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Technology Stocks : Apple Inc. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Musubi who wrote (9018)	3/3/1998 12:07:00 PM
From: BillHoo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

<< "how can you be sure that Apple won't repeat this in the future?">> I would write a letter voicing my concerns and send it to Apple's PR director in Cupertino. If you look on any Apple press release, there is an e-mail contact at the bottom. If you have access to others in the education market, you can include their names and contacts (e-mail preferred) and voice your concerns as a group. The more people involved, the more money at stake. The greater the response. You may also want to throw in mention that the decision was made over a Windows CE product to give them a scare. Also, if you know who your Apple sales rep is, it would be good to communicate there as well. Classic military pincer maneuver. Hit em from two fronts. -Bill_H

To: Musubi who wrote (9018)	3/3/1998 12:14:00 PM
From: rhet0ric	Respond to of 213173

Again, put yourself in the shoes of an educator that has to face these tough questions and see how you would feel about Apple if in the same position. I think your criticism of Apple is completely justified. The MessagePad was due to be killed, and I don't think they were too misleading about that, though even then it was bizarre and looked very bad the way they first spun off Newton Inc, then brought it back in,then killed it. The track record with the eMate is even worse. At least with the MessagePad, they didn't claim that it was a key technology going forward, but they did claim that for the eMate. Very bad to drop it suddenly. It would be great if Apple finally delivered on small, low-cost devices. It's unfortunate that they bungled Newton so badly, from start to finish. rhet0ric

To: Musubi who wrote (9018)	3/3/1998 12:30:00 PM
From: HerbVic	Respond to of 213173

I never said that I disagree. I merely tried to put the issue in perspective. I lament the passing of the eMate and the Newton as well. It was the implied image of Apple running roughshod over its favorite customer, education, that prompted me to pen a response. It is a raw deal for educators and educational institutions. However, if a school chooses to take a conservative stance on technology purchases, it will always be behind the curve, using yesterday's technology to educate tomorrow's generation. The eMate purchase was and still is an economical alternative to the purchase of full blown desktop PC's and remains a benefit to the students [although the economical advantage is rapidly disappearing]. That it is to become yesterday's technology should have been understood from the beginning. That is what I would tell those purse string pullers. HerbVic

To: Musubi who wrote (9018)	3/3/1998 1:08:00 PM
From: J R KARY	Respond to of 213173

Musibi your feeling of "abondonment" is a good annual meeting topic Your concerns as a educational user of a suddenly discontinued product may be of interest to AAPL's Board . The Board is comprised of shareholders , that is if the proxy passes , and a letter to them and a copy to Apple dedicated publications might prove beneficial to your "mutual" interests. As a wishful excuse , I trust AAPL's decision was compelled by INTC's acquisition of DEC's ARM patents and the possibility of a 1998 NASDAQ offering of ARM . Regards, Jim K.

To: Musubi who wrote (9018)	3/3/1998 1:33:00 PM
From: Doren	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 213173

Re: Newton and eMate How does the elimination of the Newton and eMate effect Apple? Apple needs market share, specifically it needs to improve its position in the client/server market. Newtons and eMates did not add anything in this area, and lost money to boot. The Palm Pilot sells for $200, Newtons and eMates sell for = $800. Apple can take the resources they are using on these products and tie them into the thin client/Rhapsody system they are developing. Thin clients need fast lean operating systems right? If the system is fast and lean then it could be ported back to the eMate later. This would make more sense. Thin clients, notebooks and hand helds all tied into servers where applications lie. I think this could be Apple's thinking. I think they might have put a lot of thought into what businesses need: A client/server system (Rhapsody) a) UNIX based stable/scaleable/fast b) friendly GUI c) runs on both Intel and PPC (and maybe more) d) dramatically lower maintenance costs e) direct links with hand held devices (salespersons in field) f) a friendly database (Oracle, Filemaker) g) runs business Apps (Win98) h) runs engineering Apps (Apple's strong in this market) I) in house graphics (Apple is king) It is possible that these guys combined knowledge and experiences (York, Ellison, Jobs) has led to a more long range and integrated strategy than most of us suspected. We can only speculate about what these guys have cooked up in the board rooms, over lunch, and in late night phone conversations. Some of the stuff we don't like (death of CHRP, no clones) could be due to this strategy. There may be a lot more that we don't know anything about. If you're betting on Apple this is what you're betting on, because the rest is known. The immanently due thin client machines may be the first piece in the puzzle. They are definitely going to attract the attention of the press and public. They will be criticized because their esthetic design adds nothing to their power. But they will get attention and maybe as the other pieces fall into place, businesses will start to consider them to be a serious contender to the clunky, unstable (but cheap) NT systems out there. Doren

To: Musubi who wrote (9018)	3/3/1998 1:42:00 PM
From: Doren	Respond to of 213173

Musubi, I wrote my previous response off line so I hadn't read your piece yet. And your complaint is well placed. I myself am not happy with Apple right now, I'm a Design Major at UCLA (graphics guy). But for me the WinTel alternative would be drastically less productive (i would loose more than 40% of my productive time on maintenance). So I can see that I am unimportant, for the moment, to Apples long range plans. I think we have to have a little patience with Apple. I think they are addressing problems that needed addressing long ago, and hopefully for us all (including WinTel people) they will be successful. Doren