[SIGCIS-Members] Counterfactual history: Did the Mac cost Apple a shot at market leadership?

[Evan Koblentz]

> So should we conclude that Jobs and the Macintosh cost Apple it’s chance
> of being a dominant force in the late-1980s PC market?

I don't think you can conclude either way, but I lean toward "no".

Even if Apple were quicker to make the Lisa cheaper, faster, and with 
more applications, they still would have faced tremendous competition 
from the Atari ST, AT&T Unix PC, Commodore Amiga, etc. -- along with the 
cash-cow that was the huge Apple II user base (not to be confused with 
the Mac II which you accidentally wrote as Apple II.)

Another thing that could've happened had they stuck with Lisa is 
Microsoft might have moved more quickly to develop Windows.

________________________________
Evan Koblentz, director
Vintage Computer Federation
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evan at vcfed.org
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