Jeff wrote: > To add a bit to the historical note. Shortly before Radius acquired > SuperMac, SuperMac acquired E-Machines who was a Mac video card and > monitor company. There was a Mac oriented E-Machines long before > the current cheap-PC E-Machines. So Radius ended up with both of > their competitors. I got a Futura II video card at a nice price > (for the time) when Radius was clearing out E-Machine's stock.
Good addition. I forgot about E-Machines. I started at SuperMac Technology Inc. in spring '93 right after they acquired E-Machines. Their intent was to secure the low-end of the Mac video products market and strengthen SuperMac's standing in the mid-level product range as well. SuperMac was already strong in the middle and high-end, but RasterOps and Radius were killing them in the low end. Unfortunately, three things went wrong, all of which should been caught in advance: 1.) Low-end products have low-end margins. Profit potential on E-Machines products was dismal. 2.) The cheapest products cost the most to support. The people who bought the low-end products were the least willing to help themselves, wanted the most hand-holding, called the most often, and were the quickest to demand the president of the company when their cheap $260 Futura MX was outperformed by a $2,600 SuperMac Thunder/24 in a MacWorld review. Within months, everyone inside SuperMac hated the entire E-Machines line, and the last E-Machines employees were terminated by the end of the summer. 3.) E-Machines' "exclusive dealer network," who SuperMac had wanted to get in with, turned out to be no more than a bunch of bad resellers who hadn't passed SuperMac's credit check or who had been dumped as SuperMac resellers for one reason or another. There was absolutely nothing good about the acquisition for SuperMac, other than it being a costly lesson on why one maybe shouldn't purchase a competitor. A lot of these names seem to have some surprising staying power. SuperMac went from being a company to a brand name for Umax computers; E-Machines went from being a Mac products vendor to a PC manufacturer; Radius was absorbed and reabsorbed but somehow turned into a brand name for a Korean display manufacturer somewhere along the way; even RasterOps is still a brand-name on someone's displays (Hitachi?) but is long-dead as a company. -Kennedy Brandt SuperMac Insider (http://home.earthlink.net/~supermac_insider/) -- SuperMacs is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | Service & Replacement Parts [EMAIL PROTECTED] | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> SuperMacs list info: <http://lowendmac.com/supermacs/list.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/supermacs%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
