The Future of Apple to be shown soon - An Opinion

[Jeff Donald]

This article at eWeek takes about Apple as a platform at a turning point and why WWDC is the conference to watch.

[Joe Carney]

Man.... I remember when Apple and IBM were mortal enemies. Anybody remember the arrogant add Apple placed when the original IBM PC was launched in 1980? And MS was a cool, hip, up and coming company that was taking on Big Blue?

[Ken Tanaka]

"Mortal enemies" is putting it mildly, Joe. (It sounds like you, Jeff and I are about the same ages.) Those pin-striped, white-shirted folks at IBM had such contempt for the long-haired, bell-bottomed Apple "kids" they wouldn't even attend the same events with Apple if avoidable. When the famous Mac intro commercial aired (sledge-hammer slinger) the gauntlet was officially thrown down.

Personally, today I think it's glorious that the two are forced to come closer together. Each has suffered from the "war" and, to some degree, we have suffered. As a former long-time PC-only person but a confirmed "switcher" for the past two years I'm very eager to see the children this marriage spawns.

[Jeff Donald]

The commercial you speak of is considered one of the 10 Best Commercials (American) of all times. It really set the tone for the next 10 years until Apple had their down turn. Even though their market share of new computers is down around 3%, their overall world wide market penetration is around 20%. The fact that they last longer than PC's has probably hurt their hardware sales over the years.

In my family their are 2 older iMacs, 1 new (last summer) iMac, an almost 3 year old dual processor Power Mac and my 2 year old Ti Power Book. The newest one is almost a year old. I'll probably buy a new Power Mac this year and my son will get the old one. Then I'll have an iMac to figure out what to do with.

[Ken Tanaka]

Well, I'm doing my share for Apple. I've bought 5 of the darn things in the past 2.25 yrs!

BTW, that Apple store they're building on Michigan Ave. (Chicago) is going to be a whopper! I just saw it Friday and it's impressive, particularly for its $$ location.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I've stuck with Apple products since an Apple ][ in 1978 - one of the very first. I remember paying $1,300 for it, which included just the computer with a WHOLE 16K OF MEMORY! No disk drive was available but there was a builtin cassette drive interface, and you used a TV set for a monitor. Since then I've been through about 19 Macs for me and family members... have been donating the old ones for tax writeoff as I upgrade. At work 4 staff members are currently using my castaways.

Actually, don't forget that the Apple-IBM alliance goes way back to around 1990 when Apple adopted the PowerPC architecture developed in conjuction with Motorola and IBM.

In spite of all this, that article sounded very familiar, about how Apple will Real Soon Now introduce Intel-killing technology. Interesting, in light of a lot of negative analyst comments about the company last week after the earnings announcement and brouhaha over Vivendi. I've owned lots of AAPL shares in the past, selling many at a loss about 2 years ago, but I'm still holding on to some in the hope that someday they'll get it right. If you read eWeek regularly (I do, as long as they keep sending it to me for free ;-) you may have noticed that in the past year they've given lots of positive press to Apple. Awhile ago they called Jaguar the best Unix for the enterprise. This is significant for a magazine that recently changed its name to eWeek from PC Week.

Apple has some really great things going for it; it's unbelieveable that they've become the largest vendor of Unix hardware and software. Their products are quaility designed and built and have style (for a price). And no other computer company has a more loyal following. But they desparately need some much faster machines, so let's hope they're really on the way...

[Joe Carney]

>>BTW, that Apple store they're building on Michigan Ave. (Chicago) is going to be a whopper! I just saw it Friday and it's impressive, particularly for its $$ location.<<

I've been looking for an exucse to get back up to Chicago since I moved down to FL. Edwardos and a new Mac store on the miracle mile? hmmmmm..

Confession time. I actually started selling Apple IIs along with Lisas' (precursor to the MAC) and Macs with PageMager and Laserprinters back in the mid 80s. But requirements and money (in the business world) moved me over to the PC. Did my first official paid for programming job with Dbase 3 and Lotus 123.
And the rest is history.

[Ken Tanaka]

Ashton-Tate's dBase certainly helped me move forward in the 80's, also! It was a genuinely enjoyable data base system to work with. The derivative C run-time libraries greatly extended it. Ahh, I hadn't thought of that in years...those were heady days!

Joe, if you haven't seen North Michigan Avenue for a few years you're in for a shock. This Apple store appears to have been modeled after a high-fashion center, like a large Giorgio Armani store. It sure isn't modeled after Gateways (late) stores.

[Henrik Bengtsson]

Hm... Intel killers ? i very much doubt it. It's been tried before and its not just logical. What is much MORE logical imho is this article:

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,939886,00.asp

With the introduction of OSX and it's unix based kernel its a lot less work to port it to a Intel based platform than the old OS 9 ever was. And with Intel based CPU they get both power and reduced costs. As the article above outlines, they will also be able to differ the Intel based architecture with existing PC solutions making it an Apple only solution. Ie. you will not be able to run your OSX on other hardware than apple.

We all know Apple have been concerned with Motorolla's growing financial difficulties and no one wants to see the core component of their computer suddenly go out of business.

If they will go Intel or IBM remains to be seen. There are advantages on both sides. Price on Intel, less to convert on IBM.

/Henrik

[Simon Plissi]

Anyone else noticed the ten year cycle.

1984 = Macintosh introduced
1994 = PowerPC based Macs introduced
2003/4 = New IBM chip for Macs introduced

Sure it's just a coincidence, interesting timing though. Just when a new chip is needed IBM come through for a second time, we hope! So is this the end of the AIM alliance since the first fruits if its labour in 1994?

[Jeff Donald]

Apple will continue to buy G3 and G4 chips for various applications. The IBM 970 will not be a good processor for small laptops and more economical computers like the iMacs and iBooks. The first re-vision of the 970 will allow for cooler operating temps and less power consumption. I don't expect to see them in PowerBooks until 1st Quarter 2004. New devices may also use the G3 because of lower costs etc.

[Joe Carney]

Ken I haven't seen Michigan Ave since 94. I just want an excuse to get back up there and have some real pizza for a change. Edwardos or Giordanos stuffed is heaven. I assume they still have one of those places still around?

All is not lost though. There is a place down in FT. Lauderdale on Sunrise Blvd. that sells authentic Chicago Style dogs using Vienna Beef. Thats with celery salt too. I get there at least once a month.

[Ken Tanaka]

Keep the faith, Joe. Edwardo's and Giordano's are both alive and well. Giordano's has actually become quite a large franchise. Ranalli's and Duo's are also a popular downtown/near downtown dough-slingers.

[Linc Kesler]

This is so way off topic, but I can't resist, now that the subject has turned to Chicago and food. Let's start with pizza and Taylor street before the U of I campus. My father worked at a nearby hospital and would take us there. Think Sicilian and thick, but alas, no more. As for sandwiches, there's Johnny's Italian beef and sausage on North Av. west of Harlem. Death to your arteries, but worth it, if not for the beef, for the floor show provided by the staff and the big man at the cash who could demolish miscreant customers or staff with just the curl of his lip. But don't ask what's in the sausage, or complain about your broken tooth.

Linc Kesler

[Claude Isbell]

What about us vegetarians!