Apple has been suffering as much from rumors of its total demise and badmouthing by the media as it has from its real problems. Not that its real problems aren't very serious ones, but I think it is a fair statement that most of the media, as well as Wall Street and its analysts have gone overboard to hype Apple's imminent collapse in the face of the unstoppable Wintel tidal wave.
Maybe the press just likes to hound a loser once the label is attached; it's as if the story of Apple's loss of market share was as juicy (entertaining) and worth repeating ad naseum as the one about the Soviet Union breaking up and losing the Cold War to the U.S and its allies. After all, with the majority of readers using the Wintel platform, it's a slam dunk to appeal to their desire to be perceived as "winners" for choosing the right OS (there's safety in them thar numbers). And besides, those pesky little Macintosh users sure have been smug about the superiority of their platform and it's about time they got their comeuppance, right? We're tired of being told how inferior our Windows OS is, and how our embrace of the Wintel juggernaut has merely ensured the success of mediocrity. Long live VHS!
Apple has suffered from more bad news lately by the announcements that IBM and Motorola are abandoning their NT development. This adds more confusion to the compatibility issue for the future, and Wall Street definitely didn't like it. The stock was drifting back down to lows it hadn't seen in months. But I think the news of Jobs' return to Apple will at least temporarily offset this latest negative turn of events. As I said in my previous post, Wall Street loves a story, and the story of Jobs, the man who started the personal computer revolution, returning to Apple is a juicy one which is already receiving a lot of press, most of which has been at least slightly optimistic. On Monday, Apple should receive a further boost now that the announcement is official.
D. Kuspa |
