I think we're a clone now

[Pentad]

Happy WTF Friday!?!

I stumbled upon this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PnCqNH7V9R0&feature=youtu.be

and thought I would share. I realize that this isn't Amiga related per se but it's old and a rival of the Amiga so I thought you might find it entertaining.


The irony here is this is what nearly killed them.

I'm glad that I could bring you this on WTF Friday. Enjoy!
-P


PS - I apologize if you have seen it before. I lurk in a lot of vintage computer groups and I have never seen this video before.

[amiadudeorwat]

It's hard to say that was really what nearly killed them.  The rapid hardware improvement of the Wintel PCs of the era and the early 90's recession were both contributing to Apple's poor performance in that era.  When generic PCs were a fraction of the cost of Macs during a recession and had superior performance not to mention a rapidly increasing marketshare, which lead to further price drops on the PC side.

[Pentad]

It's hard to say that was really what nearly killed them.

No, it clearly was the clone market. I think this is a pretty interesting time in Apple's history but it clearly shows that not even Apple's board understood Apple's market or how to capitalize on it. It was a quick cash grab but a long term blunder of epic proportions.

Apple may have sold fewer computers than the PC clone market but their margins (especially on the high end machines) were staggering. When you say "generic PCs were a fraction of the cost of Macs" so were the margins. If you look at the phone market today, Android sells more than the iPhone but their margins are not even close to Apple's.

Apple had a small band of consumers that would buy their products every year regardless of the price or the competition. This provided Apple with a steady stream of revenue that was pretty healthy if not small.

I understand that the board felt they could grow the marketshare with clones but history shows that you just end up cannibalizing your own market space.

Steve Kahng talked about how they were just killing Apple in the workstation marketplace and no matter how much Jobs threatened Power Computing with lawsuits he knew their contract was rock solid.

Apple ended up buying Power Computing out for something like $100m or $150m when they were hurting for money already because of the clone market fiasco.

Here is Jobs on the clone market:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maIgu_7oLm0

Jobs spins the situation a bit here but he is absolutely correct. The entire eco-system was in danger.


-P

[Iggy]

...The entire eco-system was in danger...

From competition...
I knew there were reasons to dislike Jobs.
Add one more.

eco-system=Jobs protected revenue stream

So, are those value in line with mine (or do I buy elsewhere)?

Thank God there are alternatives.

[psxphill]

I understand that the board felt they could grow the marketshare with clones but history shows that you just end up cannibalizing your own market space.

History has many examples of people who tried and those who avoided cannibalising their own market share. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's more to do with the execution & Apple did it wrong.

Whether it's the lack of Steve's reality distortion field, or other changes in the computer world, Apple are losing market share in PC's now and when the loss hits critical mass then it's game over.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-mac-lost-most-pc-market-share-in-2016-chart-2017-1?r=UK&IR=T

[amiadudeorwat]

What it shows is they specifically didn't grow their marketshare with the clone program and thus the clones just competed with Apple built Macs.  

But today it's different, Apple is a cell phone company that has a tiny little computer business attached.  Even if it starts to lose money they can keep it on as a development platform.  Want the the SDK for IPhone 11, just buy our 2019 Mac Mini for $1500 which has a low end CPU+4GB of RAM and embedded graphics and 1 Thunderbolt port, don't forget to buy hubs and adapters if you need trivial legacy devices like mice and keyboards!

[Iggy]

History has many examples of people who tried and those who avoided cannibalising their own market share. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It's more to do with the execution & Apple did it wrong.

Whether it's the lack of Steve's reality distortion field, or other changes in the computer world, Apple are losing market share in PC's now and when the loss hits critical mass then it's game over.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-mac-lost-most-pc-market-share-in-2016-chart-2017-1?r=UK&IR=T

Think the foolishness of a smartphone company being unwilling to equip it's laptops with touchscreens has anything to do with it, or that the value of the hardware (compared to the cost) just isn't there?
OSX/MacOS is a pretty good operating system.
But I'm not willing to pay a premium just to run it, and then have to put up with the design issues, like the a fore to mentioned lack of a touchscreen, thunderbolt adapters, etc.

[hishamk]

Want the the SDK for IPhone 11, just buy our 2019 Mac Mini for $1500 which has a low end CPU+4GB of RAM and embedded graphics and 1 Thunderbolt port, don't forget to buy hubs and adapters if you need trivial legacy devices like mice and keyboards!

A bit of an exaggeration there, dontcha think?

$499 Mac mini

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

$499 Mac mini

Pathetic specs. Even the thousand-dollar one. No wonder only fanboi's buy them. :lol:

[giZmo350]

Pathetic specs. Even the thousand-dollar one. No wonder only fanboi's buy them. :lol:

That's nuts! Never would pay that!
I just bought this a couple weeks ago for $275.00.
Basicall, NOS, beautiful! I added 4GB ram and it flies!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/132191441427?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Hmmm, am I off-topic? :roflmao:

[amiadudeorwat]

A bit of an exaggeration there, dontcha think?

$499 Mac mini

It was an exaggeration of a possible future where for some reason Apple had to justify continuing their computer line, see the bit about a lock in with developing Iphone, so it was jokeaggeration.  But a dual core 1.4GHz in 2018 is really slow.  But surely you can just pop open the case and replace it with a faster one right?

The point is the are a phone company that makes ridiculous amounts of money.  If they want to continue their computer business as a vanity project, they will.

[Oldsmobile_Mike]

But surely you can just pop open the case and replace it with a faster one right?

:laughing:

Of course there is this, now:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/for-the-first-time-you-can-upgrade-your-mac-at-home/

The picture in this article alone terrifies me.  That's a lot of disassembly just to change basic components.  

[Iggy]

:laughing:

Of course there is this, now:

http://www.zdnet.com/article/for-the-first-time-you-can-upgrade-your-mac-at-home/

The picture in this article alone terrifies me.  That's a lot of disassembly just to change basic components.  

Sure...just pay a lot, then void the warranty opening it, to install some expensive upgrades.
And we think an X5000 is expensive.

BTW - How do you think the $500 dual core i5 MacMini would compare to my dated 2.5 GHz quad G5?
Under Linux, I think I'd have an advantage, at a fraction of the cost.

Now if OS4.2 were available for that...

[BozzerBigD]

@Iggy

Sure...just pay a lot, then void the warranty opening it, to install some expensive upgrades.
And we think an X5000 is expensive.

And the main problem on the iMacs is the mobile spec graphics cards and the heat problems of installing desktop spec ones until the iMac Pro was designed! The CPU and Ram are the least problematic part of these compromised machines.