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Newsbytes - Internationa…ews 1983 May to 1994 June
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Newsbytes - International Computing Industry News 1994 Edition - May 1983 - June 1994 - Wayzata Technologies (5045) (1994).iso
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1984
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V36
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1991-10-04
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[***][1/31/84][***]
MACINTOSH:
While stockholders cheered, Apple chairman Steve Jobs pulled a MacIntosh
Computer out of its carrying case on Tuesday. He asked the standing-
room-only-crowd, "Will Big Blue dominate?" "NO!" they responded. With
that, Apple is launching a media blitz that aims to sell 250-thousand
MacIntosh computers by year's end. (IBM, hoping to steal some
thunder from Tuesday's event, announced the first PCjrs will be shipped
this Tuesday.) The Mac weighs in as expected: a 20 lb. "portable"
computer costing about $2,500, containing Lisa-like machine language
programs, a 3 1/2" floppy drive, a 9" monitor, 128K, bearing the 32-bit
chip, and two programs "MacWrite" and "MacPaint" which come free with
the computer, and a price tag of about $2,495. College students can buy
Macs from selected universities for $1,000. Apple is more than willing
to provide more details, call them through:
----
CONTACT: ANDREA CUNNINGHAM
REGIS MCKENNA PUBLIC RELATIONS
415-494-2030
----
RENEE OLSEN
APPLE COMPUTER, INC.
CUPERTINO, CA.
408-973-2042
----
[***][1/31/84][***][
MAC-WAKE:
There are reportedly 80-100 software programs being written for the Mac;
few of them are available yet. Also hardware designers are hard at
work. One product announced simultaneously with the Mac is Davong-
Systems' "Mac Disk" hard disk storage systems ranging from 5 to 32
megabytes. Company officers say the systems, along with a soon-to-be-
announced networking system for the Mac, will make it a good business
tool. More on the Mac can be seen in February's issue of "Personal
Computing" magazine which features MacIntosh on the cover.
----
CONTACT: DAVE JORGENSON
DAVONG SYSTEMS, INC.
SUNNYVALE, CA.
408-734-4900
----
BOB LYDON
PERSONAL COMPUTING
HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J.
201-393-6000
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
MAC-ANGER:
Some dealers are expressing concern about Apple's plan to sell the
Mac to college students for $1000. That undercuts part of their
market. Although dealers are getting royalties amounting to about
one-third Mac's selling price ($600-700) there's concern the high-
volume sales will be siphoned off by Apple's college program.
At least the situation isn't as bad as Christmas, when IIe computers
were selling at nearly cost for dealers, netting them only $30-$50
over cost for each computer sold. Christopher Aiken, at the Computer
Store of Oakland, says he can hold out "as long as Apple limits the
college student program to only a few months."
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
ROTTEN APPLES IN THE EAST:
Taiwan has convicted six owners of Taiwan companies who were
charged with violating Apple copyrights. The six were given eight
months in prison for illegally reproducing software designed by Apple.
This is the first such conviction in Taiwan (actually in Taipei)
since Apple filed suits last September. Apple has filed suits
against more than 40 companies that build Apple-like computers and
software.
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
PIRATE UPDATE:
Esther Dyson, president of Rosen Research, Inc. of New York, says her
surveys have shown software piracy is far more common that previously
thought: for every program sold there are 4-10 pirated. This, she
estimates, has cost the software industry $20 BILLION. She disputes
the theory that the person who pirates the software wouldn't have
purchased it in the first place, saying, without piracy, "industry
revenue would be considerably greater."
----
CONTACT: ESTHER DYSON
ROSEN RESEARCH, INC.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
ANOTHER 'BREAKTHRU' DUE:
Hewlett-Packard officers told several hundred security analysts last
week that they've decided to abandon a 32-bit computer project, in favor
of a "breakthrough" product that will be introduced in 1985. Exec.
Vice President Paul Ely says the company won't upgrade the HP3000 from
a 16-bit to a 32-bit microprocessor, as had been rumored, but instead,
will pursue a "new family" of H.P. computers. Meanwhile there are
improvements due to the "touch screen" H.P.150 this spring which may
include IBM 3270 (mainframe) compatibility. As for the HP150, H.P.
says it's been so successful that the company has decided to expand
its television campaign to 20 metropolitan markets, from 10.
