chimex38:
OSBORNE EFFECT

The computer that caused the "Osborne Effect" was
announced
The Executive went on to become extremely successful
even with a — wait for it — $2,495 (₦762k) price tag!

one of the most successful computers ever put to
market, a bad business decision and the death of one of
the most celebrated tech companies at the time.
Shall we?
1983 was a very interesting year in tech and computer
history in general. It was the year Apple launched its
famous Lisa computer ( rumor says it was named after
the daughter Steve Jobs refused to claim ), the still
legendary Famicom (known as “Family Com” to you
Nigerians) video game was launched, the first ever
version of Microsoft Word (1.0) was launched and Apple
held it’s first WWDC event ever.
In the midst of all that, a company called the Osborne
Computer Corporation (OCC) launched the Osborne
Executive , a portable computer that was meant to replace its Osborne 1 computer, on April 18, 1983. The
Executive went on to become extremely successful even
with a — wait for it — $2,495 (₦762k) price tag

According to Wikipedia, “The Osborne Executive was
useful for presentations and projects at client sites.
Unlike static presentations, the portable computer could provide on-the-spot answers to numerical questions when working with consulting clients. This laid the groundwork for the kind of ‘show me the money’ ROI or
TCO presentations commonplace today .”
Talk about doing it for the culture.


Unfortunately, the OCC leaked the announcement of the
Executive earlier in the year which made suppliers and
retailers stop orders of the Osborne 1 ( which was OCC’s
star product at the time) and, by consequence, hurt the
company’s cash flow.
This meant the company could only make limited units
of the Executive and had to shut down its planned IPO. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy shortly after. That
disastrous move by the Osborne Computer Corporation
is now known today in the business world as the
“Osborne Effect.”
The interesting thing about the Osborne story — and
weirdly so — is what it meant. For a company that
wasn’t as big as Apple or IBM (at the time) to still go
after its goal [despite a horrendous mistake] and create
a product that could have changed the game [had it had
a longer production life, maybe] is just amazing.
Naija ( Zinox and any one else willing to do it for the
culture ), over to you.


http://opera.pulse.ng/tech/the-computer-that-caused-the-osborne-effect-was-announced-id6549398.html

Dominique
cc: lalasticlacla