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Artemis on a Leash (3/23/98)
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What's the single biggest growth market that Apple's currently completely missing out on right now? That's right, the burgeoning sub-$1000 market, which apparently accounts for something like 40% of the sales of home computers these days. And Steve Jobs' comments at Seybold last week, when he stated that Apple would have some great products targeted at that market this fall, caused more than one spit take here at AtAT headquarters. That's because we've been expecting Artemis, Apple's rumored all-in-one G3-based computer to ship in April or May for $999. A possible delay until fall could be catastrophic.
However, many sources still claim that Artemis is well on schedule for a spring unveiling. But one of the more disturbing reports is over at Reality-- one of their sources claims that not only will Artemis be ready for April, it's actually ready now. In fact, this source states that a "large number" of Artemis machines are built, boxed, and sitting in a warehouse doing nothing for anybody, kinda like the Ark of the Covenant at the end of the first Indiana Jones flick. This alleged warehouse holds product destined for the Apple Education Reseller program, implying that these hidden Artemis boxes are destined to wind up in school labs, but not until Apple actually starts selling them. Which they do not intend to do until all of the Powermac 5500's they have in stock are sold. Allegedly. We would hope that Apple isn't missing a critical window of opportunity by deliberately holding up Artemis' shipment just to clear stock of older machines. The very idea makes us nervous.
Regardless, by almost all accounts, Artemis will be available quite soon. Was Steve just being overly cautious with the fall release prediction, true to Apple's recent "underpromise and overdeliver" fashion? Or will the Artemis machines only be available to education for six months before they are released into the consumer channel, as Apple has done in the past with LC machines that turned into Performas? Or was Steve talking about a completely different product targeted at the budget-constrained home user? The possibilities are endless...
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SceneLink (561)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 3/23/98 episode: March 23, 1998: Despite Steve's frightening declaration that sub-$1000 Macs wouldn't ship until fall, some sources claim that Apple's first such offering is done and sitting in a warehouse. Meanwhile, the Mac OS starts to look more and more like its OS cousin Rhapsody, and Panasonic beats Apple to the punch with a portable DVD player that may or may not be something similar to the mysterious Columbus...
Other scenes from that episode: 562: Who's on First (3/23/98) Following our recent worried wonderings about Rhapsody's future, Mac OS Rumors was kind enough to post a clarification of what is ostensibly Apple's plan for its dual OS strategy. As they had reported in the past, the Mac OS will continue to gain the most important modern OS features of Rhapsody, and it will also receive Yellow Box runtime libraries, allowing software developed on Rhapsody to run in the Mac OS, starting with Allegro (due to ship this summer)... 563: First Out of the Gate (3/23/98) One of the many, many rumors about Apple's top-secret "Columbus" project is that it's a teeny little eMate-style handheld that can play DVD movies on an integrated color LCD screen. That particular description sounded great to us-- if Apple could be the first company to release an entertainment appliance that would be the movie equivalent of a Sony Walkman, they'd stand a good chance to break into a whole new area of consumer electronics...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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