Ed,
No, I don't believe you hate Jobs. There is somebody else who keeps
repeating the same thing over and over from the beginning since he
started on this board.
Well, I love to see Apple's increasing market share, but that is not
Apple's first priority, rather, its first thing that has to be fixed
is its profitability. And, Jobs has reached that goal in Q1, and
definitely will continue in Q2 and beyond. The profitability is
the necessary condition to boost confidence of investors, users, even
Apple's employees. After several stable profitable quarters, then
Apple will talk about market share. They probably will sell sub-$1000
models during Fall and Christmas seasons. But, remember,profitability
and quality is job one. When IBM was in $40's per share, does anybody
tell them to sell more products? No. Instead, they follow the same
pattern as Apple's (well, I should say Apple follows IBM's footstep.)
It took several quarters to turn around for IBM, and the stock price
was about four times as its bottom. Market share is just a smoke
screen. Those companies who sell cheap stuff in order to gain market
share are not what Apple should follow now. They are like commodity
dealers, who can make money but only little contribution to
computer field. Compaq is an exception since it acquired DEC.
Without selling those cheap products, Apple still can maintain its
revenue and profitability, that is the key.
As long as Apple could maintain it market share, the revenue will
improve due to the increase sales of overall all PCs (17% in '98).
Actually, Apple's revenue has been stablized ($6.4B annually), and
profits are around $150M - $200M annually. There is nothing wrong
pertaining to Apple's characteristics - stabler, smaller but more
profitable.
Yes, I admit Microsoft has beaten Apple and has a lion share of
market. We congraduate them on their success. But, I believe
nobody needs to compare Apple and those oranges any more since it is
of insignificance to any companies. Apple's still Apple with its own
developed OS, application software, while other PC companies are still
doing their busy assembly jobs.
Phil |
