The Second Coming of Apple

[Nazarene77]

From the Wall Street Journal:

The Second Coming of Apple

December 20, 2004

Apple Computer has been reborn -- and now it's on the verge of a renaissance.

Yes, we know Apple's share of the PC market remains little more than a rounding error: According to market-research company International Data Corp., its share of PC shipments hovers around 2% in both the home and commercial sectors, with more than half the commercial numbers coming from educational sales. But we see a confluence of events that we think will substantially change some of those numbers, ushering in an Apple tidal wave that will remake the home PC landscape.


Click here to continue reading. . .

Get ready folks! It's coming! Viva la Revolucion!

 

[Ailanthus]

I don't think it will happen for two reasons. I didn't read the whole article, which may have spoken of these two reasons, but here they are: price and software.
I think Apple will always remain popular with professionals who work with graphics, but that's as far as it will go. Microsoft just has too tight of a grip on the market for Apple to butt in.

 

[WeakButHopeful]

I think the significance of that WSJ article depends on why you're cheering for Apple. Possible reasons: liking to see the underdog come out from under, wanting to see MS get a black eye, owning stock in Apple, wanting to see less of a monopoly (or single species forest) in home computing, wanting to see a decline in the cost of Apple hardware/software so that there isn't such a penalty to pay for going that route, or other reasons I didn't think of.

My contributions to this thread are the following thoughts:
- remember that bigger isn't necessarily more profitable (think of the US Airline industry)...these days it's about return on investment, niche markets, remaining flexible and responsive, control of costs.
- I read one article by an industry journalist that said Apple has been remarkably silent during all the fallout from the clearly egregious Windows security flaws. Either they feel sorry for MS (right), or they are inept (don't think so) or they realize that the niche market they're in is really quite nice, thank you very much. That made me think of a comment by an overnight express company executive who was once asked how come they could stuff literally thousands of $30 packages into the same exact kind of planes that the passenger airlines fly and yet the airlines must provide far more services for not much more money. He said that's why they're not in the airline business. ->)
- I'm all in favor of less of a monopoly or single species forest (though for patriotic reasons I hope that the major players will be US companies) because of the benefits for innovation and the consumer. However I (personally) don't think the desktop/laptop wars will be the catalyst for greater competition. I suspect that ipv6, smart home/car, greater entertainment channels (iPod falls in that category), telecommunications, etc. will play a greater role. Heck, when I buy a $400 snow blower I know it's not as good as the one the guy down the block bought, and on a snowy day I'd like to have his, but not for $900. So you can preach and preach about how great his snow blower is to me, and it's falling on deaf ears, because I can't afford the $900. Now, if somebody comes up with a $600 device that will take care of grass, leaves and snow...then they've invented the better mouse trap and people will beat a path to their door.

Well, this was all my 2 cents worth. I know everyone may not agree, that's a given.
God bless.

 

[Psalms34]

Sales pitch perhaps? Apple systems are good but it's all still very propiatary. Most people don't desire the high price of the hardware that has been the norm from even the early days of Apples history. For specialized tasks it has remained a solid choice but for the general populous it still falls short.

Beyond the hardware side of the companies product there are many things they could do to make the system more versatile for the general populous, but these changes have remained slow coming thus far. OSX was the best move by Apple thus far, but imo thay have not done much with it in comparison to other OS's as far as I've noted.

When they switched to OS x, I first though they were going to try to capture the server side of the computer industry and challenge UNIX based systems (freeBSD, Linux, and so on...) but no real dent has been made by Apple in this growing market.

Well, I dont think Apple or Microsoft's days are numbered, but both companies are loosing a lot of ground to the fast growing UNIX based systems market. IMO in all reality I can only come to the conclusion that these systems will at some point out number with home and business distribution exceedingly over Apple and Microsoft combined. You need to understand, the home computer market is still quite new. And I'm saying this from a non biased perspective, I know that many play cheerleader for their choices in systems, but I try to look at things analytically from perspective. I like all these systems, but the future for some seem uncertain, but that may be some time in the future.

 

[Nazarene77]

None of you seems to know as much about Apple as I do. I've done some significant study on the company and have been following the company very very closely for the last two years. I'm very well aware what this company is all about and what it is capable of.

