford Fairlane buyers. {PC Jr's run DOS 5.0 too!}
Moore: An Apple //gs is not a Ford Fairlane and cannot be compared to one. Don't underestimate IBM. They've already stated that they intend to market the home computist because there's a lot of "Dead Soldiers" on the field and that statement is aimed directly at the Apple // users and educators that Apple Inc has cast aside already. These people aren't buying Macs, they're switching platforms.
Diaz: What I trying to drive at, is there are other people out there in the market, affilliated with user groups or not, that would like to do things such as sell video overlay cards or super drives and the like.
APPLE: There are two great expirements with the catalog. One is the availability of cpu's in the catalog. Great experiment number two is third party products in the catalog. There's a small, and very select few, third party items in there.
Diaz: Apple did this third party thing with the Apple3 long ago also. The same identical thing and they sold everything with THEIR label on it. Then they discontinued the cpu. People want to look at the catalog and buy things. The dealerships don't want to be bothered with the Apple // or any of its peripherals. They would be happy to give // users an 800 number, a catalog and get them out of their stores. However, since I work in the mail order business, I know that the people who *answer* at the 800 number will not be able to give responses to technical questions about these items. Since the dealerships or superstore clerks can't do it either, this leaves the user groups as the next
level for handling this task. We have a dealer that willing to sell us System6 and SCSI cards, but they get paranoid that someone here will step on them!
Garvey: That's the exact position that I'm in on the PC/Mac side of things. It's still a viable business and there's still a living that can be earned by reselling parts and providing service, maintenance, recommendations and consultation to end users; and then purchasing and installing these things. In the user group environment, they are more visable.
Moore: OK, there's another issue that I'm concerned about. I'm not Apple bashing and I don't want to appear as a critic, but there is another large cross section of users that think the Apple front office is infested with morons and dimwits.
APPLE: Yea Ernie, go ahead and tell us what you really think of us. {Jovial atmosphere!}
Moore: What these users are concerned about is the number of cpu's that Apple releases, praises, then abandons. Count the number of Macs over the past two or three years that are no longer in production.
Diaz: That's true. When someone buys a Mac, in the next month or two another is released and their system is obsolete.
Garvey: Are you getting negative feedback on the amount of new cpu's being introduced? I mean like the not so old cx's and ci's are all obsolete now.
Santoro: I don't think there's a company on the face of the planet that has gone further out of the way to insure compatability. We haven't received any feedback to that effect. {Seems evasive again eh!}
Moore: Perhaps you haven't, believe me it exists and in appreciable quantity!
Kaaup: I'm in the best position to receive feedback like that, and the greatest issue at hand now is system software licensing. All of the feedback that I've received about products is "Keep Pushing!"
Garvey: With the Apple //, when did you start to get that kind of production feedback... '86-'87?
Santoro: The greatest dissent that we've received is from the man on the street with a family and he wants to get his kids into the computer age. He asks his kids what kind of computer they use in school and hears "Apple //." Next he goes to the dealer and asks for the best Apple // available. He gets a //gs, takes it home, then he discovers that there's a limited software base because developers that are into that intricate type of programming are doing it for the Mac. {Something's wrong with that scenario. The man goes to the dealer and the dealer isn't selling Apple //'s at all... What's gone awry with that story?}
Garvey: I have at home a //e, //gs, MAC+ and a Mac SE. Using the SE is really digressing!
Santoro: I have to attend another meeting. Are there any final questions that you'd like to ask?
Moore: There is one question that I have. If Apple isn't going to market or promote the Apple //, why can't it be opted out to a third party developer or inagurated into an affiliate company ala Claris?
Santoro: That's a point well taken. This has already been proposed to Scully himself and the answer was that we don't want to let the Apple logo out of the company!
Moore: There has never been a Macintosh made with the name Apple associated with it!
Santoro: {Laughing} That's not a point of argument. {Entire room laughs}
Keltner: We're producing some archivial chronicles and I was wondering if we could have access to the original //gs commercials? They were very impresive.
Santoro: I don't know where they are but if you find them and get them digitized, you're welcome to do it.
BAAUG: I think they're on Quicktime!
Santoro: In closing, the demand is so low right now for the //gs, that it's going to be dropped from the price list very soon. The //e is fine and will be continued. {There's a lot of mumbling throughout the room}
Lunatic: After System 6.0.1 and the Ethernet Card, will that be the last that we'll see from Apple for the gs and how long will it be before it's taken off of the price list?
Santoro: Probably before the end of the year. The Apple // Continued Engineering Group is going to remain intact through the next fiscal year and that's about a year from now as the fiscal year just started. Beyond that is up to the company. I don't see any hardware beyond the Ethernet card.
Garvey: Will there be any revisions to the Ethernet card because in reality, it's an EtherTalk card?
