LB0POPER@MIAMIU.BITNET (04/22/87)
I don't mean to just ask questions, but what do people think about the availability for new Apple // series software. With all the em- phasis on the new GS and the Macintosh, will those of us with //cs and //es slowly get forgotten by the faithful companies who've been devel- oping for our machines? If everything is going to come out for the other machines maybe it's time to sell. If they are going to continue with our machines, it's probably best to stay where we are and be satisfied. Lonny at LB0POPER@MIAMIU.BITNET
ranger@ecsvax.UUCP (04/24/87)
Some marketing surveys have been done that show that 80% of microcomputer software purchases are made by new computer owners. To interpret this we need a few relevent facts. First nearly 3 million Apple //e and //c machines are in the field. About half a million ][+ machines are in the field. Production of the ][+ stopped with the introduction of the //e in 1983. Production of the //c and //e is still in effect (for now anyway) . If you look at the way the software industry treated the Apple ][+ you can get an idea of how it will treat the //e and //c once those machines go out of p production. It took nearly 2 years before Apple //e only software came out. That was after production stopped completely on the ][+. Since there are so many //e, //c machines in the field (20% of 3 million is 600,000 machines) it will be awhile before the manufacturers completely stop //e, //c development. It certainly won't be untill after those machine are out of production. The //e and //c are still outselling the higher priced //gs, but the gs will come on strong as supply catches up and //gs only software hits the streets that does significantly more than //e, //c software. As a rough guess I'd say that the //e, //c software industry has another 2 to 3 years or good sales before things really start falling off. Most will have switched to almost exclusively //gs production by then. This assumes that Apple will phase out the //e and //c as the //gs production goes up and its price goes down. I presume that Apple will replace the //c with a portable version of the //gs. Disclaimer: All of the above is pure conjecture derived by gazing ito a crystal ball. Rick Fincher ranger@ecsvax