23 Dec
2016
23 Dec
'16
7:56 p.m.
On 23 December 2016 at 16:00, allison <ajp166 at verizon.net> wrote:
When the timex/sinclair with membrane keys got her eit
was around 99$
and immensely unpopular the later chicklet keyboard version was better
accepted.
BY then people wanted printer and mass storage and that machine was 2-4
years
behind the expectations curve.
I think that is the best example of what I'm talking about in your comment.
I've checked... The Apple ][ was $1298 in 1977. The Apple ][E was
?1390 in 1983. The price didn't drop much, but the spec improved
instead.
That was, from the prices in Mike's computer fair report, ITRO ?650-?700.
The Sinclair ZX-80, ZX-81 and ZX Spectrum were all ITRO ?100 or so
when new, all within the time period between those 2 US models.
And yet, in the occasional US computer magazine I'd see, the Apple
machines were praised as low-cost personal computers compared to
business machines, IIRC and AIUI.
OK, so my ?100/$1000 comparison was a bit off, but rather than a delta
of 10? we are looking at one of 6-7?. So I wasn't far off!
These were machines for non-techies to play with, notably, soon, for
kids to play games on.
The pre-Apple-II machines, the era of DIY things with discrete boards,
no graphics, no sound, were both of little interest to non-specialists
(or those who didn't want to be specialists) or kids, AFAICT. I could
be wrong. They weren't of much interest to _me_ at 10YO or so, I can
attest that.
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