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To: TexasGator
Apple didn’t sell Apple. VisiCalc sold Apple.

That's one viewpoint. The apps, thousands of which became available for the Apple II. That wasn't the primary reason for most people. I bought one of the first ones, an early 1977 revision 0 (called that later because it was the original before modified motherboards were released), because it was an elegant combination of components as a whole package, easy to use, and well thought out. That's what Apple is known for. I still have it and use it, after upgrading it with USB and CompactFlash cards that hold many thousands of programs now freely downloadable off the Internet. I did get Visicalc later after buying it, but only after disc drives became available. The Altair and Imsai machines appealed to me but were clunky, and a chore loading binary programs via toggle switches. The TRS-80 and Pet variety of machines were cheap plastic and not well thought out. Then again, Apple had color graphics going for it, which were not available on most of the others (until much later, the Amiga being one of the best). All these other machines faded away into obscurity, which was my point about the competition to Apple.

139 posted on 09/10/2014 10:53:55 AM PDT by roadcat
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To: roadcat

“That’s one viewpoint. The apps, thousands of which became available for the Apple II. That wasn’t the primary reason for most people. “

The spreadsheet was the driving force. Apple had VisiCalc for about a year before the others started getting it.

Then along came Lotus 1-2-3 and boom! No one in our office touched an apple after that.


140 posted on 09/10/2014 10:58:55 AM PDT by TexasGator
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To: roadcat

“I still have it and use it, after upgrading it with USB and CompactFlash cards that hold many thousands of programs now freely downloadable off the Internet. “

Are you posting from it? Just curious. What programs are you using ....


142 posted on 09/10/2014 11:03:50 AM PDT by TexasGator
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