January 28, 1997
Letter to the Editor: Apple responds to The
Wall Street Journal editorial by Walt
Mossberg, dated January 23, 1997
To the Editor:
We feel Walt Mossberg's advice about purchasing an Apple
Macintosh ignores a
number of important points. The most important is that Apple
has a rational plan
for moving ahead. That plan is built upon continuing to
announce exciting and
innovative hardware products that will utilize an improved
Mac OS today, while
building an exciting and advanced new operating system for
the future. By
stating that Apple is asking computer buyers to wait 18
months for a "modern
operating system ... (that has) the kind of stability
Windows offers and will run
current Macintosh software," Mossberg implies that Apple is
standing still. On
the contrary, we are moving forward quickly on two fronts
with our
complementary plan for semi-annual upgrades to the Mac OS
while we also
develop the new OS, code-named Rhapsody.
Regarding the Mac OS, a new release is shipping now (as
promised) and
another is on track to ship this summer. The newest release,
Mac OS 7.6,
incorporates Apple's latest advances in QuickTime and
OpenDoc technologies,
as well as significant improvements in stability and
performance. It strengthens
our leadership in multimedia and ease of use, which studies
show are important
purchase considerations for the home, business and education
markets. Apple's
new operating system strategy aims to build upon and
increase this leadership
over time and provide seamless compatibility between the
Macintosh and
competing platforms.
We are also moving quickly to develop the next-generation
operating system,
which we call Rhapsody. We expect the industry will see the
first fruits of our
development effort beginning this year, not in 18 months.
Our plan is to ship it
in three stages: an application developers' release of
Rhapsody this summer, a
Premier release in early 1998 for running next-generation
applications in the
new environment, and, finally, a unified release in mid-1998
that will run both
current Macintosh applications and the new applications.
Recent history demonstrates our ability to smoothly
transition to new
generations of technology. In 1994, we introduced the first
Macintosh based on
the PowerPC microprocessor and today's PowerPC computers are
flawlessly
running many applications designed to run on the Motorola 68000
microprocessor family. Apple innovation moved them from one
generation of
technology to the next. We'll do it again.
Mr. Mossberg worries that Rhapsody will not run on older
Macintoshes. So do
we, and that's exactly why we've committed to continuing our
development and
support of the Mac OS! Backward compatibility has always
been an industry
issue. Try running Windows 95 on an Intel 386 PC, which was
the most widely
installed platform in the Wintel world when Microsoft
introduced its new system
software. We have made very plain our plan to continue to
advance the current
Mac OS for those who choose not to move to Rhapsody, while
also stating that
we intend to build Rhapsody so it can run on all our
currently available models.
Finally, Mr. Mossberg makes a puzzling claim that Apple is
choosing to offer a
corporate solution over a consumer solution. We have not
chosen one over the
other. What we have chosen to support with Rhapsody is the
future, the
internetworked world where digital content ranging from
spreadsheets and
documents to animated graphics and full-motion video is
created, distributed and
consumed. The NeXT technology with its networking
capabilities, its
object-based programming, its much-heralded performance for
running
multimedia applications, and its battle-tested stability and
robustness greatly
strengthens our opportunity serve this new, exploding
marketplace which
encompasses both the "consumer" and "corporate" markets.
We have many changes in the works at Apple. However, one
thing has not
changed. The Macintosh has always attracted people who are
creative achievers
seeking a better alternative for their computing needs. With
both the Mac OS and
Rhapsody, we are -- and will continue to be -- committed to
those users,
whether they are computing in a corner office, at the
kitchen table or on a school
desk. And we'll continue to provide the most functional
platform for supporting
the entire spectrum of information, whether it is printed,
projected or viewed on
a screen as text, graphics or full-motion video.
Over the years, Mr. Mossberg admits to giving "much praise
for the Mac." That
is true, and we greatly appreciate that praise. To his
concerns about Apple, we
have one last thing to say: Walt, keep the faith.
Regards,
David F. Harrah
Director, Corporate Public Relations
Apple Computer
Cupertino, CA
email: harrah@apple.com
--I got two turntables and a microphone...
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