Santoro: We're looking at putting TCIP on it because we see the text based //e's and //c's in schools as being perfect for going into the Internet! {After insignificant further chatter, the meeting ended!}
PROJECT APPLE STORM - Analysis
In reviewing of the information provided by Apple at this meeting, there are many items unveiled which prior to meeting were rumors only.
Statements like, "We don't want users to think that we have two platforms", made by the head of the Apple // Continued Engineering Team give cause for this reporter to peek between the lines and see the real picture.
In retrospecting the Apple //'s history for the last 5 years, there are events that occured which give cause for raised eyebrows.
a) ... Shortly after the //gs was released, the //c+ was released and it boasted a 4.5 mhz cpu compared to the state of the art gs which had a native speed of 2.5 mhz.
b) ... Approximately 10 months after the //gs and //c+ were released, dealers began telling customers that the Apple // had been discontinued by Apple Inc and was no longer in production. The //c+ was dropped from the price list less than 1 year after it was announced.
c) ... 18 months after the gs was released, mysteriously software developers terminated gs projects they were working on. Many of them were near completion. Is, WHY a question or an answer?
d) ... A User Group Connection coordinator stated at the meeting, "We don't want to sell people Apple //'s, we want to support the existing Apple // user base!"
When asked, "Why isn't Apple Inc pushing for Apple // sales?", the Apple representatives never gave an answer either directly or indirectly. The standard comment of, "The 65xxx cpu is old technology!" was always offered as the response. Yet the 65xxx cpu is thriving in other cpu's!
Apple would have us believe that only 25% of all Apple //'s sold since 1977 are in homes and the 75% balance are in schools. Using those figures, there have been approximately 1.37 million Apple //'s sold to users as the computer of choice in their homes since 1977. I recall reading an article in the 1985 era, where 15 million Apple //'s had been sold *then* and 40% were in peoples home as the computer of choice.
This reporter would like to know why a major corporation such as Apple Computer cannot support two product lines, being the Apple // and the Macintosh. This reporter would also like to know why a major corporation such as Apple Inc, having a tremendous installed user base with the Apple //, would elect to proceed with a poorly planned program of elimination of that massive fertile market at the apex of it's popularity. Assuredly it was not done for the financial welfare of the company as sales of the //gs were far beyond promising and the profit margin was lucritive.
Realizing that there is no logical answer to these many strange occurances; and that the advent of them all began with the changeover in the high office, there is one solitary explanation that may be extracted. It may be summarized with a single word... "EGOTISM!" This reporter charges that the CEO of Apple Computer Inc has a fanatical craving to compete with the legend of the past CEO of Chrysler Motors. (Can't touch Lee you rascal!) This twisted thinking mandates that the name *WOZNIAC* be expunged from the minds of the masses as that name automatically invokes images of the Apple //. (Can't touch Steve either dude!) This twisted thinking also mandates that the name Macintosh be established as *THE* Apple computer. Yet the name Apple is never affiliated with the Macintosh, only the logo!
Now comes the anticipated closed chapter for the, umm, gentleman. At the meeting the head of the Apple // Continued Engineering Group disclosed that the //gs would be taken off of the price list before the end of 1992, and that the //e would remain because of the K-12 committment. The reasoning for this action was
that the assembly lines could be used to produce PowerBooks which are apparently in high demand.
This reporter poses this question to all who read these lines:
Why can't a corporation as large as Apple Computer, Inc think in terms of company growth and expansion, improve the capability of the 65816, market it with enthusiasm as other 65xxx based systems do and enjoy the success?
If you have not read the transcripts of the meeting, please do so. Read it all as it's not that long. Pass it on. There's only one way to stop the systematic murder of the Apple //, SUPPORT IT! Support it with testimonials; support it with word of mouth praise for the system to prospective first time buyers; support it by developing software and hardware for it; support it by demanding to see // cpu's and peripherals in Apple dealerships; support it by demanding that Apple Inc display Apple //'s in their catalogs; support it by demanding that Apple Inc market it with enthusiasm. This is the only way to protect your investment. This is the only way to drive a stake through the heart of the one that Bram Stoker REALLY wrote his nover about!
I encourage responses to the transcripts of Project Apple Storm. With enough interest from the end user base, assuredly Project Apple Storm II will take place and this time with the voice of the masses behind us. Please spread the transcripts of PAS to each and every online service in existance. As was once most eloquently stated, "the Apple // isn't dead yet, but it appears that it's terminal." We're going to be the surgeons that bring the near dead to glorious and blissful life.
Contacts:
Future Net: User #1@#9
Oggnet : User #8@Valhalla
AOL : EPM BAAUG
GEnie : Contact Mike Garvey or Lunatic and ask them to forward responses to me.
INet : mock@toadflax.cs.ucdavis.edu will forward responses as well.
Here's to hoping that I'll type to you later... Ernie Moore.

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