Wuh-oh, looks like Apple's market share continues to dwindle. According to a Reuters article, Apple has filed its yearly financial statement in which it estimates its worldwide market share is an eentsy 3.1%, down from a slightly-less-eentsy 5.2% the year before. Its percentage of the U.S. market dropped to 4.3%, down from 6.6%. Does anyone else remember the heady days of yore, back when we needed more than two hands to count Apple's slice of the pie?

Think of it this way: as a Mac user, you are a member of an exclusive order which just keeps getting more and more exclusive every year. (How's that for a half-full glass?) You might also consider the possibility that if this trend continues, perhaps some day we'll all qualify for government-sponsored minority benefits. Think Subsidy.

Seriously, though, it's not all bad; these numbers are for the fourth financial quarter, which ended on September 30th. That's before the introduction of the Apple Store, before the unveiling of the Powermac G3's, and before the CompUSA store-within-a-store deal, all of which contributed to Apple's profit in the quarter after the one for which the falling market share numbers were reported. There's already been one study by PC Data that showed Apple marketshare increasing to 5.9% last October. So now that Apple's in a slightly better state, let's see what happens to these numbers in the months to come. Anyone got a crystal ball?

Okay, forget the crystal ball-- MacCentral's gone one better. They're saying that astrologist Susan Miller (of Time-Warner's Astrology Zone) has done a chart for Apple's future, and she likes what she sees. According to the stars, she says, "this is going to be a really good year for Apple."

Apparently the magic month for Apple this year is June, which stands out in our minds as one of the few months which is typically fairly uneventful. With the WorldWide Developer's Conference probably taking place in May and MacWorld Expo New York arriving in July, what's going to happen in June?

Now, we don't want to cast aspersions on Ms. Miller, but we decided to get a second opinion from the Magic Eight Ball. We asked it, "Will Apple thrive in 1998?" and unfortunately, the omniscient Eight Ball disagreed with Miller's prediction with a "Definitely No!" Obviously what we need is a tie-breaker, but we really don't want to squander our ten free minutes on the Psychic Friends Network-- you never know when you'll need access to a real psychic. Looks like we'll have to see the future the old-fashioned way-- by waiting for it to become the present. Bummer...

Despite the fact that the current Department of Justice vs. Microsoft case will last for several more months, a Reuters story tells us that according to the Wall Street Journal, the Justice Department is already building a new antitrust case against the software company. This time, though, the scope apparently won't be quite so narrow as bundling Internet Explorer with Windows 95; the new case is said to "attack the heart of Microsoft's strategy of using Windows to break into new markets."

The details are sketchy, however, and the description of the new case (Justice may demand that a version of Windows 98 be made available without IE integration) sounds suspiciously like a bad movie sequel-- same plot, slightly different villain. What kind of cheap Hollywood trash is that? We want something fresh, guys-- even looking into Microsoft's contracts with ISP's, which the DoJ is also reportedly doing, is old hat; the European Competition Commissioner already called them on that charge in his own neck of the woods.

Is it possible that we're all running out of original charges to pin on Microsoft? Say it ain't so... We're just getting settled into the plot here on AtAT. Stay tuned.