Re: Apple reorganizes itself as a Next clone

CobraBoy (tbyars@earthlink.net)
Mon, 17 Mar 1997 11:24:30 -0800


Someone named Rohit Khare at 11:02 AM -0800 on 3/17/97, came up with this:

[snip]

* And while the Macintosh and the MacOS remain Apple's primary products, many
* Apple-developed technologies -- considered core just a month ago -- are
*now,
* with Friday's ax fallen, all but gone:
*
* * OpenDoc;

Nice try but not ready for prime time.

*
* * AIX;

Pleeeease.

*
* * QuickDraw GX; and

See OpenDoc

*
* * Apple's videoconferencing technology.

Did anyone even know they had this?

* OpenDoc and Cyberdog will no longer be upgraded and will ship in MacOS 8
* only, the number of future MacOS upgrades has been reduced, and Apple will
* stop upgrading its development tools for the MacOS. In addition, the
*future of
* CI Labs is uncertain.

See my review of Cyberdog.

* Also gone from Apple are 2,700 full-time and approximately 1,400 contract
* employees. The company is cutting costs in an effort to end a string of
*dismal
* financial quarters. As a result of the workforce reduction, a $155 million
* restructuring charge will be reported in the company's second fiscal quarter.

So fuckin' what? More dead wood. Gone is the printer team, QuickTake
Camera, Scanner, Copland, GX, OD Software, etc.

* Rhapsody and Java are now in the driver's seat in Cupertino. Apple will
*focus
* on developing Rhapsody, its NextStep-based OS, with even more emphasis on
* Java -- including a Java API set being developed by Next for NextStep and
* OpenStep.

As well they should.

*
* "We are investigating how best to combine the text and graphics features of
* GX with Display Postscript to build the imaging model in Rhapsody," company
* officials said.

As anybody actually seen the text and graphics features of GX in a real
world situation?

*
* With regard to the MacOS, Apple altered the delivery schedule for releases
* beyond MacOS 8. Instead of two full retail releases of MacOS in 1998, Apple
* will ship one complete release in mid-1998, code-named Allegro, and a full
* release yearly from then on. Customers will get the latest system
*improvements
* through two updates that will come between MacOS 8 and Allegro.

Who cares? Apple 7.6 is wiping out peoples HD's. A Native Finder would be
nice, but not as nice as OpenStep.

*
* Although Apple won't drop out of any of the markets it is currently in, the
* company will significantly cut the number of consumer models it offers,
*with
* the Performa name going away first, company executives said. Apple will
* announce a new line of entry-level computers in April while phasing out the
* Performa line.

No one at Best Buy's is buying them so what's the big deal here?

*
* Apple also indicated that although it would continue to market the
*MessagePad
* line, it is considering either selling the Newton division, or fully
* licensing the technology to third parties. The Newton Systems group remains
* intact while executives "explore" the other options.

Except that on the new Message Pad 2k they *decreased* the onboard memory
and now apps that run on a 130 won't run on the new super Newton. Idiots...

* More important in the long term, however, is the direction that Apple
*intends
* to take with its technology, which now has a decidedly Next bent.
*
* Although the company did not address its plans for Windows NT, in the
*future
* Apple executives expect the Microsoft operating system to play a larger
*role
* in the company's future plans.
*
* Such moves reflect not only the considerable influence wielded by Jobs,
* dubbed a part-time consultant, but also Apple's dismal track record in the
* 1990s of punctually delivering promised products.

Job's and Avie have a clue as to what is going on in the world. No one at
Apple does.

* "All the things they talked about in terms of cost-cutting are needed, but
* there is no magic bullet here," said Gene Glazier, an analyst with Dean
*Witter
* Reynolds, in New York. "The most important thing they must do is turn the
* sales force around."

What sales force? There is none.

*
* "I'm having trouble seeing how material this will be to them in the long
* run," said Rob Enderle, senior analyst at Giga Information Group, in Santa
* Clara, Calif. "The software side seems to be coming together, but the
*hardware
* is still messed up. OpenDoc was never going anywhere anyway, but they're
* still going to have to support it forever."

Giga Information Group? great....

* "On the software side, it is a Next strategy. This was the plan all
*along: To
* get rid of MacOS and use Rhapsody as a transition product [to Next],"
*Enderle
* said. "The transition should take about four years. Eventually I expect
*them
* to end up on Intel."

Intel or maybe DEC, if Moto doesn't get it together.

Tim

-
HAVE YOU RESTARTED YOUR COMPUTER LATELY?

Restarting the computer frees up space that,
over one or more days, can get filled with files
the computer uses only temporarily. - NeXTStep Power Tips, pg. 19

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