25th Anniversary of the Personal Computer" 4217

Wait a minute. Suppose MOS Technology couldn't have supplied enough 6502's, it still being a startup (though maybe at that point it was owned by Commodore which had money). Where would that have left Apple? "We've got all these boards designed for the 6502, and we can't do anything with them because we only have 600 CPUs. Nobody has second sourced the IC yet, because they were waiting to see if there was demand." At the very least, they'd get a delay, at what might be a crucial time. Because if the computer was a success in terms of supplying something wanted and needed, it stalls when the demand builds up, but before the crucial point where people are willing to wait. They'll go somewhere else.

This is exactly what happened to a lot of those small companies. They couldn't supply the demand if they became hot, lack of capital, or the demand wasn't there so they couldn't sell enough even if they could build them.

At some point, yes, MOS Technology and the second sources would have been very accomodating, because they knew Apple had money to back it, and they were already buying a lot. But until that point, why should MOS Technology spend the money needed to expand based on some tiny new company that hasn't shown large sales? If Apple had stumbled, for any number of reasons, but MOS Technology had increased it's production specifically for Apple (and given that MOS Technology didn't have much in the way of products, this likely was not a matter of reallocating resources to the 6502 from some of the lesser selling ICs, it likely meant spending money to make a bigger factory), then MOS Technology is stuck with expenses, extra 6502s, a bigger factory, but no buyers.

This too happened with some companies. They saw increased sales, expanded accordingly, but it was only a glitch rather than a constant growth. They had the expense to keep up with demand, but not the profits to pay for those expenses.

Apparently this sort of thing is happening a lot today, with Walmart. They negotiate deals with the manufacturer, but at least there is a contract in place for X number of units. But it is also apparently shaky, because those manufacturers are basing their business on continued buying from Walmart, and if that disappears, they are stuck without a market (since they've not developed it yet).

I'd also point out that Commodore, Atari, and OSI also used the 6502 (along with the KIM-1 and various other popular at the time smaller systems). Surely that demand helped MOS Technology to expand, not only from profits but from the notion that they weren't tied to only one company.

Michael