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Exponential Bitterness (5/28/98)
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Bitter much? That's the question to ask the guys from Exponential Technology, Inc., whom you may remember as the company who was going to push the PowerPC into the stratosphere with its 533 MHz x704 processor. Well, as things turned out (or didn't), the x704 failed to live up to its promise, Apple (Exponential's biggest investor) pulled out of the deal, and Exponential closed its doors. It wasn't a pretty sight. But what really isn't pretty is this deliciously catty tell-all article, in which Exponential's CEO Rick Shriner is quoted as saying, "I feel badly that the Mac is dying and going away, but after experiencing this betrayal, I think, the sooner the better." Meow!
The article is definitely worth reading, even though it seems to contain some factual errors (the Mach 5 604e's aren't G3's, are they?) and a decidedly "Apple is dead" slant. As far as AtAT's official take on the whole thing, we feel sorry for Exponential, but we don't think Apple did anything they shouldn't have; the x704 was late, when it finally became available, it wasn't as fast as it was supposed to be, and the latest Mach 5 604e's from Motorola were definitely faster, probably cheaper, and probably used a lot less power. In a critical juncture in which Apple's fighting for its life, they're expected to bet the farm on an unproven chip? (Not that Apple hasn't made such goofy decisions in the past, but still.) Even if cloning hadn't been squished, we don't see any reason that the cloners would use x704's when better alternatives were readily available. The whole thing is one big fiasco, but hey, what's a soap opera without a little tragedy now and again?
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SceneLink (744)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/28/98 episode: May 28, 1998: An old cast member resurfaces to hiss and scratch about Apple. Meanwhile, Byte magazine goes bye-bye, and the FTC suits up to put the Bunnymen on trial for not playing fair...
Other scenes from that episode: 745: Print Is Dead (5/28/98) If you thought MacUser getting absorbed by MacWorld was an indication of the Mac's further decline into obscurity, well, to a certain degree, you're absolutely right. And if you saw the recent announcement that MacWEEK's print edition will be changing its name to eMedia Weekly to reflect its coverage of Windows as well as the Mac, you probably thought that was another sign of flagging Mac market share-- and again, you'd be right... 746: Antitrust-A-Go-Go (5/28/98) Those wacky feds are at it again! This time they're going after the other half of the "Wintel" hegemony, as the Federal Trade Commission prepares to launch an antitrust lawsuit against Intel for allegedly using their 85% share of the personal computer processor market to squelch competition in the chipmaking field...
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