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Help From Big Blue (10/13/99)
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So in addition to iBook scarcity following the Taiwan earthquake, Apple's other monumental supply problem is Motorola's inability to provide enough G4 processors for the new line of professional Power Macs. After blaming Motorola for causing lower-than-expected Q4 earnings, Apple also downgraded the entire G4 line to reflect the fact that 500 MHz G4s won't become available until next year. It's a big stinking mess, but with Motorola as the only source for the new processors, there's really no good solution.
Except, of course, for IBM. IBM's been out of the running to make G4s for Apple from the start, due to differences in opinion over the direction the chip should take. See, Motorola's G4 has AltiVec-- what Apple's calling the "Velocity Engine." It's the vector processing unit that gives the Power Mac G4 such a massive speed boost when running AltiVec-enhanced applications like Photoshop. Otherwise, the G4 isn't all that much faster than a G3 at the same clock speed, at least if recent tests can be believed. IBM, however, wasn't too hot on the whole AltiVec idea; they use PowerPC chips in servers, which wouldn't really benefit from a vector processing unit. That meant Apple was reliant on Motorola as its sole source of AltiVec G4s-- with unfortunate results.
But now, according to a CNET article, Apple's announced that IBM will be making G4s for Power Macs starting early next year. Unfortunately, no one seems to have any details on whether or not those chips will be AltiVec-enabled or not. If they're not, then Apple's going to have a hell of a time retooling their whole G4 marketing spin. Our guess is that Steve did manage to persuade IBM to go AltiVec, but even if that's the case, is "early 2000" early enough for IBM's helping hand to prevent the Power Mac G4 from being a Q1 sales disaster?
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SceneLink (1844)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 10/13/99 episode: October 13, 1999: Apple racks up another Street-beating profitable quarter, but the circumstances are just a tad suspicious. Meanwhile, the whole Power Mac G4 line gets taken down a notch (or fifty), and Apple recruits IBM to help crank out G4 processors now that Motorola's stumbling...
Other scenes from that episode: 1842: How To Beat The Street (10/13/99) The results are in, and they look great-- Apple made a net profit of $111 million last quarter, up a few million from the same quarter a year ago and once again beating analysts' expectations. A quick glance at the headlines at MacSurfer's Headline News shows that media response is overall very favorable: Apple Earnings Shine, Apple Thumps Expectations, Apple Wins Over Wall Street, Apple Ends Fiscal 1999 On A High Note, etc... 1843: Apple You Love To Hate (10/13/99) What is it about Apple that makes PR disasters almost par for the course? The most recent debacle was the "Blue Blocker" scandal, in which Apple was accused of having deliberately crippled blue and white G3 systems so that they wouldn't boot if a G4 upgrade was installed...
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