If Microsoft made toasters...
Every time you bought a loaf of bread, you would have to buy a toaster.
You
wouldn't have to take the toaster, but you'd still have to pay for
it
anyway. Toaster'95 would weigh 15000 pounds (hence requiring a reinforced
steel countertop), draw enough electricity to power a small city, take
up
95% of the space in your kitchen, would claim to be the first toaster
that
let's you control how light or dark you want your toast to be, and
would
secretly interrogate your other appliances to find out who made them.
Everyone would hate Microsoft toasters, but nonetheless would buy them
since
most of the good bread only works with their toasters.
If Apple made toasters...
It would do everything the Microsoft toaster does, but 5 years earlier.
If Fisher Price made toasters...
"Baby's First Toaster" would have a hand-crank that you turn to toast
the
bread that pops up like a Jack-in-the-box.
If The Rand Corporation made toasters...
It would be a large, perfectly smooth and seamless black cube. Every
morning
there would be a piece of toast on top of it. Their service department
would
have an unlisted phone number, and the blueprints for the box would
be
highly classified government documents. The X-Files would have an episode
about it.
If the NSA made toasters...
Your toaster would have a secret trap door that only the NSA could
access in
case they needed to get at your toast for reasons of national security.
Does DEC still make toasters?...
They made good toasters in the '70s, didn't they?
If Hewlett-Packard made toasters...
They would market the Reverse Polish Toaster, which takes in toast
and gives
you regular bread.
If Sony made toasters...
Their Personal Toasting Device, which would be barely larger than the
single
piece of bread it is meant to toast, can be conveniently attached to
your
belt.
If the Franklin Mint made toasters...
Every month, you would receive another lovely hand-crafted piece of
your
authentic hand-crafted Civil War pewter toaster.
If Cray made toasters...
They would cost $16 million but would be faster than any other single-slice
toaster in the world.
If Thinking Machines made toasters...
You would be able to toast 64,000 thousand pieces of bread at the same
time.
If Timex made toasters...
They would be cheap and small quartz-crystal wrist toasters that take
a
licking and keep on toasting.
If Radio Shack made toasters...
The staff would sell you a toaster, but not know anything about it.
Or you
could buy all the parts to build your own toaster.
If K-Tel sold toasters...
They would not be available in stores, and you would get a free set
of Ginsu
knives.
If University of Waterloo made toasters...
They would immediately spin-off a company called WatToast.
If the PQ made toasters...
They wouldn't want to be on the same counter-top as the rest of the
appliances.