I saw that C|Net's Jim Davis wasn't too negative (!) in today's report -- news.com.
Of course, this Intel/Paul Allen-owned news service couldn't bring itself to say that the Macs smoked the best any Pentium could offer.
Skipping the Reuters usual incompleteness and other incompetencies, brings us to Newsbytes:
"****Apple's iMac Part Of New Strategy 05/06/98 CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A., 1998 MAY 6 (NB) -- By Patrick McKenna, Newsbytes. Apple Computer's [NASDAQ:AAPL] stock hit a fifty-two week high today, its most powerful Apple notebooks were introduced, and interim Chief Executive Officer Steven Jobs unveiled a $1,299 entry-level Macintosh computer called iMac that propels the company back into the consumer PC market.
Members of Macintosh user groups, Apple employees, friends of Jobs, analysts and media representatives attending an Apple event at the Flint Center in Cupertino, California, had only expected Jobs to demonstrate a new line notebooks powered by Power PC G3 microprocessor. He did that, and stood alone on stage talking about the past ten months of Apple under a new board of directors and management team.
While he talked about and demonstrated PowerBook G3, he walked around a veiled object on a pedestal at the center of the stage. When his presentation ended however, those powerful and cheaper new PowerBooks were not on the minds of attendees as they left the auditorium. In the last fifteen minutes of his presentation, Jobs unveiled iMac, an all-in-one Macintosh computer designed to compete with the entry-level computers in the under $1500 market.
"Apple is getting back into the consumer market," said Jobs. "We started this market and somewhere along the way it got lost." Pulling away the veil, Jobs introduced a translucent one-piece blue and white computer powered by a PowerPC G3 microprocessor running at 233 megahertz (MHz) with 512 kilobytes of Level 2 cache, a 15-inch monitor, 10/100Base-Tx Ethernet connectivity, a 33.6 kilobit per-second modem, 12 megabit-per-second (Mbps) Universal Serial Bus (USB) and 4 Mbps infrared port and 24X CD-ROM.
Translucence is the key to iMac's space-age design. "You can see into the computer," said Jobs. A new keyboard, new mouse and the connectors are also translucent.
The theme behind the iMac is "the excitement of the Internet and the simplicity of the Mac." The built-in modem and Ethernet connectivity are designed to promote the Internet appeal of the unit.
"I was expecting to see new PowerBooks," said attendee and Berkeley Mac User Group (BMUG) member Lorca Hanns. "My jaw dropped when I saw the iMac. It is very sexy and sexy and is an important selling point. The most important things about iMac are the speed and price. The translucency is so cool."
Jobs paced iMac against a 400 MHz Pentium desktop system showing the iMac outperforming the $2599 system. "It's faster than any Pentium on the market," he added.
He said there are ten million Mac users waiting to upgrade their systems but who want to see if Apple is a viable concern. The iMac is the answer, he said, but added that Apple will also go after competitors on the Windows side. "We are going to try to steal customers from the other guys," he said.
Addressing Apple's difficult transition, company vice president, Phil Schiller, told Newsbytes, "Yes, the press has been tough on us and it was deserved. But, I can also tell you that we have been sitting here biting our lips while you guys kept asking us about our consumer strategy. Now, you can see what we have been working on these past ten months.
When he took control of Apple ten months ago, Jobs said it took "three weeks for people to explain the Apple product line."
"There was the 1400, 1400, 3400, 4400 5400, 5500, 6500, 7300, 7600, 8600, 9600, a 20-year model, an e-Mate and a Pippin if you could find one," continued Jobs. "You know how many of those products are here now? Zero!"
Under the Jobs reign, Apple now has four product categories which include portable products for the professional market, desktop products for the professional market, portable products for the consumer market and desktop products for the consumer market.
Apple's PowerMac G3 systems fill the desktop professional category. The new PowerBook G3 models fill the mobile professional category. The new iMac fills a the consumer desktop space and a yet-to-be announced product line will fill the mobile desktop space. "In the first half of 1999, we will announce a product line to fulfill the consumer portable space," said Jobs."
Perhaps the non-Mac-dedicated media is gravitating toward a new position.
e.b. |
