When Apple went public in June 2005 that it would abandon the PowerPC architecture to switch to Intel was discussed for some time Osborne effect, that is, with the announcement of new equipment for months or even years before they Many users expect to be ready for new equipment so that current sales would suffer considerably.
Why is this called Osborne effect? The legend says that a company named Osborne Computer Corporation market had a fairly successful computer called a Oborne released in April 1981, but when it was announced in 1983 a new sales model Osborne 1 almost froze, causing the bankruptcy of Osborne Computer Corporation . Why call it legend? Do not you? Well ... no. is, like every legend has some truth. Sales of the Osborne 1 suffered from the announcement of the new computer but ... Well, not anticipate events and study a little history of this curious company.
Adam Osborne, the founder of it, there was certainly no stranger to the world of microcomputers. Not for nothing was there from the beginning, from the output of Intel 4004 (the first microprocessor in history) and the heroic days of the Homebrew Computer Club they came from so many companies (the most popular of them all was Apple Computer). The Homebrew Computer Club was the place of meeting in California of the first microcomputer enthusiasts, people whose dream (and whose hobby) was building his own personal computer. Consider that until the birth of the microcomputer industry with Altair 8800, computers were large pots designed for companies and, at best, tertiary education, where if you were lucky you could access some kind of system timeshare as a PDP-6 or similar and buy process time to a company that rented computer.
However, after the invention of the microprocessor by Intel (the aforementioned Intel 4004) in the first half of the 70 was already enough technology to build one's own computer. With great difficulty, yes, but it could. By today's standards were ugly and coarse pottery, although by the time were extremely sophisticated devices, almost, almost science fiction. Until at least the second half of the 70, the first personal computers were built, as the aforementioned MITS Altair 8800 or Apple I eran básicamente kits destinados a los aficionados, los cuales tenían que montar y en muchos casos soldar a mano siguiendo unas instrucciones hasta, muchas horas y sudores después, tener algo que pudiera funcionar (y no digamos ya que sirvieran realmente para algo, aparte del didáctico ejercicio de montaje en sí).
En este escenario, Adam Osborne fue dándose a conocer gracias a su empresa fundada en 1972 Osborne & Associates , la cual se dedicaba a la publicación de libros para los aficionados a la informática. Estos libros se caracterizaban por ser manuales de gran calidad didáctica, muy fáciles de leer y seguir, por lo que eran casi de consultation required. Of course, the Homebrew Computer Club was not the only place where fans had microcomputers, but say that if we could return to the 70's and we could choose a place to stay to watch in class the birth of the sector, the ideal would be the meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club .
However, as the world of microcomputers was developing and with it their market, so the company was making Adam Osborne. In 1977 drew the attention of publishing giant McGraw-Hill , which acquired Osborne & Associates and created a new label within the same where to accommodate computer-related books.
in 1980 is said to Adam Osborne visited the laboratories, which if not, Xerox PARC, where he saw the Xerox Notetaker , a computer "portable", not portable, and the idea was so impressed he decided to create their own company to manufacture and market a computer-based Notetaker.
Whether true story of the visit to Xerox or not, Adam Osborne made contact with Lee Felsenstein, designer of logic circuits that had worked with him in the review of some of his books and also in the design of Sol-20 computer. After studying two different ideas for your new computer, finally announced the final: a compact and portable computer in one piece, powered by batteries and small enough to function in an airplane seat. He was born on Osborne 1, and to manufacture and market founded the Osborne Computer Corporation cited above. The final computer had a 5-inch monitor, two floppy drives, 5 1 / 4, a Z80 processor to 4 MHz, 64 kbytes of RAM, operating system CP / M and 15 kilillos weight in a compact design that resembled a briefcase, all at the price $ 1795, about half of any similar computer at the time.
