info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (09/05/84)
From: Seymour <JOSEPH@RU-BLUE.ARPA>
Dead End For Mac?
John C. Dvorak
From "Inside Track" in Sept. 17 Infoworld
How is the Macintosh doing? Rumor has it that sales are
flattening. If that's the case, the Mac is still doing better than
everyone else because we are witnessing a major slump in the industry.
Maybe we can get a look at one aspect of the Mac by looking at
a Mac magazine and determining the trends.
Once a year I like to go through one of the computer magazines
page by page to see if I can give my readers some insight on how I
analyze things.
In this way you can write your own Inside Track, if you get
tired of me.
To keep track of Mac Trends, I think we should look at the
September/October 1984 Macworld
Its's pointless to discuss the magazine's overall look - it's
very "avant-garde." I like it. This issue's cover has a weird
disembodied and floating head of Bill Budge, which looks like a
headless corpse floating in black soup. Not a pretty sight.
As you turn the cover, you see two ads that contrast like
night and day. The first is an ad for a product called Mac Station, a
slick ad for what seems to be a nonproduct. It's an item that Apple
is "keeping under wraps" until November 19. The ad gives the reader
no idea what the thing is.
"By the way, we've saved the best news for last: You can take
one home for just $95," the ad reads. Hey, that >is< good news - only
$95 for a mysterious product. Who on earth dreams up this stuff?
The Tecmar Mac Drive ad on the facing page looks as though a
child designed it. The layout is terrible, and the photograph looks
as though it were taken with an Instamatic. Hey, guys, spend some
bucks and pay someone to do these ads for you.
You should see the Page 3 photo of game programmers Andrew
Greenberg and Robert Woodhead. To me it looks as thought the picture
were taken as they watched someone disrobe. I recommend that the pair
get a better agent.
As we move into the magazine, we zip past still another new
David Bonnel photo - number 247 by my count.
On page 21 is an ad for a product called Filevision, the most
ludicrous advertisement I've ever seen. In fact, in inspired this
column. The meager 45 words of ad copy describe a wine cellar
inventory program. The problem is that there is no headline, no
product description, no company address or phone-number, and no
company name! It's a full-page, full color ad.
This ad is in the running with the Mac Station ad for the
All-Time Money-Wasted Award. You have to wonder what goes on in their
(whoever they are) minds.
When I turn the page I find two full pages of color
advertising that looks nothing like page 21's. Only after I look at
the ad a couple of times (even the product package looks different) do
I see that it, too, is for Filevision. The company is named Telos.
"Software for the real world" is written under the company logo.
I have to ask myself what real world these guys live in. We
have two more pages of advertising with no company address, no company
phone number and no indication of where this product might be found.
While this kind of advertising can work for products about which
everyone already knows - such as the Macintosh - it doesn't work for
a product introduction
Must be some new marketing theory, I think to myself. It's
called "keep them guessing."
Moving right along, we come to Mac Slots, on Page 30, a slot
machine game that costs $77.77. HOLY TOLEDO, what a high price! The
users groups used to give away slot machine games. Come on, wake up.
That ad is followed by an ad from Mainstreet Software that seems to be
selling a sports car. I was too bored by the ad to read it.
Folks, its unbelievable. No wonder there's a software
slowdown. It's obvious by the slickness of these ads (except
Tecmar's) that they are done by expensive ad agencies or design
studios. It's also obvious that these agencies don't have the foggiest
notion about how to sell these products. Listen to the copy for the
page 38 ad for a product called Brock Keystroke - some sort of
database manager:
"The Keystroke electronic file cabinet enables you to STORE,
FIND, UPDATE or PRINT information with startling clarity."
It makes me shiver to consider the product's power. I would
sure like to see what it's like to STORE something with startling
clarity.
My advice: start over.
Moving deeper into the magazine, I liked the looks and
creativity of the Miles Computing ad on page 46 for its clip-art
series. (Hey there are more than a few well-done ads in the magazine
too. I'm just not in a complimentary mood.)
The Optimum Computer Luggage ad on page 47, of Optimum Mac
Tote, is super (Are we getting sick of all the Mac Puns yet?) It
looks polished and it tells you what you need to know. Software
advertisers should look at this luggage company ad to see how such ads
should be done.
The sad part of all this is that when you're done with the
issue, you really see how little is available for the machine besides
"clip-art," a few unproven database managers, and cloth carrying bags.
The other thing to consider is what there is to say about the
Mac besides self promotion planted by Apple in Macworld View, a
gossipy column on Page 25. The column tells us how Lisa 2 sales are
"outstripping Apple's production capacity by a margin of 2-to-1."
(Note that nobody ever says what the actual capacity is.)
The piece continues with more fluff: Lisa product manager
Randy Battat says, "We can't build them fast enough." Yeah, and Orson
Welles can bead Edwin Moses in the 400 meter hurdles too.
No hard numbers to be found in any of the fluff. This is soon
followed by more Lisa hype. The second piece, on page 27, tells us
how wonderful it would be to use a Mac as a multiuser computer running
off a Lisa 2/10 running Unix. What? Why do people keep forgetting
about the key aspect of the personal computer movement - it's
personal.
Can you imagine an office running Lisas and Macs and Unix?
Who are they kidding?
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