L77@TAUNOS.BITNET (09/22/90)
>Apple wants the series dead.The fact that Apple hasn't put out a significant >new Apple II box in 4 years proves they are trying to kill it. As a IIgs owner,I find myself enjoying **VERY MUCH** my machine being the top-of-the-line in it's make,and that it's been like this for 4 years now.I can remember the cry of IIe/IIc users in A+,Incider,BBSs,and other media,back in beggining of 1987,when they realised that the interest is focusing on the new machine,turning away from theirs. I bought my GS right as it came out.There was a LONG LONG period of very little software available,almost-no peripherals/cards,hardly any technical litrature available,awkward,buggy,dissatisfying operating-systems, and 2.8 Mhz considered as.....huh,'fast'...!So in a way,I feel that these days,with Transwarp GS,System 5.02,loads of software (still a good deal to do there) are hard earned,and I wouldn't like to see a new II coming out, stealing away all the attention the GS is at long last getting from 3rd party companies and developers. Think of the hundreds of hours you spent reading magazines,picking some things and ignoring others,looking into adds,downloading,reading Info-Apple,etc,-all channelled to designing the machine MANY people use,into the unique one YOU use.Yes,building up a library of my machine's specific litrature and software,tailoring those little things that make the machine suit ME,softwarewise and hardwarewise,-the idea of starting that all over again on a new machine exhausts me. Of course,Apple's obscure position towards the II line holds the II world from being far more active and vivid.And it's true that putting out new machines is regarded as reflecting a company's intention to keep up support for a line.But the opposite is not necessarily true: If Apple went on improving the GS in small steps,like the ROM 03 enhancement, only much more often,and especially,*** PROVIDING OWNERS OF PRESENT MACHINES WITH THE POSSIBILITY TO UPGRADE ***,then It would achieve 3 important goals: DEMONSTRATING to potential customers and to developers it's support for the machine,keeping it up to competition with Amigas etc,and letting present GS owners enjoy their machine's late blossom.All of these in far,far lower costs than it would take developing a new machine. Yoram P.S.:And above all,There's no point in putting out a new II,as long as the GS's potential is *SO* far from having been exploited.