Also prominent at Esther Dyson’s Personal Computer Forum was Apple Computer chief John Sculley, who promises that Most important will be what the third parties are doing with the new Macintoshes, but looked beyond the launch by saying that Apple’s pipeline of new products is full through 1988, and well along into 1989. He also foreshadowed announcements about Compact Disk products from his company by saying, CDs will be very important in the PC industry and will be part of some very important innovations. Sculley also said that the yield problems on the custom chips for the Apple IIGS have been solved and that shipments, which had failed to meet demand, will increase. The personal computer industry is now driven by systems software rather than by hardware, he reckons: Look who’s doing well in the computer business – Tandem is doing well. DEC is doing well. Apple is doing well. In fact, in what sounds a decidedly risky piece of fate-tempting, Sculley added, the industry would be healthier if IBM had proprietary systems software on its next generation Personals.
