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CHOMP! Mmmm, Retail-y (6/22/98)
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It seems like the only things that happen in the tech world anymore are litigation and buyouts; everyone's suing everyone else, and the monotony is only broken when one of the players swallows another one whole. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing. Take CompUSA's announced acquisition of the Computer City retail chain, for example; CompUSA sauntered up to Tandy Corp. and said, "Gee. it's a shame Computer City's losing you money. Y'know, we'd take it off your hands for, say, $275 mil." And so the deal was done; read the details over at ZDNet.
Why is this a good thing? Well, it certainly isn't good for everyone; for one thing, if CompUSA closes many of the Computer City stores, that's one fewer place where consumers can buy their equipment, and less competition, which we never like. But it could be a good thing for the Mac universe; remember, Apple yanked all the Macs from Computer City months ago, when it became apparent that it was just another retail chain that didn't care about selling Macs. Now that CompUSA is the only national retail chain that sells Macs, it behooves us all to see CompUSA grow and thrive. (Not that CompUSA's doing such a hot job of displaying and selling Macs themselves these days, but we still have high hopes.)
Whether or not any of the 100-odd Computer City stores will be converted into CompUSA's remains to be seen. We're guessing that just about everywhere there's a Computer City, though, a CompUSA isn't too far away. Apple may get a tiny boost from this buyout, since no more Computer City stores means more buyers will go to CompUSA instead-- where at least there's a non-zero chance that a first-time buyer will get a Mac instead of a Wintel, especially once the iMacs are out.
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/22/98 episode: June 22, 1998: The iMac modem issue would appear to be resolved, with a 56K upgrade due in the fall. Meanwhile, Bill Gates looks to make another billion or so by selling a free web browser and a slew of fixes to bugs that shouldn't have been there in the first place, and CompUSA increases its girth by chowing down on struggling Computer City...
Other scenes from that episode: 795: The Modem That Wasn't (6/22/98) Once a plausible rumor appears both on Reality and Mac OS Rumors, that's about as official as it gets without Apple confirming it themselves. So at this point, we're totally willing to accept that the iMac will indeed ship with a software-based modem... 796: The Herd Mentality (6/22/98) Do you know anyone who'll buy any piece of junk they come across that has, say, the South Park kids emblazoned on it? (Not that we aren't fans of South Park; it's a random example.) Because that appears to be the mentality that analysts expect among early Windows 98 buyers; some people will buy any operating system with a Microsoft logo on it...
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