
Preliminary Macintosh Business Plan (1981) [pdf] - stmw
https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/2009/102712692.05.01acc.pdf
======
mapgrep
Notice all the emphasis on how the Mac would benefit from being $1500,
significantly cheaper than many other machines of the era, even Apple //.

Macintosh instead debuted at $2495 — considered by many in hindsight a big
mistake. The much more usable version with 512k(vs 128k) was north of $3000.
This is all in 1980s dollars, too.

(IIRC the launch of Mac coincided with a spike in RAM prices.)

~~~
joezydeco
Here's Andy Hertzfeld's view of how the Mac pricing evolved:

[http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story...](http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=Price_Fight.txt)

~~~
mapgrep
I had no idea that a $50 cost overrun on a disk drive pushed them up $500 to
$1995! Not sure I agree with the logic there. Then it seems to have been one
bad executive call from there to $2495 (thanks, Sculley). So you could argue
(it's a stretch!) that the $50 drive price increase ended up driving the price
up $1000.

~~~
joezydeco
Well, read that sentence again...

"When combined with _a few other recent splurges_ , it pushed us over the top,
so we grudgingly accepted that the Macintosh would have to debut for $1995."

What those other "splurges" are is unclear.

------
tivert
Was this for the Jef Raskin-era Mac, that was more of a Canon Cat that what we
today think of as a Macintosh?

------
joezydeco
The plan mentions project “VLC” which seems to be the //c. But what was
project “Doublemint”?

~~~
kristianp
External minifloppies (Doublemint):
[https://archive.org/stream/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirem...](https://archive.org/stream/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirements_Document_Apr80_alt/Apple_Lisa_MRD_Marketing_Requirements_Document_Apr80_alt_djvu.txt)

~~~
joezydeco
Awesome! Thanks.

