[Info-vax] AltaVista background information

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2011-10-16 11.47, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply wrote:
> In article<j7e8sq$jm4$1 at solani.org>, Michael Kraemer<M.Kraemer at gsi.de>
> writes:
>
>>> Marketing is essential.  As the recent blast from the past indicates,
>>> there was perhaps a real interest in using ALPHA from Apple.
>>
>> And who blew that deal, Olsen or Palmer?
>> Or was it Apple?
>
> According to the article, it was Olsen.  This was before Palmer would
> arrive.  Apple expressed interest, Olsen was against it since he didn't
> want the fortune of the company riding on ALPHA.

Would be interesting to see the timeline and facts that supports this. 
The Alpha was only released at the same time as Olsen left. For Olsen to 
have affected this, the negotiations with Apple must have been going on 
before the Alpha was announced, and possibly not even ready. And how 
could Apple know enough to know they wanted the chip at that time?

>>> Apple is
>>> still around, of course, a master of marketing,
>>
>> They have products everybody wants anyway, so marketing is easy.
>
> Yes, today, but one could argue that they created the demand.  They
> didn't invent the MP3 player, but created a demand for it.  One could
> argue whether they invented the iPhone or iPad (of course, in these
> specific examples, they did; the question is whether they are
> significantly different than other products).  In the case of laptops
> and desktop/deskside computers, they are a small player, but with a
> loyal base and development continues.

Indeed. They are excellent at creating a demand, and marketing their 
stuff. As well as doing things with a good quality.

	Johnny