Source link : https://tech365.info/right-this-moment-in-apple-historical-past-unauthorized-apple-ii-clone-sparks-huge-authorized-battle/
January 18, 1983: Pc producer Franklin Digital Publishers takes the wraps off its Franklin Ace 1200 pc, an uxtnauthorized Apple II clone that triggers an vital authorized battle.
Right here come the Apple II clones
When the Apple II shipped in 1977, the tech world paid consideration. Whereas the pc didn’t flip Apple right into a billion-dollar large in a single day, it raked in an enormous sum of money: $770,000 in income the 12 months it debuted, $7.9 million the 12 months after that, and a whopping $49 million the 12 months after that.
Unsurprisingly, different corporations sprang into motion to observe swimsuit. Some rivals, as seen with the IBM PC, developed private computer systems that resembled Apple’s machines solely within the sense that they each fell into the identical product class. In IBM’s case, its computer systems clearly focused the enterprise market.
Different pc corporations — notably these with out IBM’s sources — took a extra apparent route: ripping off Apple’s revolutionary machine geared toward shoppers.
Franklin Digital Publishers fell into this second group. Its $2,200 Franklin Ace 1200 pc adopted the corporate’s earlier Apple clones (the Franklin Ace 100 and Franklin Ace 1000). The Ace 1200 was a solidly constructed machine, boasting a 1 MHz MOS/Commodore 6502 microprocessor, 48KB of RAM, 16KB of ROM and twin 5-1/4-inch floppy drives.
The important thing factor it didn’t have? Apple’s blessing.
Contained in the Franklin Ace…
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Author : tech365
Publish date : 2026-01-18 23:26:00
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