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Home Again, Home Again (4/28/98)
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Apple's intended push to re-enter the home market with a vengeance this fall is becoming more regularly publicized in the mainstream tech press. For example, there's this Reuters article floating around, which quotes Apple senior VP of worldwide sales Mitch Mandich as saying that Apple is poised to "get reinvigorated in the consumer market... later this year." As to what types of products Apple plans to unleash this fall to compete with the sub-$1000 Wintel PCs, one can only guess; speculation runs rampant about a home G3 All-in-One, a consumer Mac NC, and whatever the heck this "Columbus" thing is. Regardless, there is (supposedly) a plan in place, and according to Mitch, Apple expects revenues and market share to begin growing year after year starting in the fourth calendar quarter of this year. We suppose that's when we'll see if Apple's recent profits had anything at all to do with sales of Macs to people who don't already own them.
It's good to see Apple publicly addressing the issue of its continually shrinking market share. In the past, they've managed to ignore it, leaving it to the Mac pundits to argue that "market share isn't very important anyway," using such unfortunate examples as the market share of various car manufacturers to show that a 4% slice of the computer pie is just plenty. But computers aren't cars, and a Mercedes doesn't need to use Mercedes gas. If Mac market share goes much lower, the "developer drain" we've been seeing (for instance, Intuit's recent attempt to pull out of the Mac side) will continue until that old saw about there being "no software for the Mac" is finally true after all.
Incidentally, Mitch also confirms that the CEO hunt is now officially on the "back burner" and going "very slowly." Nothing's changed since the shareholders' meeting, at which Steve Jobs dismissed the concerns over his "interim" status as being much ado about nothing. We're increasingly convinced that we were correct when we facetiously suggested that the neverending search for a new chief executive officer was simply a face-saving way for Jobs to become the permanent CEO without actually breaking his promise to the Pixar staff. Or maybe we were the ones who gave Steve the idea? Hmmm... Steve, are you out there?
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/28/98 episode: April 28, 1998: AtAT returns to the airwaves, following a brief and unplanned spring hiatus. Meanwhile, Microsoft may be trimming back its Mac development efforts, and Apple publicly reiterates its intent to retake the home market and increase its global slice of the pie...
Other scenes from that episode: 655: We're Back. Sorta. (4/28/98) So didja miss us? ;-) We apologize to all of our faithful viewers for the lapse of the last few days. We have had what amounts to one of the worst weeks in recorded history (on top of the tragedy of losing a beloved family member, we also had moments of just plain irritation-- such as a flight delayed over two hours on the ground while the flight crew tried to scrounge up a spare set of emergency fire goggles, as well as being hit en route to the cremation by the woman that AtAT fact checker/minutiae goddess Katie now refers to as the "stupid crack whore in the Nissan Pathfinder"), but most of that's behind us now; we're back in our Boston home office and ready to tackle the goofy world of Apple again... 656: Enemy Mine, Friendly Face (4/28/98) Politics make strange bedfellows-- and some of the strangest politics yet seen exist squarely in the world of high technology. For instance, take the classic example of Apple and Microsoft; bitter enemies (yes, let's face it) on the operating system front, yet strong allies when it comes to applications...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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