Robert, If Apple had done what I suggested about licencing way back when the Mac was young this would have prevented the escape of the leadership to anyone and his dog who can buy Dos-X/Win1,2,3/95 and Intprocs which is what happened to IBM. Apple strangled the concept by being proprietary and never licencing and prosecuting even legal clones(A few were made by buying Macs and stripping out the PROMS and using them as a motherboards BIOS) They lacked the vision that Gates had. He went out and sold DOS and then built Windows by building on what Xerox had done and observing Apple, and over several years while Apple slept got ahead. The relative merits of the two platforms at this point is moot. They both work and both sell, Wintel 25: Apple 1. Apple saw what IBM had done wrong and found another way to do it wrong. The Apple hoopla and mystique convinced people that all was well, and so they did nothing, when in fact all was bad and the huns(Gates army of pigrammers, did I say that, I meant programmers) kept crankin' code until they got a shippable product. At that time Apple was in it's heyday. But the GUI of microsoft coupled with the low price of competitive hardware was irresistable to the business and personal public. And each generation got easier for Wintels as they software got better, and Apple saw the slide and did nada. When they finally did licence clones it was too little too late. They needed a wide open platform so anyone could buy an OS and a CPU and a motherboards and make a clone. If they fail to do it this time it will be terminal for Apple. They have less than 2 years cash at the current burn rate if profits do not return. Clones the way I suggest would start to yield cash flow very promptly, and the platform would gain share, and economies of scale for developers of cards, and software would begin to return.
I have been on this clone kick since 1985. I co-founded(owned 50%) two of Torontos largest Apple dealerships. Arkon was founded in 1978 and I sold in 1982, and Computer Systems Center in 1982 and I sold in 1983(4?, I forget) Arkon has failed(1994) but CSS is the most ssuccessful dealer in Toronto as we speak. I saw the IBM wave coming and tried to get Apple to permit clones, the arrogant sods refused, and look what it got them. Still some hope though, but only if they get the numbers up. Their own product will not do it, they will just fade away unless they do what I say. Watch and see.
NeXt way ahead of it's time??, lost in cyberspace I say. A proprietary right angle wrench into nowehere with no volume, no co-developers, and no bug free fast code. Dogsville all the way.
Bill |
