[WEB4LIB] Mac resurgence

[Debra Lords]

My library supports several student open access computing labs on
the Univ. of Utah campus.  We also have teaching labs.  These
labs have maintained a 50% split between the PC and Mac
platforms.  We were very concerned as Apple lost and lost in the
market-share to the point where development of new products was
fairly low and support for strong PC products with Mac components
dropped the Mac as a supported platform.

The best way to measure resurgence of any platform is to look at
developer response. We've received word that some vendors that
dropped support have decided to pick it up again.  I'm trying to
find the names of the companies that have done more than talk
about it.

However in the realm of new developments, our Mac support head,
provided me with the information following.  In short, YES!  The
Mac is back!  I guess you could say its replaced Travolta as the
come-back kid.  BTW, Bill Drew and I-Mac is a "real" Mac.  Just
because its in a one-piece "suite" does not in anyway diminish
its flexibility and capabilities.  Unlike the earliest Macs, the
I-Mac can support alternate OS and can have upgrades in its
hardware configuration.

Back to the meat of the discussion:

Developers Rally Around the Mac at MacWORLD Expo
------------------------------------------------
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/1999/jul/21momentum.html

5,000 Macintosh Software and Hardware Products Announced in Past
12 Months

Demonstrating continued enthusiasm for the Macintosh platform,
Apple 
today announced that third-party developers have introduced
nearly 
5,000 new Macintosh software and hardware products in the past 12 
months. This phenomenal number of new products includes exciting
game 
titles, productivity applications and peripherals for consumers
and 
professionals.

In one year, third-party software developers have announced 3,935
new 
software application titles for the Macintosh platform. Hardware 
manufacturers-fueled in part by iMac's support for the Universal 
Serial Bus (USB) and the Power Macintosh G3 computer's support
for 
USB and FireWire-have developed more than 1,053 new products,
ranging 
from storage devices, printers, scanners and cameras to game 
controllers.

Additionally, 40 new FireWire devices and 37 Universal Serial Bus 
(USB) peripherals will make their debut this week at Macworld
Expo, 
reaffirming broad industry support for the Macintosh platform. 
Developers introducing new Macintosh hardware products include: 
Archos Inc., Canon Computer Systems Inc., Epson America Inc.,
Eskape 
Labs, Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Interex Inc., Iomega 
Corp., Keyspan, a Division of InnoSys Inc., Kodak, MacTell Corp., 
Microsoft Corp., NEC, Orange Micro Inc., Starmatix, Tecmar 
Technologies Inc., 3Com Corp., UMAX, Visioneer, VST Technologies
Inc. 
and Wacom Technology Corp.

Developers back Mac
--------------------------------------------------------
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/zdnn/0513/315870.html


Roy Tennant wrote:
> 
> Has anyone else noticed the resurgence in Mac users out there? I monitor
> the platforms that my users have who come to my site at:
> 
> http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/platforms.pl
> 
> using my hack job on Thomas Dowling's handy-dandy Perl program. A while
> back, when Apple was bottoming out, I noticed that my Mac user's had
> fallen to somewhere around 6-7% after being fairly stable at around
> 10-12%. Now that same statistic is up past 20% on a regular basis. The
> Mac's back!
> Roy

-- 

Debbie

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Debra Lords			Experience is what you
dlords at library.utah.edu		have just right after 
ACLIS Labs			you need it.
585-9810