The vision is still with us:
Landi spoke today about Apple;
The key announcements from Landi, a native of Italy who joined Apple in 1995 after 25 years with Texas Instruments Inc. in Europe, were:
The Power PC microprocessor -- developed by a partnership of Apple, International Business Machines Corp. and Motorola Corp. -- will reach speeds of 350 to 500 megaHertz by the end of 1997. The fastest Power PC on the market today runs at 225 megaHertz and the fastest Pentium processor from rival Intel Corp. runs at 200 megaHertz.
Apple in the second quarter of 1997 will begin selling ''server'' computers, powerful machines for managing PC networks, that run multiple operating systems. In addition to Apple's own Macintosh operating system, the servers will run the AIX version of the Unix language and Windows NT from Apple's arch-nemesis, Microsoft Corp.
By the end of this year, Apple will introduce an $800 portable computing device designed for schoolchildren. Landi wouldn't give details, but described it as ''the computer for every student in every class worldwide.'' Sources close to the company say the product is likely to
be based on Apple's Newton personal digital assistant, with a keyboard added.
On Oct. 21, Apple will introduce and begin selling a new model in its troubled PowerBook line of laptop computers. Another new model will follow in the first quarter of 1997, then a model designed in partnership with IBM specifically for the Japanese market in the second quarter, and yet another new model in the U.S. in the second half of the year.
By the end of 1997, Landi vowed, Apple will once again have ''clear leadership'' in the laptop market. That would be a dramatic turnaround from 1996, when an embarrassing product recall took almost all PowerBooks off the market from May through August and contributed
to lower revenues and profit losses.
Apple will aggressively move back into the low end of the home PC market next year; today, the company has no new models available for less than $2,400. Landi promised stripped-down Macs for less than $1,700 and variations on its Pippin design, a CD-ROM player equipped with a modem that plugs into a television set, for $699.
Next month, Apple will unveil a line of its Performa PCs specifically intended for home education. The machines will be packaged with a bundle of software intended for either elementary, middle school, high school or college students. And, for the first time, a selection of games will be included in the bundle of software shipped with each Performa --
an attempt to counter the image that all the best new games are developed for Windows machines.
All high-end Performas, those selling for more than $2,000, in the second half of next year will include a circuit board with 166 megaHertz Pentium chip, allowing Macs to speedily run Windows software.
By June of next year, Landi told a reporter, ''You will be talking to a different Apple.'' |
