Hoess has new string to his bow
GRAEME PHILIPSON talks to the godfather of Australian microcomputers
The Sydney Morning Herald — February 25, 1985 [OCR text]
EIGHT years ago, there were no microcomputers in Australia. There were no Apples
and no Tandys, no computer games or computer clubs or computer shops. The IBM PC
was not even a gleam in its father's big blue eyes, and the smallest computer
you could buy was the DEC PDP-1 1, which had something like 16K of RAM and was
the size of a small suitcase. A spreadsheet was something you put over the
furniture before you painted a room, and a hard disc was something that happened
in your back when you lifted something too heavy. In March, 1977, Rudi Hoess
imported the first eight Apple II computers into Australia. Already, a few keen
hobbyists had put together some chips on to printed circuit boards and made them
perform rudimentary computing functions, and Tandy had the first TRS-80s in its
stores, but microcomputers were not personal computers. They were curiosities.
Rudi Hoess changed all that. He brought the microcomputer industry to Australia.
He backed the Apple microcomputer and brought it to this country when it was
known only to devoted hackers, and quickly built up a retailing and distribution
empire which put Australians high on the list of per capita users of
microcomputers.
Rudi Hoess formed Electronic Concepts (Elcon) in 1976 to sell computer boards and calculators. Early in 1977, he visited the USA, and saw in the new Apple II computer a machine that would, as he says, "make people's eyes shine". Elcon became Australian distributor for this new microcomputer. He also visited Computerland, a fledgling computer retail chain, and arranged to be Australasian arm of that organisation. He found out later that the substantial deposit that he paid to secure this right "paid everybody at ComputerLand's salary for a few months". Computerland, and Apple, were very small operations in 1977. The Americans didn't know the extent of his plans. Then, as now, they thought that the world stopped at Hawaii. It is difficult now to realise that eight years ago these were not seen as far-sighted moves, but were looked upon with a great deal of scepticism. But Mr Hoess was sure that the boom would come. Better still, he could create that boom. Hoess saw himself as a pioneer, and he was. He had to educate a public that knew next to nothing about microcomputers. He had to create a market before he could sell it. He did. His store grew slowly, but steadily, until the boom came in 1980 and 1981. In 1983, Elcon began to run into troubles. Owing to the success of Mr Hoess's Australian distributorships, Apple decided to set up its own offices in this country to distribute its products itself. Apple Australia was formed in the middle of 1982 to set-up for Apple's eventual distribution of its own product in this country in May 1983. The transition was remarkably smooth. Hoess and Apple had negotiated staff changeovers and divisions of responsibility. This was at a time when the Apple IIe was replacing the old Apple II Plus, and the Lisa had just been released.
Elcon eventually folded in early 1984, partly because Mr Hoess didn't have his heart in it once he lost the Apple distributorship. Because of his agreement with Apple, he was not able to market another computer or set up another retail chain in Australia, so he went to Hong Kong, where he became marketing manager for his old firm, Colex. Colex was attempting to develop a new computer to challenge the IBM PC AT, but nothing came of it and Mr Hoess decided to return to Australia. So now he is back, with a company called Megavision, selling the products from the Japanese company Kaga. I visited him in his office in Sydney.
PHOTO CAPTION: Rudi Hoess ... "colour is just what is needed for education".
He explained to me why he is backing Kaga, and his plans for future marketing success. "Apple is bundling its computers, selling the whole thing in a package. Including the video monitor. In Australia, Apple doesn't sell a colour monitor, which means that virtually all the Apples being sold have only a monochrome green screen. Yet the Apple II is capable of great colour, and colour is just what is needed for education." Among the other peripherals he will be distributing are a line of printers. I saw the new Kaga printers in operation, and they are easily the best I've seen for the money. True correspondence quality in a dot matrix printer for under $1,000. I saw the Kaga graphics board for the IBM PC. It gives it a clarity of graphics its designers never dreamed of. Mr Hoess mentioned the kinds of products and areas he would like to service in the near future "videodisc storage, laser printers, satellite communications. I've been talking to Kaga about cartridge paper feed for dot-matrix printers, and videotex interests me a lot. The new Telecom Computerphone (a.k.a. the One Per Desk) will alter many business people's conception of computer communications integration, and a lot will happen there." He has chosen to call his new company Megavision. That is a word he might have coined to describe the way he sees the world.
Graeme Philipson is research manager for the Yankee Group, Australia.
See also → VIDEO - Apple IIe RGB graphics demo on Kaga/Taxan monitor with Digicard 64K 80 column RGB card
Rudi Hoess profile - the man behind Apple in Australia - April 1981 Australian Personal Computer
Review of Kaga/Taxan KX-1201 (mono green) & RGB Vision-II monitors - Your Computer (AU) June 1985
eBook - “A Vision Splendid - The History of Australian Computing” by Graeme Philipson (2017) [35MB PDF]
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May 1983 — Apple takes over Australian distribution (January 1985 Australian Personal Computer)
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► Back to home page — Apple Users' Group Sydney Apple II Disk Collection ◄
