I’ve been looking for a good link to describe the so-called Osbourne Effect, named after Adam Osbourne’s famous Osbourne Computer Compoany.

Sadly, there are few, if any, links that Google can conjure up. Even WikiPedia lacks a page on this computer pioneer.

Osbourne, as you may remember, created the first successful portable PC, the Osbourne I. Sales were brisk and Osbourne Computer owned the market. Soon after, Osbourne made the mistake of pre-announcing a newer, faster, better version of the Osbourne I, but failed to deliver. Sales of the Osbourne I dried up completely in the meantime, with potential customers choosing to wait for the better model that never arrived. The company folded and became a footnote in the computer industry (and one not well documented, it seems).

Its a lesson of the dangers of preannouncing products, or instantly obsoleting the ones you’re currently selling. Apple effectively did that with their Intel announcement.

Whoops. Nice move, Steve. Maybe you aren’t such a marketing genius after all.

Last evening I attended a party at the Liberty Science Center, a place with a gorgeous view of Lower Manhattan. Not seeing the Twin Towers there (ugly boondoggles as they may have been) is still strange.

What’s even more strange to me is the lack of volunteer first responders around here. Around town, I’ve passed many EMS and fire/rescue stations like the Elizabeth Avenue Fire Company with big signs out front, begging for volunteers. Here I am in New Jersey, a place once in the shadows of the Twin Towers, and the fire-rescue crews can’t find enough volunteers? What happened to the heroic image firefighters earned on that dreadful day in September?

Have they traded their hoses and axes for guns?

Well, I suppose I’ll put off buying that Mac now. No one wants a lame-duck system.