Of course, by its very design, Osborne 1 computer was not targeted to fans of Homebrew Computer Club but their target was in the corporate market. Not surprisingly, Adam Osborne contacted major software manufacturers time to make your Osborne 1 was well wrapped useful applications for this sector, such as word processor Wordstar , the leader in the sector to who was ousted in mid 80's by Wordperfect , or upon the refusal of creadores de la hoja de cálculo VisiCalc contrató a Richard Frank para que creara SuperCalc , una hoja de cálculo inspirada en el líder del momento en el sector.
El ordenador fue todo un éxito, llegándose a vender unas 10.000 unidades mensuales (pensemos que muchos fabricantes de la época ni siquiera vendieron esa cantidad en toda su vida). Sin embargo, tras la salida del IBM PC en agosto de 1981 (sólo 4 meses después del Osborne 1 ) las ventas se estancaron e incluso llegaron a reducirse. No demasiado, claro, pero no dejaba de ser significativo que en vez de aumentar bajen. Hay que hacer algo.
And something did. Osborne Computer Corporation announced in 1983 that they were working on a new and more advanced computer. Of course, this caused sales to suffer even more. Finally, in September 1983 the company declared bankruptcy and had to close its doors forever. What did happen? The
announce a new product months (or years?) Before final marketing can actually slow down current sales, since customers do not need to already existing product can be expected to leave the new model. However, this is not true. Reduced own sales and competition. Microsoft and IBM are adept at using this tactic, and IBM has been sued (and lost his mind) for abusing it.
That is, when Osborne announced a new computer not only makes the thought buying a Osborne 1 think if you need it now or wait to see the new model, but thought that the customer purchased a , say, IBM PC was also raised wait to see how advanced is the new Osborne computer to see if it is worth this or not. Consider, for example, in the current situation. Microsoft has problems with Windows Vista. There are even people who are going to Microsoft and it's going to Macintosh or Linux. What What is Microsoft doing? Announces Windows 7, which is not available in at least one year. And just in case lets you use the beta for free until 2010. What Microsoft stops selling Windows Vista with this? For sure. What it is better that people go to other platforms? Absolutely. Perhaps even then they can hold these people end up changing the platform, but at least going to give you a second chance, and you pass the competition also have fewer sales. When the ad is able to reduce the number of "defections" above the number of lost sales for the company can be a good bet.
So basically, that's the idea that there behind the movement of Osborne Computer Corporation. He knew what would cause and effect were already steps to counter it. At first I had a hard time, but soon recovered and came back to win money. So, why the company bankrupt a few months later?
Well the reason was a miscalculation. In 1983, following the announcement of the new model, a vice president of the company suggested to Adam Osborne that the lot of motherboards from the old model they had in storage, worth $ 150,000, were completed and sold, and make money with them instead of wasting the $ 150,000 for stock obsolescence.
Adam Osborne
was okay and started to work. The problem is that the cost of completing these motherboards meant an expenditure of $ 2,000,000 to the treasury of the company was not far from cover, and to the hole created and the inability to find emergency financing, the company found absolutely no liquidity, and that was what made it fail.
If not finished we will see clearly to take another example. Picture yourself in the following situation. You have your work (ie, a steady income), you live in an apartment of your property, you have your car ... etc. And then you decide you're going to go travel on your holiday month for the world. Among expenditures, changes currency, contingencies, the memories ... not calculate well and spend too much.
When they finally come back and you get to do math, you realize you've spent much more money than you had saved, and by this I mean not money set aside for the trip but in general. Not all your savings together (the treasury of the company) to cover expenses. And next month you get the mortgage, electricity, water ... and you have to live apart, that is, you have to eat, going to work ... if your income is still insufficient to cover all your bills, you have a serious problem. You can try to refinance your debt if you can not or it takes too long to sell the car, sell the house and buy a cheaper, and benefits to pay part of the debt ... You can do many things, but these solutions require time and creditors may not be very patient and you end up seizing (by the way, delays in payments also generate interest, so every day that passes without paying you more.) Well, basically, this is the situation that confronted Osborne Computer Corporation.
So when you talk about the effect Osborne, you know that in reality, Osborne broke for other reasons and not for the announcement of a new computer ...
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