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One reason I've never gone to work for Apple (before they became Evil) was because I saw so many people who had poured their hearts into great products only to

One reason I've never gone to work for Apple (before they became Evil) was because I saw so many people who had poured their hearts into great products only to have them buried.

Shank 5y ago
I mean the core premise behind it not being launched is that it might have posed a significant risk to the business. It’s all about cost benefit analysis and trade offs. Every business will have products that seem cool or features that seem cool that get shelved for one reason or another and Apple is no exception. Sure, this concept might’ve been awesome and ignited a revolution. Or it might have sent Apple to the grave.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  > Sure, this concept might’ve been awesome and ignited a revolution. Or it might have sent Apple to the grave. The IBM PC almost did that - as soon as clones begun to appear, IBM was relegated as just another PC maker. They tried to make a software-compatible PC that would not be easy to clone in the PS/2, and they failed badly. Now IBM doesn't even make PCs or PC-based servers.
- TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
  It's a cool, revolutionary concept [1] but it would have overshadowed the Mac, which would have gone from being the star attraction to an optional add-on. There would also have been potential problems with manufs copying the bus spec and making their own hardware. Working through whether it would have been a good thing or a bad one is a very interesting case study. I suspect it could have been pushed towards being a good thing, but not without a lot of friction and changes in a company that was basically set up for commodity single-box products. [1] Actually it nearly isn't. It looks like a modular bus broken out into boxes - so basically S-100 or ISA, but with separate cases instead of cards. Which makes me wonder about potential speed issues. But it looks like a revolutionary concept, because it's much cleaner and more designer-y than anything else that was around.
  - joezydeco 5y ago
    And the beautiful design hid the fact that this would have been a nightmare to make it work in software. Plug-and-play just was not a thing in that era, and it's barely there now. I can't see how you would make the idea of "unplug the Apple ][ box and plug in an 80286 box" work without with a mountain of software to assist.
laumars 5y ago
That could literally happen at any company. Just because you have an idea, it doesn’t mean it’s commercially nor strategically viable.
- Taniwha 5y ago
  Well I've mostly worked for startups where we had to build the thing :-) But in Apple's case it was much bigger - lots of projects, people spent years built chips, whole new platforms, new technologies, 2d/3d rendering libraries - FireWire came so close to being still-born that its team was shopping it around 3rd parties trying to get them to drum up internal Apple support
mathattack 5y ago
Companies make these decisions all the time. What’s remarkable about Apple is how far they were allowed to take some of the prototypes.
burlesona 5y ago
This is common at any Big Tech company. There are dozens to hundreds of “prototype” projects going at any point in time, and while working on them you get paid a ton and have excellent job security, but no promise that your work will see the light of day. It’s not a terrible deal, and it’s a great learning experience. For some, it’s a great entire career. For others the not really shipping your work part is hard and thus it’s only good for a season of life, to learn and to pile up savings. But that can set you up well for leaving and trying your own startup later.

One reason I've never gone to work for Apple (before they became Evil) was because I saw so many people who had poured their hearts into great products only to have them buried.

Shank 5y ago

I mean the core premise behind it not being launched is that it might have posed a significant risk to the business. It’s all about cost benefit analysis and trade offs. Every business will have products that seem cool or features that seem cool that get shelved for one reason or another and Apple is no exception. Sure, this concept might’ve been awesome and ignited a revolution. Or it might have sent Apple to the grave.

rbanffy 5y ago
> Sure, this concept might’ve been awesome and ignited a revolution. Or it might have sent Apple to the grave. The IBM PC almost did that - as soon as clones begun to appear, IBM was relegated as just another PC maker. They tried to make a software-compatible PC that would not be easy to clone in the PS/2, and they failed badly. Now IBM doesn't even make PCs or PC-based servers.
TheOtherHobbes 5y ago
It's a cool, revolutionary concept [1] but it would have overshadowed the Mac, which would have gone from being the star attraction to an optional add-on. There would also have been potential problems with manufs copying the bus spec and making their own hardware. Working through whether it would have been a good thing or a bad one is a very interesting case study. I suspect it could have been pushed towards being a good thing, but not without a lot of friction and changes in a company that was basically set up for commodity single-box products. [1] Actually it nearly isn't. It looks like a modular bus broken out into boxes - so basically S-100 or ISA, but with separate cases instead of cards. Which makes me wonder about potential speed issues. But it looks like a revolutionary concept, because it's much cleaner and more designer-y than anything else that was around.
- joezydeco 5y ago
  And the beautiful design hid the fact that this would have been a nightmare to make it work in software. Plug-and-play just was not a thing in that era, and it's barely there now. I can't see how you would make the idea of "unplug the Apple ][ box and plug in an 80286 box" work without with a mountain of software to assist.

laumars 5y ago

That could literally happen at any company. Just because you have an idea, it doesn’t mean it’s commercially nor strategically viable.

Taniwha 5y ago
Well I've mostly worked for startups where we had to build the thing :-) But in Apple's case it was much bigger - lots of projects, people spent years built chips, whole new platforms, new technologies, 2d/3d rendering libraries - FireWire came so close to being still-born that its team was shopping it around 3rd parties trying to get them to drum up internal Apple support

mathattack 5y ago

Companies make these decisions all the time. What’s remarkable about Apple is how far they were allowed to take some of the prototypes.

burlesona 5y ago

This is common at any Big Tech company. There are dozens to hundreds of “prototype” projects going at any point in time, and while working on them you get paid a ton and have excellent job security, but no promise that your work will see the light of day. It’s not a terrible deal, and it’s a great learning experience. For some, it’s a great entire career. For others the not really shipping your work part is hard and thus it’s only good for a season of life, to learn and to pile up savings. But that can set you up well for leaving and trying your own startup later.