Based on what I undersatand on Rhapsody's current situation, it will
be used as a server OS, like NT now. Besides, only a few software are
to be ported on Rhapsody. Therefore, even Rhapsody is available on
the market in August, not many individual users (consumers) will buy
it for home use. Rather, it has to be bought by higher educational
institutions and Federal Governments, like Sun Micro's Solaris.
If you are anticipated Rhapsody will have big impact on Apple's
revenue in the near future, then probably you will be disappointed,
Silicon Graphics is an example in the workstation market. Currently,
Sun and HP-UX have a good position on Federal Government and education
markets for workstation sales. Can Apple's Rhapsody breaks into those
markets? It depends upon how much Federal Governments and Schools are
willing to port COTS and GOTS onto Rhapsody, which then needs Federal
Government's help. Well, the bottomline is still the same: price/
performance, as well as how esay to port. Nobody will be much
appreciated on object C, rather, everybody now uses Java instead.
I believe Jobs knows about what Rhapsody will impact on the severs
market, hence he mentioned it will take 2-3 years to be mature. Jobs
uses it to enter Apple helped by Ellison, and Gil uses it as an excuse
to step down with huge paycheck. Being in this field about 20 years,
I certainly know whether Rhapsody can get pieces of market from Sun,
HP-UX, SGI, or even IBM-AIX. Please be more realistic about how to
turn Apple around. The first and most important step is to show
profits by selling more hardware (any kinds from low to high prices)
helped by IBM and Motorola competitive chips price and sufficient
supply. The second would be a need from Microsoft's help on porting
more significant software on Mac, and willingness to merge Rhapsody
with NT for bigger pie. I wouldn't like to say what I feel on Apple's
future, especially on this new year's day, but the real situation is
pretty clear. At least I didn't give up Apple's future via selling
stock for tax purpose.
Phil |
