shani@TAURUS.BITNET (03/07/89)
I believe some of you will be able to relate to what I am writing here. However, this is not just crying on your shoulder - I realy hope people (especialy you guys at apple) will help me find a solution. I have this idea to use HyperCard to create a certain kind of training aids, which I call 'simutorials' ( the name is a combination of 'simulator' and 'tutorial' - and that's what it's realy all about). HyperCard seem to be the perfect tool for this purpose, for example, I wrote a simulator for a simple microprocessor, and it took me only about 10 hours to write it, and it was real fun. However, there is one problem. You see, what I have in mind, is to attend these simutorials, mainly for usage in computer-classes, i.e., most of my attended clients, are not people who already own a Mac, but rather schools, and other institutes, that will have to buy the Macs, with the software, and this is where the catch is - they won't! they will just ask 'can't we do this on a made-in-taiwan-PC-competible?' You see, the fact that it will take 10 times development time on a PC, and will never give the same results as with Mac/HC, doesn't seem to be in anyone's interest. What does interest people is that you can buy two PC's for the price of one Mac SE, and when it comes to a class of 40 computers, that's a great difference. I'd like to know more about how to deal with this problem. I think apple should take note here. I think the Mac worth what it costs (especialy comparing to IBM-PC and it's competibles), but how can we make others see it? And don't send me to the local dealers - They only care about making safe money... O.S.
sobiloff@thor.acc.stolaf.edu (Blake Sobiloff) (03/09/89)
The first thing that you need to do is make sure that the school or business knows about the good discounts that are available from Apple on their products. I'm not very familiar with the business discounts, but the HEPP program for higher education gives great discounts and is a good way to buy your equipment. Secondly, and again speaking from the school perspective (although I would hope that it would be true of the business market as well), Macs have far more level learning curves and create output that is superior to any other platform for the money you pay. I guess what I'm saying in a nutshell is that you are going to have to be an evangelist and "enlighten" the masses. Tell them that computer novices prefer Macs over cheap clones! Tell them that they are the easiest computer to network! Tell them, tell them, and sell them! Good luck... Blake "Hey, where's *MY* fancy signature?" Sobiloff sobiloff@thor.acc.stolaf.edu
dent@unocss.UUCP (Dave Caplinger) (03/10/89)
From article <988@taurus.BITNET>, by shani@TAURUS.BITNET: > > ... > anyone's interest. What does interest people is that you can buy two PC's > for the price of one Mac SE, and when it comes to a class of 40 computers, > that's a great difference. > > I'd like to know more about how to deal with this problem. I think apple > should take note here. I think the Mac worth what it costs (especialy comparing > to IBM-PC and it's competibles), but how can we make others see it? > I almost agree with you here. The Mac is certainly worth more than a "made- in-Taiwan-PC-Compatible", but I'm not willing to concede that current Mac prices are "worth it". But apparently, the <1000$ Mac will come out eventually (soon? "Year of the CPU"?). One solution that I think Apple might be going for is the Apple ][ (No, not "//", I have a ][+, and it's NOT a //+ :-) Education market. Apple has just about wrapped up the Education market, and with all those Apple ]['s, they're not going to just "go Mac" and throw away all the software they already have. Enter project "Golden Gate" that I think they've been talking about on comp.sys.apple recently... A Mac that runs Apple ][ software. (It doesn't look like it should be /all/ that difficult but you never know.. the Mega ][ chip has been doing just fine... ) Hopefully, the "<$1000 Mac" will /be/ project golden gate. (And of course, I would expect (hope?) for a Nubus card to do the same for existing Macs.. (but I hope it's CHEAP...) > And don't send me to the local dealers - They only care about making safe > money... > > O.S. Especially the smaller Apple dealers. Apparently, the small dealer is at a great disadvantage because the larger dealers get greater discounts from Apple because of the volume of sales they "move" out the door. So, the smaller dealer is hard pressed to compete with the larger ones (Heath/Zenith is an Apple dealer here in Omaha, and they are BIG. They can even match Apple's Education Discounts for the University Consortium usually.) How can a start- up compete with something that big? Easy. They have to throw in the towel and get bought out by one of the big fish. I'm not flaming upset here, but I'm a little dissapointed, since I used to work for that small-town Apple Dealer that I'm talking about, and I bought their very first computer (back when the ][+ was NEW.) from them. I've known the owners since they opened the store, and most of the employees as well, and they were excellent. They were always helpfull and friendly, and now that they're run by one of the "big fish" in Omaha (not Heath/Zenith, incidentally), their staff stinks. I used to send anyone that asked to that computer store, and now I warn them away from it. Get a clue, Apple. As one of your former emplyees (in a way), I have to admit that I'm quite disappointed in your salesmen now. Maybe I'm wrong, and the Apple salesmen stink only in Omaha. Surprise me! Post about an actual /excellent/ dealer that you've had experiences with. -/ Dave Caplinger /------------------+----------------------------------- Microcomputer Specialist | Internet: unocc07@zeus.unl.edu "Computing and Data Communications" | UUCP: uunet!btni!unocss!dent University of Nebraska at Omaha | Bitnet: UNOCC07@UNOMA1 Omaha, NE 68182 | or dc3a+@andrew.cmu.edu
shani@TAURUS.BITNET (03/16/89)
In article <707@unocss.UUCP>, dent@unocss.BITNET writes: > > One solution that I think Apple might be going for is the Apple ][ (No, not > "//", I have a ][+, and it's NOT a //+ :-) Education market. Oh sure! just gimme HyperCard for the Mac ][ + and I'll gladly do it! I think you miss the point here. Education market, without something like hypercard, is a wasted potential. The thing is that in order to create a GOOD educational software, you have to put as little limitations on the creator's creativity as possible. If you have to write educational software, using a dull (note the double meaning here) programming language, like pascal, and waste most of your time on facing language limitations, then you will not get much beyond what we already have. I want to be able to do more then just arithmetic training program, and to do that, I need a Mac and Hypercard. O.S.