The are dropping manufacturing themselves, but I see no benefit (and terrible press!) if they drop hardware altogether. Actually their product quality rating is very high, and the designs tend to be leading edge.
Claris is doing well, and illustrates their capability to design powerful and simple software. Why drop that?
I agree that they have middleware strength, but I don't see why dropping successful parts of their business benefits them, unless they procuce no incremental profit (ie: Newton, Pipppin)
The difference between AAPL 1997 and Past Computer Failures (Atari, Commodore, etc) is that their cutomer loyalty includes dominant market share in stong, significant and growing markets - Internet Content Creation, CD-ROM Creation, Publishing, Schools. For the same reasons that Wintel cant be overthrown, Mac is virtually unbeatable in these areas IF they keep ahead. I think Rhapsody does this.
Maybe they need to stop trying to be a General Purpose Office computers (running Excel & Word), but they need to keep making Powerbooks and high-end Digital products.
** David |
