APPLE PRESENTS SNEEZY

“Sneezy” isn’t a very dignified code name for what Apple Computer is touting as the machine that will revolutionize the home-computer market. But the nickname fits well when you consider that the Apple IIc computer is the first in a series of seven Apple products (six of which are still in the works) that are designed to meet customers’ needs through the Eighties. The code name for the entire project? You guessed it: Snow White.

The much-ballyhooed Apple IIc computer was designed, built and put on the market in a near-record 16 months. Much of the credit for the speedy debut should be given to Apple’s Carrollton manufacturing plant, which will be producing a vast majority of the computers.

For the development of Sneezy, Apple solicited ideas from the world’s top computer designers. In the end, German designer tmut Esslinger, who is credite with the design of the popular Sony Walkman, won the assignment with his trim, good-looking design. Apple’s own industrial designer, Rob Gammell, applied Esslinger’s concept to the Apple IIc accessories.

Edward Colby Jr., who handles Apple’s new product marketing, says the IIc is for serious home computing, but it’s presented in a not-so-serious format.

Its packing box is bright red and yellow, and on it a woman is pictured carrying-no, casually swinging-her compactly packaged IIc. The product itself is lightweight and can be carried in a briefcase, although Apple offers a carrying case.

Industry analysts say the IIc will definitely present a stumbling block to Apple’s major competitor, IBM, and its slow-moving home computer, the PC Junior. Colby says Apple’s target market represents the top 20 percent of American households -that’s about 17 million families. “We feel there is a lot we can do there, because now only 10 percent of all households have a personal computer.”