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

To: Eric Yang who wrote (12544)	5/3/1998 2:53:00 PM
From: Alomex	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213177

I think producing PC laptops with Apple's trademark of industrial design would have done wonders to Apple's pocket book. My first reaction was "at the very least is worth a try", but on second thought I have quite a few questions (remember, only the paranoid survive :-) : -Does Apple design and manufacture it's own laptops? I thought they were made by Sony and IBM... -If Apple had to split it's PC laptop profits with Sony, could it compete in the cut-throat PC laptop market? -If a well known brand like Toshiba is having problems making a buck in the laptop market, what makes you believe Apple would?

To: Eric Yang who wrote (12544)	5/3/1998 4:51:00 PM
From: Scott Crumley	Respond to of 213177

Eric, Don't get me wrong, I own a Message Pad 2000 and love the Newton, but I think producing PC laptops with Apple's trademark of industrial design would have done wonders to Apple's pocket book. I think the handling of the Newton represents an excellent example of previous Apple management having no sense of the importance of introducing a product properly. The story I've heard is that Sculley was so excited about the Newton, that he forced it to the shelf before the engineers felt the product was ready. If you ever messed with a Newton 100, I don't think you would have a hard time believing this. The first impression seemed to stick. It became a negative cultural icon. I remember seeing a couple of Simpsons episodes that poked fun at the crappy handwriting recognition. If they had been able to push the development time, and released it at the 120/130 stage, then followed up with the 2000/2100, it could have made a world of difference. Ah, but this is hindsight. I thought the 2100 was exceptional, and I only hope they have something better in the works. Regards, Scott

To: Eric Yang who wrote (12544)	5/3/1998 5:25:00 PM
From: WebDrone	Respond to of 213177

Wallstreet Assault? Eric, you really confused me. Think Dinner. Since we think a major advantage of G3 chips is low power use (heat) and fast speed due to (in part) backside cache, what is gained by putting a pc board inside a nice Apple case? Now, if you said MSFT had Windows98 (or WINCE) for the G3 chip, that would be a tempting blasphemy. If you said one of the windows emulations was being bundled with a high-end Wallstreet, and it blew the doors off Wintel Laptops running native, that would be sweet. But if I have to suffer with a Wintel laptop, I wouldn't care if it looked like a Lone Ranger Lunchbox. While Wallstreet looks great, I want one because it is Apple & Friends inside. People would say- 'ooooo! Whats That!' and I would get to say 'Um. it's a Macintosh. Bill Gates, your Evil Overlord will not allow you to have one. Nannynanny poo-poo!' Richard

To: Eric Yang who wrote (12544)	5/4/1998 6:11:00 PM
From: BillHoo	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213177

<<I own a Message Pad 2000 and love the Newton, but I think producing PC laptops with Apple's trademark of industrial design would have done wonders to Apple's pocket book.>> Imagine Apple marketing a re-tooled Powerbook that boots up in Virtual PC that runs Windows software faster than a regular Snail-Inside PC. It would sell great as a Wintel laptop. Then the hacker community would find the "secret" and create an underground movement to remove the Windows boot and reveal the true Mac. As for the Newton, I think that if Apple markets the Mac lite and opens it to cloners, they can really gain some market share and a few dollars to boot. Since Apple was never really making big money on Newton to start, they'll never miss the cash that goes to clones. Just charge enough license fee to break even on the cost. Where they make it up would be the Mac-Lite owners who are encouraged to buy regular sized Macs. -Bill_H

To: Eric Yang who wrote (12544)	5/4/1998 7:40:00 PM
From: HerbVic	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 213177

>> "I think producing PC laptops with Apple's trademark of industrial design would have done wonders to Apple's pocket book." << Eric, you are right, and for more than the reasoning you expressed. All of the rhetoric concerning software and file migration between the Mac OS and Windows would get more favorable accolades from the Wintel consumer/developer community if there were an Apple branded Wintel product. Apple stands in both worlds anyway. It is a requirement that in order to sell Macs in this age, the company has to address the issues of coexistence with Windows. It would be a remarkable coup to acknowledge and address both [Mac OS & Windows OS] markets with both desktop and laptop offerings of competitive quality. Good hunting, HerbVic

To: Eric Yang who wrote (12544)	5/4/1998 9:07:00 PM
From: Zen Dollar Round	Respond to of 213177

blasphemous ...I know, Indeed. but I think it'll allow Apple to dominate the laptop market within a year or two. Imagine that all the money Apple spent on Newton over the last 7 years were used to produce a quality Apple branded PC laptop instead. We could have own the entire laptop market by now. Don't get me wrong, I own a Message Pad 2000 and love the Newton, but I think producing PC laptops with Apple's trademark of industrial design would have done wonders to Apple's pocket book. I've always thought this would be a Bad Idea when I first heard about it - at least two years ago. Here are my reasons why: 1. What kind of message does that send to the Mac faithful? I can hear it now "Gosh, even Apple is selling clones now, they must not have faith in the Mac OS either...." May as well put a knife in the heart of the Mac OS right then. 2. What gives you the idea that Apple can offer any kind of long term advantage in the cutthroat Wintel market, especially over much more nimble opponents such as Dell? There are some kickass Wintel laptops out there already. The only advantages Apple laptops have over them is that they run the Mac OS and use PowerPC chips. Apple already got its butt kicked once when it first introduced laptops in 1991, then failed to innovate at all, letting other companies make much better (albeit Wintel) products. We finally got a PowerBook with an internal CD-ROM drive in October 1996 -- years after the Wintel market. 3. Low margins. If you think Apple -- even in it's current management/engineering structure -- can earn anywhere close to 23% margins on a Wintel laptop then I have some land in Florida I'd like to sell you. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I really think that Apple stepping into the Wintel world with their hardware would be a huge mistake. Now if you want to talk about operating systems, that's another story...