And I wouldn't question what the Wall Street Journal has to say about it either. They are very good at making predictions.

 

[Psalms34]

None of you seems to know as much about Apple as I do. I've done some significant study on the company and have been following the company very very closely for the last two years. I'm very well aware what this company is all about and what it is capable of.

hehe not sure exactly how to answer that. Capable of? (speaking of the product) Well since OSX is based on UNIX now, it is "capable" of much. But I can build/upgrade/operate/admin a UNIX based system for far less cash since I don't need to deal with proprietary units. Anyway the company has been around far longer than two years, they have had an interesting record from the start. Well that's all I have to say...

 

[Nazarene77]

hehe not sure exactly how to answer that. Capable of? (speaking of the product) Well since OSX is based on UNIX now, it is "capable" of much. But I can build/upgrade/operate/admin a UNIX based system for far less cash since I don't need to deal with proprietary units.

Macs certainly won't save you any money in the short run, but they definitely will in the long run, not to mention they will also save you from a lot of hassle.

Anyway the company has been around far longer than two years, they have had an interesting record from the start. Well that's all I have to say...

It's not like I haven't taken a good look at the company's history either.

 

[Psalms34]

when I buy a $400 snow blower I know it's not as good as the one the guy down the block bought, and on a snowy day I'd like to have his, but not for $900. So you can preach and preach about how great his snow blower is to me, and it's falling on deaf ears, because I can't afford the $900. Now, if somebody comes up with a $600 device that will take care of grass, leaves and snow...then they've invented the better mouse trap and people will beat a path to their door.

The same $400 snow blower unit + $200 marketing advertisement added in = Apple... err a better snow blower for $600

BTW the $900 snow blower possibly had an imbedded Linux distribution managing the high quality hardware. He probably checks his email as he blows the snow or checks the fuel level from a remote location when he hires someone else to blow the snow with his snow blower.

 

[Stryper]

/me lives in california therefore does not know the snowblower dilemma

 

[christart]

yea, Im going back to apple. My first computer was an apple IIe way back when. Switched to pc for the longest time. I just bought a new iMac acouple days ago.

 

[Psalms34]

yea, Im going back to apple. My first computer was an apple IIe way back when. Switched to pc for the longest time. I just bought a new iMac acouple days ago.

Kewl! The iMac's look nice.

 

[christart]

I have now recanted on going back to Apple. Once again I'm resting with Dell.
My iMac has recently died. The reason was Apple used faulty capacitors in the on/off switch. After a while they swell up and stop working. Yes, my Mac lived passed its warranty, but my Dell is at least 4 years older and still ticking. This iMac is the only computer I every had that stopped working on me. I always buy an newer machine because off higher demands of software which slows my machine, not because the computer died. I called Apple, visited a Mac Genius and even demanded to speak to a manager. Apple would not stand behind their product. Besides this Adobe Illustrator would frequently crash on the computer from the day I bought it. I now have a new Dell.

 

[MrJim]

Thread necromancy

 

[WalksWithChrist]

I have now recanted on going back to Apple. Once again I'm resting with Dell.
My iMac has recently died. The reason was Apple used faulty capacitors in the on/off switch. After a while they swell up and stop working. Yes, my Mac lived passed its warranty, but my Dell is at least 4 years older and still ticking. This iMac is the only computer I every had that stopped working on me. I always buy an newer machine because off higher demands of software which slows my machine, not because the computer died. I called Apple, visited a Mac Genius and even demanded to speak to a manager. Apple would not stand behind their product. Besides this Adobe Illustrator would frequently crash on the computer from the day I bought it. I now have a new Dell.

Well, first off I have worked on countless PCs that had capacitors that caused serious problems. The classic "pooched caps" as they are sometimes called!

Also, four years isn't *too* bad for a lifespan of any given computer Apple or otherwise.

My Mac is about as old. Had one hard drive crash and that's about it. And it wasn't an "Apple" hard drive. Cuz as far as I know, Apple doesn't make 'em.

Don't forget Apple is a computer company. I haven't met a computer company yet that didn't have a high percentage of jerks working support!!
(I work support and try my best not to be jerky...lol)

 

[WalksWithChrist]

Thread necromancy

It took me a double, then a triple take to realize the thread was as old as the article in the OP!!