3 ms·

why the Apple II was still kept around for that long is kind of a mystery to me. It's not games. Maybe educational customers? Maybe next to no migration path f

by Scuds 12y ago

why the Apple II was still kept around for that long is kind of a mystery to me. It's not games. Maybe educational customers? Maybe next to no migration path for business users? I had an uncle who ran a veterinarian clinic off of Appleworks and several floppies worth of data for god knows how long. "Works for me" is a powerful force, and they'd probably squeezed all the costs out of the Apple II line.

diydsp 12y ago
There are many reasons, but one of the big subtleties that should get remembered is that the Apple II had essentially two great epics: Epic 1: The Apple II sold with no expansion cards, but many expansion slots. Hackers and business designed addons for years. Epic 2: the Apple IIe (and later IIc) were sold with an optimal set of expansion cards. So you had one generation of experimentation and a second generation that leveraged all the hard work!
- StillBored 12y ago
  "Hackers and business designed addons for years." Hackers and "business" continue to design and sell cards for them! (CompactFlash & USB-storage interface card) http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforA... (ethernet boards) http://a2retrosystems.com/ http://a2retrosystems.com/ (RAM boards) http://www.brielcomputers.com/wordpress/?p=321 http://www.brielcomputers.com/wordpress/?p=321
StillBored 12y ago
"Apple II was still kept around for that long is kind of a mystery to me." There was a very strong following, especially in the educational market. I remember seeing schools purchasing labs of IIGS's as late as the early 1990's. Basically, the apple ][ was the cash cow that kept Apple afloat for years while they tried to sell 68k macs. Apple basically tried to kill the II for a decade but wasn't successful enough to just cut off the customer base that was crying for new models.

by Scuds 12y ago

diydsp 12y ago

There are many reasons, but one of the big subtleties that should get remembered is that the Apple II had essentially two great epics: Epic 1: The Apple II sold with no expansion cards, but many expansion slots. Hackers and business designed addons for years. Epic 2: the Apple IIe (and later IIc) were sold with an optimal set of expansion cards. So you had one generation of experimentation and a second generation that leveraged all the hard work!

StillBored 12y ago
"Hackers and business designed addons for years." Hackers and "business" continue to design and sell cards for them! (CompactFlash & USB-storage interface card) http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforAppleII/main.php http://dreher.net/?s=projects/CFforAppleII&c=projects/CFforA... (ethernet boards) http://a2retrosystems.com/ http://a2retrosystems.com/ (RAM boards) http://www.brielcomputers.com/wordpress/?p=321 http://www.brielcomputers.com/wordpress/?p=321

StillBored 12y ago

"Apple II was still kept around for that long is kind of a mystery to me." There was a very strong following, especially in the educational market. I remember seeing schools purchasing labs of IIGS's as late as the early 1990's. Basically, the apple ][ was the cash cow that kept Apple afloat for years while they tried to sell 68k macs. Apple basically tried to kill the II for a decade but wasn't successful enough to just cut off the customer base that was crying for new models.