[net.micro.mac] Apple proposes detente with HyperDrive

psc@lzwi.UUCP (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (06/26/85)

< I can use my magic to change the color to red -- but I don't do windows. >

Quoted from the Wall Street Journal, Monday the 24th of June, 1984:

APPLE IS EXPECTED TO REVISE MARKETING AS COMPANY'S OVERHAUL TAKES HOLD

Now that Steven P Jobs, chairman, is out of the day-to-day picture at
Apple Computer Inc., the company he co-founded is likely to take some
important steps that would change the way Apple markets its two personal
computers.

For its Macintosh computer, Apple has begun strengthening relations with
outside companies that make and sell accessories.  Some of those
companies complain they were disreguarded by Mr. Jobs.  The new bridge-
building effort could make the Macintosh more desireable in offices,
where Apple's marketing drive hasn't caught on.  Customers say there
aren't enough add-on products for the machine.

Only two weeks after Apple announced the corporate overhaul that
relegated Mr. Jobs to a new "global" role, General Computer Co., which
makes information-storage devices, said it won a long-sought concession
from Apple that will make it easier to connect a General hard disk to
the Macintosh.

. . . Most hard disks for the Macintosh are plugged into the back of the
computer, but HyperDrive is attached directly to the machine's inner
circuits.  Closely held General, based in Cambridge, Mass., says that
difference makes the producet five times faster than conventional
rivals.

To connect HyperDrive, a dealer must remove the back of the Macintosh.
Until recently, that voided the products warranty.  "Steve Jobs had put
down a little dictum that nobody would screw around with the inside of
his Macintosh," says Steward Alsop, publisher of an industry newletter.
"It made it real difficult for third parties to work with the
Macintosh."

But this month, General Computer says, Apple agreed to modify its
warranty to allow installation of HyperDrive.

Apple itself may be preparing to go so far as to market HyperDrive, an
increasingly popular product at the company.  Many Apple managers have
the hard disks on their desks, and Mr. Scully reportedly has one at
home.  One Apple engineer recently told a trade journal that the company
plans to market a version of the Macintosh in Japan with HyperDrive
build in.  General Computer won't comment.  Apple's Mr [Delbert W.]
Yocam [executive vice president for product operations] says the company
hasn't announced any such plan. . . .
-- 
       -Paul S. R. Chisholm       The above opinions are my own,
       {pegasus,vax135}!lzwi!psc  not necessarily those of any
       {mtgzz,ihnp4}!lznv!psc     telecommunications company.
       "It must be fast, and it must be red, and it must have windows."