[ih] Speaking of Minitel: Here's an oldie NO one remembers

[Mark Goodge]

On 27/03/2022 21:02, Brian E Carpenter via Internet-history wrote:
> Reminds me of the ICL "One Per Desk" (yes, that was the name of the 
> product).
> 
> Computer? No. Word Processor? No. Telephone? No. In fact, after the sales
> pitch I still didn't know what it was or why I'd ever want one (even the
> free ones that the rep was offering to CERN as a trial). In all 
> seriousness,
> we couldn't see the slightest use for it. In particular, it had no network
> connection (except a phone line), so it was a hard sell to a networking
> group.

It was a computer, it just wasn't a networked one. So yes, trying to 
sell it to you was rather pointless. But that's sales departments for 
you; they don't necessarily have any real understanding of what they're 
selling or who they are selling to!

The OPD was, in many respects, quite cutting edge for its time. The lack 
of networking capability wasn't a problem for its target market - office 
computers, at the time, tended to be standalone machines rather than 
networked, and the OPD was no different. And it was a competent (again, 
for the time) word processor - it was more advanced than Apple's 
products of the era, and better value for money than the equivalent IBM 
PC. But, like a lot of consumer computer products of the 80s, it went 
down an evolutionary dead end.

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk
> (Worth reading the "Legacy" section.)

That neatly illustrates one of its biggest problems. The cost was such 
that the people who would have used it weren't given it. And by the time 
PCs genuinely were "one per desk", it was IBM PCs and their clones 
sitting on those desks.

Mark