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Rod Serling Standing By (4/20/99)
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We'd like to note, briefly, a strange reversal of fortune. A couple of weeks ago, PC giant Compaq issued a warning of "lower-than-expected" profits, which apparently sent lots of tech stocks into a tailspin, following the standard "Whither Compaq goest..." model. That was just the latest in a pretty long line of disappointments for the company, and last Sunday it all came to a head-- or, a couple of heads. Rolling, that is. According to a ZDNN story, Compaq's CEO, Eckhard Pfeiffer, "resigned" (in much the same manner than Gil Amelio "resigned," we take it), and CFO Earl Mason also left to go work for another company. Chairman of the board Ben Rosen stated that "The computer world is in a lot of turmoil... and we felt we really needed a change in the leadership in order to keep our position as the industry leader."
Now, here's the part that really made us sit up and take notice: about a week ago, CBS Marketwatch posted an article that openly posed the question, "Is Compaq the next Apple?" (We assume they mean that in a bad way.) What an interesting development; such a short time ago, nobody seemed to question Compaq's status as ruler of the roost. After all, this is a company who actually managed to buy Digital Equipment Corporation, which wasn't exactly a transaction effected with pocket change. And now people are wondering if Compaq might be entering the same kind of death spiral in which Apple found itself before drastic changes helped things get happy again-- or happier, at any rate.
All this isn't to say that Compaq's losing a billion dollars a year, or anything-- all this brouhaha is because their profits weren't as high as expected, but they're still pretty darn high. But we take this whole situation to be a prime illustration of just how quickly things can change in the tech industry. With that kind of mutability, who's to say where Apple can be in three years if they keep making the right moves? Apple doesn't have to be a niche player-- we'll leave it at that.
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SceneLink (1478)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/20/99 episode: April 20, 1999: We take it back; streaming video is, in fact, viable over a 28.8 connection-- at least, with QuickTime 4 it is. Meanwhile, RealNetworks claims to be "unimpressed" with Apple's open source streaming server, and industry watchers wonder if the beleaguered Compaq is "the next Apple..."
Other scenes from that episode: 1476: On Second Thought... (4/20/99) Prepare for flip-flop! While we openly admitted our somewhat underwhelming initial experience with QuickTime 4's new live streaming capabilities (sound kept cutting out and video was unrecognizable via our measly 28.8 connection), we've got to say, things are already looking up... 1477: Real Competition (4/20/99) Speaking of RealNetworks, does QuickTime 4 have them quaking in their boots? We certainly assume so, though they claim otherwise. Not only are users reporting better results with Apple's live streaming implementation than with RealVideo (especially at higher connection speeds), QuickTime 4 means live video can be included in any application that supports QuickTime-- no more reliance on betas of RealPlayer that frequently lack features in the Mac version...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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