29 Jun
2006
29 Jun
'06
5:36 a.m.
Yes, that is remarkable, but last I checked the PS/2
line doesn't have
*any* ISA slots which means people had to buy sound cards, joystick
adapters, SuperVGA boards, internal modems, etc. etc. all over again.
At 2X the price. That was a colossally bad move for the consumer
market, which ended up driving the market the most anyway.
Was it? Realistically, did a big percentage of new computer sales
during the PS/2 era really involve upgrades? Maybe in the consumer
geek market, but that is not IBM's domain. For new PeeCee sales I
remember at the time (recall that back then most consumer sales were
to folks that never had a PC based computer), most people just wanted
a whole new machine, with perhaps the exceptions being the printer and
tube.
Yes, they tried to get the PS/2 into the consumer market, and they did
fail. But...
IBM's big, and I mean BIG, market is the business market. Other than
the Ma and Pa penny pinching firms, NOBODY did card by card upgrades.
Just get a whole new machine. Or a truckload of them. Just like today.
--
Will