The Osborne Effect and Steve Jobs--Urban Myth RIP

References have resurfaced on the web to the so-called Osborne Effect when supposedly in 1983, Adam Osborne announced a better computer before it was available, thereby undercutting sales of the existing computer model and bankrupting his company. We have been told in the past that Steve Jobs' insistence on Apple not commenting on models before they are released stems from Osborne's mistake. 

Some fear Steve Jobs' announcement this month of Apple's shift to Intel chips in 2006 will recreate the Osborne Effect for Apple.

All of which prompted us to look more closely at what has been said about the Osborne Effect in the past and currently. Is the story true?

Our first recollection of the story was in Owen Linzmayer's book "Apple Confidential." Linzmayer says he has covered Apple as a journalist since the early 1980's. My edition is a paperback published in 1999. The story is told in two sentences as a side bar on page 64. No source given.

Robert Cringly recently interviewed an ex-Osborne employee who said that it was competition from Kaypro, which marketed a computer with a bigger screen for less money, that really caused Osborne Computer Corp.'s demise. More.

On June 20 The Register published a piece including interviews with contemporaries of Osborne who cite different reasons--bad business decisions--for Osborne Computer going belly-up. Bottom line: "There never was an 'Osborne Effect,' and the fate of Osborne Computer wasn't sealed by pre-announcing hardware that didn't exist."

Finally, Andy Hertzfeld's new book "Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac was Made" recounts an interesting story of an encounter with Adam Osborne on pp. 39-40. But no mention of the Osborne Effect story.

Osborne Effect story: RIP. [Dana Baggett]