----
CONTACT: HEWLETT PACKARD
PALO ALTO, CA.
415-857-1801
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
MARKET FUTURE SHOCK:
SRI International has come out with a study that spanks of trouble
ahead for all those forecasters who've said the computer industry is
on the brink of major expansion. SRI analysts say there will indeed,
be brisk sales of personal computers through the next two years, but
after that look for a 5.4-percent growth rate between 1986 and 1990.
(That's far more modest that Future Computing, for instance, predicts.)
Alan Purchase of SRI claims companies are fooling themselves if they
think they can sell mass quantities of computers to the nation's white
collar workers..he says most of them (nurses and salesmen) don't need
them.
----
CONTACT: ALAN PURCHASE, DIR. OF OFFICE AUTOMATION PROGRAMS
SRI INTERNATIONAL
MENLO PARK, CA.
415-326-6200
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
APRICOT HARVEST:
Meanwhile the British Applied Computer Technology made headlines this
week by claiming international orders for the machine have
exceeded $37 million. That doesn't include $27 million in the old
U.K. where the company is headquartered. Why is this virtual
unknown selling so many units? Probably because of its efficient
and extensive sales network.
----
CONTACT: CHRIS BUCKHAM
ACT INC. (North American Subsidiary)
SANTA CLARA, CA.
408-727-8090
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
DISK DRIVE SHAKEOUT, CONT.:
Storage Technology, which mostly manufactures mainframe disk drives, is
cutting the cord for 400 workers in Santa Clara and is virtually
giving up on its attempts to produce mainframes. The company has
been plagued by delays and high costs over the last year. Storage
tried for some time to cash in on the need for IBM mainframe disk drives,
but when IBM caught up with the demand, Storage lost money. Now it
appears it's also lost the lead in marketing mainframes. Storage
will keep 100 or so workers in Silicon Valley.
----
CONTACT: STORAGE TECHNOLOGY
SANTA CLARA, CA.
408-727-8172
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING ACTIVISION:
Yet another loss: this one a whopping $15 million is reported for
Activision. This brings the total lost to nearly $50 million compared
to one year ago (80-percent of revenues). The recent loss is attributed to
slumping Christmas sales of cartridges and company officers won't
say 1984 will be much better. There's a light at the end of the tunnel,
however. It comes from stock analyst Michael Murphy of Ca. Technology
Stock Letter. He believes Activision is cramming all its losses into
one quarter so the next one won't look so bad, and indeed, says Murphy,
"this" (quarter) "will be the last of the horrible news."
----
CONTACT: ACTIVISION
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA.
415-960-0410
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
FIGHTING BACK WITH LASERS:
The Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas featured Paramount Pictures,
Bally Midway and Sega Enterprices announcing a jointly produced laser-
disk game based on the upcoming new "Star Trek" movie. It reportedly
will use footage from the film and will be released this summer.
Laser disk games, however, haven't been the money-storm arcade
opeators had hoped. Two others, Sega's "Astron Belt" and "Cliffhanger"
didn't bring in very much $$$$. Just reaching arcades is Mylstar's
M.A.C.H. 3, featuring the player as a bomber over a photographed
background. It's too early to tell the success of that game.
----
CONTACT: PARAMOUNT PICTURES
LOS ANGELES, CA.
213-468-5800
----
[***][1/31/84][***]
SICK OF EVERYTHING?
Join "Crabapple" the latest club for computer-haters, computer-phobics
and the like. The club is the brain-child of computer-phobic Steven
Stroum, who spent too many nights being rejected by his spouse in favor
of a heartless, obedient keyboard. The official name for the club is
the "Crabapple Anti-Computer Club". It features a logo of a worm coming
out of an apple. Stroum would be glad to send you information. Membership
is $19 a year and for that you also get a bi-monthly newsletter.
----
CONTACT: STEVEN M. STROUM
CRABAPPLE ANTI-COMPUTER CLUB
FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
617-877-4519