alternatehistory.com

When the original Macintosh launched in 1984, its sales were a disappointment: having been projected to sell 2 000 000 units in the first year, it only sold about 250 000. It's strongly arguable that these disappointing sales were the result of two changes made to Steve Jobs' product vision by CEO John Sculley:
  1. reducing the RAM from 512 kB to 128 kB; and
  2. increasing the list price from $1495 to $2495.
What if the original Macintosh had shipped with the full 512 kB RAM at a $1495 price tag? Would the Mac have sold more strongly in its first year, enough to make up for the reduced margin? Would the larger install base and higher RAM capacity have encouraged software developers to build applications for the system? How would the PC market be different today?
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