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I don't know the details very much, but maybe things were different back in their time when the market wasn't yet saturated? (My tech business history is pretty

• api 12y ago
  There were many hobbyist computers on the market when the Apple II launched.
• phkahler 12y ago
  Visicalc played a large roll. The father of a friend of mine bought an Apple II in large part to do spreadsheets. While we're at it, I remember reading the inventor of the spreadsheet went to the computer clubs as showed his work. They all said "well yeah it can do that, so what" and he showed it to accountants and they all ran out to get Apple computers to run it. I think a lot of hackers focus on neat hacks that interest themselves, but overlook relatively easy solutions that could be a big deal to others.
  • joezydeco 12y ago
    I owned an Apple ][ before VisiCalc was released. The transition was amazing. The home PCs were really just a curiosity before that. Look at Apple's early magazine ads. A mom filing recipes. A dad balancing his checkbook. Looked amazing in photos, but when you sat back and realized they wanted $1,200 for a tabletop calculator it really deflated the motivation to buy one. VisiCalc showed people that these machines were programmable in a way they could understand. That was a major breakthrough.