User`s guide

III. Sluff-off
For home users, developers, software publishers-- for everyone, in fact,
with a stake in the "low end" machine-- such half-hearted support has always
been as puzzling as it is frustrating. We invest hard cash in an Apple computer,
join Apple clubs, subscribe to Apple publications, (slap Apple stickers on
binders, use an Apple key ring, ...), fill shelves with Apple software, and buy
Apple peripherals. Apple, in return, drags out development of a IIgs operating
system, pours money into its business mac
hine, and adopts a 'dog in the manger' position which all but kills any chance
of a timely third party upgrade needed to maintain IIgs performance parity with
the competition.
To be fair, Apple has behaved no worse-- indeed, on the whole, much better-
- than other home user 'flagships'. Each new II model has preserved broad
downward compatibility; and documentation, from early manuals through the
current Addison Wesley series, has been among the best. Finally, both the IIgs
and its operating system benefitted from recent minor upgrades. It's no wonder
home users are confused. If Apple is at all concerned about its II series, why
isn't it concerned enough?
After the near brush with collapse in '85, we reasoned that Apple (now also
"Big Green" the business machine maker) would forever regard holding onto its II
home user base as a high priority. Surely, Apple had learned its lesson.
So it had, though not the lesson we supposed. IIgs revenues were a help in
those troubled times; but the more important contribution was an industry-wide
confidence that "Apple is back". Stock values rose, capital rolled in, the Mac
II was launched, and viola!, Apple WAS back! The lesson for Apple was clear
enough: 'everyone' still equated corporate health with II prosperity. It had
become captive to its low end, low profit product line.
There are several reasons why Apple might view this situation with alarm.
Of these, the popular notion that a IIgs resulting from a series of forced
upgrades might impact Mac sales is probably the most over-rated. As Apple's own
marketing people have adroitly demonstrated, it is entirely possible to render a
product "business invisible". Your ads merely assert that the IIgs is a
home/school computer and that the Mac is for business. Once the systems are
bundled with appropriate software and the price
tags slapped on, few IS managers would consider filling an office with IIgs's.
No, the simplest explanation for Apple's concern is also the one which best
fits the facts. Well before the '85 crisis, Apple had decided that costs of its
II series were beginning to outweigh rewards. Selling all of those computers,
disk drives, and printers to create a large home user base was great fun.
Customer service, support R&D, and selling upgrades to maintain it was not
nearly so profitable. Apple wished to be free to deal with its II series on its
own terms. Most certainly, the Lords of Cup
ertino were determined to be rid of a situation which allowed home user
complaints, doomsday editorials, or expressions of teacher dissatisfaction to
rock corporate pylons at the foundation.
By 1988, an aggressive ad campaign and expanding Mac II sales had solved
the problem. Apple shed its "home computer maker" skin and became "Apple, the
maker of pricey, high class business computers". Whether the II line is spun-