Well. Not mice and not windows and not joysticks and not track balls. They all predated both the APple and the PC, circa the Xerox PARC for some(pull downs) and assorted university computer systems for trackballs, joysticks and mice, we ised to call a track ball a 'dead mouse', referring to the ball in the belly of the dead mouse = trackball.
So you really cannot sat either was better or before the other. Apple popularised loads of Xerox things, and even licenced them. Hey the Americans invented tape vidoe tape recorders and the japs perfected them. Apple perfected Pull down menus and used SCSI and had networks built in and many other things that allowed it to become a dominant player at the beginning, at the beginning. What has Apple done lately except try to rest on laurels?, too much resting on laurels was why they went so far down. true the G3 seems to be quite capable, from what I read from the references you and others provided faster then the same speeded P-II.. It only helps if they can sell the things and get software made for them. I bet there are 100 new programs for the Wintels for each one from the APple arena!!.(count all the small splinters of public domain and big ones as well)
This is like the small country saying " we are the best", and then the big country army over runs them. Now that is what happened to Norway in WW-II, they were better and quicker etc than the Rus Bear, but eventually the bear syeamrolled them. (note, the arabs have not been able to do the same to Israel, so small can be super tough and unbeatable) APples was the best and the biggest. And they bit the dust. Now we have them saying better, now they must win a few wars.
WIntel does not notice Apple.A few Wintel shops target Apple areas like Video, audio, music, and guess what?, they are gaining even as Apple makes a profit it is losing core support in assorted video and audio areas as new buyers come along. You get old loyal people staying with them, and upgrading with them. You get new ones going to wintel mostly, and some to Apple, but the Wintel growth at over 20% annually means that Apples sales might grow but as long as they are under 20% they lose share while profitable. And APple can stay that way nice and profitable all the way down to 1% share, still growing, but only 4-5% a year. With Wintel at 20% with a base of 97 sales oin ten years WIntel will sell 97 x 1.2 to the 10th = 600 units and Apple at 5% over 10 years would go 3 x 1.05 to the 10th = 4.83, under 1% but making more profits every years as a small profitable niche.
Number based on Box sales. With $ sales it would start with Apple at 5% of dollars and end up Wintel 95 units to 588 and Apple 5 to 8.3 or about 1.7% of dollar sales.
That is why I am pro clone, to get parallel markets running. Wintel is not standing still. The G3 needs big $$ to make G4-5-6-7 to match the Intel downstream rampup. With that small share Apple will not be able to play in that league unless they start growing faster than 20% a year to play catch up. Playing 'recede into history' is boring, we have done that for too long now. And do not think a small quarter profit means it is easy from here. A few bad years and Apple would be crippled. And there might be 2 good ones and the a bad one and a back slide of all the gains made in the 2 good years.
True I have not done mucn on Apple lately, due to the costs, and lack of programs.
Bill |
