It’s All About Power - Inventing the PC - page 74

• to achieve and maintain a position of leadership in the
APL community;
• to maintain a posture which allows the Company to
implement new technologies, minimizing time and effort
to accomplish this.
For MCM , still in a start-up position, a simple and sound busi-
ness strategy which was consistent with these objectives would
have been to promptly develop the production model of the
MCM /70 and to direct a portion of profits derived from the
sales of the computer to finance the company's research and de-
velopment activities. Although the MCM /70 had always been
the main product under development and its Executive model -
the computer-in-a-briefcase - was terminated as soon as the big
computer shows of 1973 were over, MCM was beginning to lose
its focus. In addition to the MCM /70, MCM launched concur-
rent hardware projects and initiatives that tied up the company's
personnel and resources. In the first months of 1974, MCM was
spending $60,000 a month on average, an amount which was
unsustainable unless cash started to flow in from sales of the
computers. In addition to the MCM /70, the company wanted
to develop the MCM /70 T intelligent terminal, the MCM /170
small business system, and a new model of the MCM /70 based
on the most recent microprocessor from Intel, the 8080. The
hardware configuration of the MCM /70 itself was undergoing
continuous upgrades: its power supply was evolving into a state-
of-the-art device, and the company also initiated several inter-
face projects aimed at connecting the MCM /70 to a range of
peripherals, from printers and plotters to CRT displays, card
readers, and modems. Furthermore, the company was engaged
in the development or adaptation of peripherals for its comput-
ers, such as a printer station with built-in numeric keypad and
audio-cassette storage.
Looking back at that critical moment in MCM 's history,
André Arpin said that to succeed with its MCM /70 product,