In roughly reverse sequence, Denys wrote:
> P.P.S. Better keep an extinguisher handy when you use them Powerbooks.
They
> tend to get a mite hot. ;->
An unfortunate case of misinterpreted specs. The requirement was to "make a
PowerBook that will set the world on fire!" Unfortunately, the engineers
took this literally, making a PowerBook that is lame in design and tends to,
well, alight when used with Sony Lithium Ion batteries. :( Hopefully,
their future efforts will be closer to the 5xx series, but lighter and with
more leading edge features. (I hope too that they skip the ThinkPad-styly
"butterfly" keyboard.) But I digress... ;)
> P.S. You will notice I refrained from saying Crapple and MacIntrash or
> MacIntoys.
Nice that Oracle, PowerBuilder, and others have decided to get in the toy
business.
> But I would not agree with giving priority to Mac integration to the
> HP3000 ahead of Windows integration.
I'm afraid I don't know where this came from. Certainly I made no mention
of giving *priority* to Mac integration over Windows integration!
> I have always believed in healthy competition and would hate
> to see Macs go the way of the Commodore 64. Whilst I use PC and Windows
95
> and NT with my HP3000 and HP9000 instead of Macs, I do not want to see
Macs
> go away.
Indeed! This competition has, to my understanding, "helped" Apple to better
appreciate their third-party developers, and to provide support for them.
Besides, If the Mac went away, who would Microsoft copy? ;)
> [Apple's] share of the market, by all accounts is 10% and shrinking.
They are
> not what I would characterize as 'a good shape'.
Not quite all accounts. If you'll permit:
=================================================================
TABLE 1--IDG PRELIMINARY TOP 10 VENDORS, US PC SHIPMENTS, Q3 1995*
Q3/95 % MARKET Q3/94 % MARKET GROWTH
RANK VENDOR SHIP SHARE SHIP SHARE 95/94
1 Apple 795 13.9% 637 13.5% 25%
2 Packard Bell 705 12.4% 560 11.9% 26%
3 Compaq 670 11.7% 555 11.7% 21%
4 IBM 490 8.6% 480 10.2% 2%
5 HP 305 5.3% 68 1.4% 349%
6 Dell 295 5.2% 211 4.5% 40%
7 Gateway 288 5.0% 224 4.7% 29%
8 Acer 198 3.5% 119 2.5% 66%
9 Toshiba 190 3.3% 158 3.3% 20%
10 Digital 111 1.9% 82 1.7% 35%
Other 1,660 29.1% 1,628 34.5% 2%
TOTAL 5,707 100.0% 4,722 100.0% 21%
* Shipments are branded shipments and exclude OEM Sales for all vendor.
Data for all vendors are reported for calendar periods.
Source: International Data Corporation, Personal Systems Group, 11/10/95
Contact: Eric Lewis (415) 962-6467 or Bruce Stephen (508) 935-4269
TABLE 2--DATAQUEST Q3 US UNIT SHIPMENTS BY VENDOR*
Q3/95 %MARKET
RANK VENDOR SHIP SHARE
1 Apple 788 13.1%
2 Compaq 727 12.1%
3 Packard Bell 711 11.8%
4 IBM 493 8.2%
5 HP 328 5.4%
TOTAL 5,707 100.0%
* Shipments rounded
Source: Dataquest Inc. 11/10/95
Contact: Tom McCall 408-468-8235
=================================================================
In addition, their $1 billion backlog has been reduced to $600 million. (Of
course, that's MUCH too much in the first place.)
Truly, it is not my intention to debate Mac vs. Windows. My point was that
HP has developed a product for a very real user base, and has chosen to do
nearly zero marketing for it. (To my recollection, outside of the
Communicator, the existence of AppleTalk Services for the HP3000 has been
mentioned by HP only in the TCU video conference, and at a single station
in HP's booth at last year's Interex conference.) They have created the
product already; why not sell it?!
--Glenn Cole
Software al dente, Inc.
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