RacerX
Old Rhapsody User
I'm sure that many of you have had a chance to read Jim Carlton's book Apple that was released back in 1997. I thought that we should revisit the end of his tale which (like so many before him) predicts that demise of Apple as being just on the horizon.
Yeah, I guess I can see his point... unfortunately for him many people didn't agree with it and it became the single best selling computer product line on any platform.
I would point out that in the computer world a few years is a life time. And five years is a significant amount of the era of the personal computer (qualifying as far more than a few if you ask me). So where is the doom that he predicted? The doom that he "suddenly" could "see more clearly" after the debut of the iMac.
I would point out that for more than ten years people have been predicting that Apple's days are numbered (that number being more than 5000 I guess). And yet many of these same people could not for see the down fall of Digital or Compaq. And far worse than those has been the fall of Gateway! I can't think of any other computer company pulling out of both the Asia and European markets and letting go of over 25% of it's employees surviving much longer (though I think the move from San Diego to Poway is more telling... I mean Poway of all places
).
I guess the thing about it is that companies like Apple, Silicon Graphics and Sum Microsystems have something that no PC company has been able to duplicate, and that is a very strong sense of self. None of them feel like they are just going through the motions (like so many of the PC makers of today). And no matter how they are doing, they still have a sense of pride with in their organizations. In the last couple days I've been on Microsoft's site quite a bit, and what struck me was the lack of... self-respect. The work of MBU aside, most Microsoft products feel cold and lifeless (as does most of the software developed for Windows). No matter what any PC company does, they are really no better than the next startup PC company because the only connection they have to the user is through Windows.
After writing Apple, Carlton said that he had not used a Macintosh and didn't feel that the experience would have made any difference in his views. I guess being a Windows user has given him a bleak out look on life... and no insight into the non-Windows computer world.
Hopefully he never predicts Apples success or we are all going to be in trouble.
Yeah, I guess I can see his point... unfortunately for him many people didn't agree with it and it became the single best selling computer product line on any platform.
I would point out that in the computer world a few years is a life time. And five years is a significant amount of the era of the personal computer (qualifying as far more than a few if you ask me). So where is the doom that he predicted? The doom that he "suddenly" could "see more clearly" after the debut of the iMac.
I would point out that for more than ten years people have been predicting that Apple's days are numbered (that number being more than 5000 I guess). And yet many of these same people could not for see the down fall of Digital or Compaq. And far worse than those has been the fall of Gateway! I can't think of any other computer company pulling out of both the Asia and European markets and letting go of over 25% of it's employees surviving much longer (though I think the move from San Diego to Poway is more telling... I mean Poway of all places
).I guess the thing about it is that companies like Apple, Silicon Graphics and Sum Microsystems have something that no PC company has been able to duplicate, and that is a very strong sense of self. None of them feel like they are just going through the motions (like so many of the PC makers of today). And no matter how they are doing, they still have a sense of pride with in their organizations. In the last couple days I've been on Microsoft's site quite a bit, and what struck me was the lack of... self-respect. The work of MBU aside, most Microsoft products feel cold and lifeless (as does most of the software developed for Windows). No matter what any PC company does, they are really no better than the next startup PC company because the only connection they have to the user is through Windows.
After writing Apple, Carlton said that he had not used a Macintosh and didn't feel that the experience would have made any difference in his views. I guess being a Windows user has given him a bleak out look on life... and no insight into the non-Windows computer world.
Hopefully he never predicts Apples success or we are all going to be in trouble.
