It’s become fashionable lately for all kinds of Apple contingents and customers to present “Top 10” lists for the company to address. Everyone from MIS managers to developers to scientific users have come up with their own list of demands. Sooner or later, the Letterman people are going to sue. Until they do, though, here is my Top 10 list of demands if Apple is going to fight for the home market the way they claim they will.
1. In-store support
Every good Mac buyer knows all about the big mail-order companies. The problem is that not every Mac buyer is a knowledgeable one, and many certainly aren’t before they buy their first machines. What impresses me about Intel almost as much as their Pentium turnaround is that the company dispatches representatives to major computer stores getting people to buy more Pentium-based PCs . Here’s a company that gets the benefit of several major, and many minor, computer companies doing its marketing for it, and it still aggressively courts users face-to-face.
Even Microsoft, which rarely does store duties, has whipped up a nice kiosk to tout their OS and applications. Now that the Women’s Conference in China is over, maybe Apple could use some of those lent-out Macs to use here in the States. If Macs are such great multimedia machines, why not show it instead of running some pathetic emulated glorified Director slide show left over from the debut of the PowerMacs.
2. Advertising in more game magazines
I honestly don’t know what Inside Mac Games’ advertising rates are, but companies a lot smaller than Apple have found a way to advertise here. Preaching to the converted, you say? Maybe, but the company has a vested interest beyond the immediate higher profit margins in seeing the installed base move quickly to PowerPC. The 030 is dead as far as new games go and those 040 Performas still being gobbled up at CompUSA are living on borrowed time.
Let’s forget stroking the hand that publishes me, though. How about Apple advertise in some of the more PC and console-oriented magazines like the fabulously fresh Next Generation? Time for Cupertino to go to Mohammed.
3. 5200-class machines for under $2000
The Power Macintosh 5200 and progeny have earned praise for an industrial design worthy of Apple. It’s compact. It’s distinctive. It costs $300 too much. Most users don’t have ping pong tables lying around on which to put a 6100 machine with its dead NuBus architecture. $2000 is the sweet spot for most consumers. Apple has to get PowerPCs with quad-speed CD-ROMs into the hands of families at that price point.
4. Alliance with major console maker
The release of Road & Track’s Need for Speed came at approximately the same time as another instance of the rich getting richer--Sega’s announcement that it will develop games for Windows 95. Sure, the spiffier Saturn-based stuff will require a $300 3D acceleration card, but that’s still $100 less than the price of a Saturn at this point, and the card is a general multimedia accelerator useful for other programs as well.
Apple has had a rich relationship with Sony through the years. At one point of another, so much of the Mac has been “Sony guts” that people have joked that the “It’s a Sony” logo would be a more appropriate logo than Apple’s for the Mac case. Pippin is no competition for the likes of the PlayStation and Saturn. Time for Apple and Sony to develop a PlayStation-on-a-PCI-card that works on Macs and PCs, sells for $200, and plays PlayStation games without modification. What a fabulous way to get Mac gamers leading-edge games without encouraging sales of DOS and Windows applications! That should send Sega’s plans to expand its market to personal computers beyond Saturn.
5. Smaller release time gaps
Wolfenstein, Doom, Rebel Assault, Super Wing Commander. All games ported with various levels of success but long after anyone cared anymore. Even chocolate donuts get stale if you wait too long. Maybe simultaneous release of Mac and PC titles is too much to ask for, but a year or longer is too long to way for a port. Now that Microsoft is making it easier for Windows game companies to develop games, Apple should at least make sure that there’s an easy Mac equivalent for anything they do.
6. Killer game bundled with Copland
OK, Apple. Copland is your no-more-excuses operating system. Nothing holding back PowerPC hardware now, right? Prove it with some exampleware, and not some lame demo. Make it fast. Make it 3D. Make it free. And make Windows users cry. Bundle something that will make those NT users want MacOS on their CHRP boxes; something that will make Hover run for cover. You don’t have to develop it in-house, just make sure it has the potential for untold lost hours of productivity.
7. Marathon-league Mac-only games
Marathon was a watershed Mac game in many ways. It didn’t introduce a new genre like SimCity or Spectre did, but it may be even more significant because unlike those titles, or Myst, it has stayed on the Mac and only on the Mac. Apple needs to treat small Mac game developers like Bungie, Casady & Greene and Delta Tao like gold, because that’s what their products can generate for Apple.
We’ve yet to see the game that really juices the PowerPC, damn the Pentium and full speed ahead!
8. Aggressive translation of Pippin titles
Bandai, an Apple Pippin booster once told me, owns the toy market in Japan. That may be, but being a popular doll manufacturer didn’t allow Mattel or Coleco to own the video game market when they took stabs at them. Nevertheless, Bandai seems to be lining up some interest from game developers as formidable as Namco, creators of Ridge Racer and other hot PlayStation and arcade titles. If Power Player developers can quickly localize these titles for the US Mac market, it could be a tremendous boon to Mac gaming. Apple must also work to ensure a good variety of Mac games is available. The platform seems to repel sports games like they were a virus.
9. Support of Universal Serial Bus
Wouldn’t it be great if you could take advantage of all those cool joysticks and VR helmets in the PC world without sacrificing the plug and play or convenience of Apple Desktop Bus. That’s the promise of USB, an Intel standard that the chip manufacturer will build onto the motherboards that are used by the likes of Dell and Gateway 2000. If the Mac had USB, input device makers like Gravis and Logitech would have to only create Mac drivers for their joysticks instead of having to create special ADB versions. The argument is the same one that has led to Apple’s very successful PCI transition.
Besides, when was the last time you were able to buy a $9.99 mouse for your Mac. This is the kind of price the volume and competition of the PC peripherals market brings.
10. 3D acceleration on the motherboard
The PowerPC is a great chip, but will it really be able to stand up to the threat of fast Pentiums with on-board accelerators? If rumors are true that Apple has a sub-$100 chipset that can do QuickDraw 3D acceleration, it should include it on the motherboard of consumer systems. The publicity of having dedicated 3D acceleration has been a PR panacea for the PlayStation; Apple should follow suit.
When MacIS presents its Top 10, Apple presents a formal answer. Will we see one here? I guess that depends on whether Apple really believes the gaming market is a serious one for them.
-------------
Ross Scott Rubin is an IMG senior editor. He welcomes feedback at rossrubin@aol.com.
