4 ms·

Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan (1981) [pdf]

45 points by stmw 8y ago

joezydeco 8y ago
The plan mentions project “VLC” which seems to be the //c. But what was project “Doublemint”?
- jnaina 8y ago
  Yes, VLC (Very Low Cost) was one of the several codenames for what became the Apple Iic during it's development
- stmw 8y ago
  Haven't been able to figure that out.. hopefully someone on Hackernews tells us.
- kristianp 8y ago
  External minifloppies (Doublemint): https://archive.org/stream/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirements_Document_Apr80_alt/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirements_Document_Apr80_alt_djvu.txt https://archive.org/stream/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirem...
  - joezydeco 8y ago
    Awesome! Thanks.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mapgrep 8y ago
Notice all the emphasis on how the Mac would benefit from being $1500, significantly cheaper than many other machines of the era, even Apple //. Macintosh instead debuted at $2495 — considered by many in hindsight a big mistake. The much more usable version with 512k(vs 128k) was north of $3000. This is all in 1980s dollars, too. (IIRC the launch of Mac coincided with a spike in RAM prices.)
- stmw 8y ago
  The theme of price points was a recurring one, although it's not clear if $1500 was really an good faith projection, or just an attempt to position internally versus the bigger Lisa project?
- joezydeco 8y ago
  Here's Andy Hertzfeld's view of how the Mac pricing evolved: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Price_Fight.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...
  - mapgrep 8y ago
    I had no idea that a $50 cost overrun on a disk drive pushed them up $500 to $1995! Not sure I agree with the logic there. Then it seems to have been one bad executive call from there to $2495 (thanks, Sculley). So you could argue (it's a stretch!) that the $50 drive price increase ended up driving the price up $1000.
    - joezydeco 8y ago
      Well, read that sentence again... "When combined with a few other recent splurges, it pushed us over the top, so we grudgingly accepted that the Macintosh would have to debut for $1995." What those other "splurges" are is unclear.
tivert 8y ago
Was this for the Jef Raskin-era Mac, that was more of a Canon Cat that what we today think of as a Macintosh?

45 points by stmw 8y ago

joezydeco 8y ago

The plan mentions project “VLC” which seems to be the //c. But what was project “Doublemint”?

jnaina 8y ago
Yes, VLC (Very Low Cost) was one of the several codenames for what became the Apple Iic during it's development
stmw 8y ago
Haven't been able to figure that out.. hopefully someone on Hackernews tells us.
kristianp 8y ago
External minifloppies (Doublemint): https://archive.org/stream/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirements_Document_Apr80_alt/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirements_Document_Apr80_alt_djvu.txt https://archive.org/stream/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirem...
- joezydeco 8y ago
  Awesome! Thanks.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

mapgrep 8y ago

Notice all the emphasis on how the Mac would benefit from being $1500, significantly cheaper than many other machines of the era, even Apple //. Macintosh instead debuted at $2495 — considered by many in hindsight a big mistake. The much more usable version with 512k(vs 128k) was north of $3000. This is all in 1980s dollars, too. (IIRC the launch of Mac coincided with a spike in RAM prices.)

stmw 8y ago
The theme of price points was a recurring one, although it's not clear if $1500 was really an good faith projection, or just an attempt to position internally versus the bigger Lisa project?
joezydeco 8y ago
Here's Andy Hertzfeld's view of how the Mac pricing evolved: http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Price_Fight.txt http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...
- mapgrep 8y ago
  I had no idea that a $50 cost overrun on a disk drive pushed them up $500 to $1995! Not sure I agree with the logic there. Then it seems to have been one bad executive call from there to $2495 (thanks, Sculley). So you could argue (it's a stretch!) that the $50 drive price increase ended up driving the price up $1000.
  - joezydeco 8y ago
    Well, read that sentence again... "When combined with a few other recent splurges, it pushed us over the top, so we grudgingly accepted that the Macintosh would have to debut for $1995." What those other "splurges" are is unclear.

tivert 8y ago

Was this for the Jef Raskin-era Mac, that was more of a Canon Cat that what we today think of as a Macintosh?