Whoa, hold up-- evidently we spoke just a little too soon. While Gateway is indeed struggling to stay afloat, Apple hasn't exactly gone untouched during this economic downturn. In fact, you may recall that Apple, as always, was a trend-setter; when it came to being affected by the sluggish economy, Apple was one of the very first high-tech firms to issue an earnings warning last September pointing to "a business slowdown in all geographies." And the company's not out of the woods yet; according to MacMinute, our own beloved Apple is the latest to succumb to the Layoff Bug. That's right, reportedly Apple has just distributed a round of its own pink slips this week. (Or would they be Strawberry?)

So brace yourselves, people, because if MacMinute's sources are correct, Apple has just cut fifty jobs across the U.S. It's the beginning of the end! Now, granted, for a company that's usually leading while the rest of the industry follows, this is a somewhat pathetic showing compared to the thousands of layoffs in the past year by heavy-hitters like Hewlett-Packard, Dell, and Compaq-- indeed, those fifty layoffs only amount to six-tenths of one percent of Apple's total headcount, according to Yahoo!; considering that Gateway just announced that it's axing a quarter of its worldwide sales staff, we just don't see how Apple can ever hope to catch up.

Moreover, Apple's measly fifty layoffs appear to be motivated more by well-reasoned reorganization than by panicked cost-cutting via the elimination of its own life's blood-- which is simply more evidence that Apple just can't seem to get with the program. Certainly the company had plenty of experience with massive desperation layoffs back in the Amelio era, so there's little excuse for Apple to be trailing the industry so badly in this regard today. But then, Apple has always "thought different," and having "been there, done that," we figure that maybe Steve and the gang prefer to lead rather than follow.

So, in three or four years, expect Gateway et al (assuming they survive) to be making their well-planned and strategic fifty layoffs, while Apple is breaking new ground in the field of mass employee elimination strategies. We're picturing a long line of underperforming staff, a diving board, and a giant blender set to "liquefy"...