Hi Steve!
I too am a computer professional with a well rounded background, the MIS
Director for our company (for approx. 10 years and 10 more years as my hobby
before that).
The dollars Max and you mention may in fact be accurate. However, that is
not relative here to the point I was trying to make. The money alone was not
the point. The point was that Apple couldn't sell anything.
Apple Computers may in fact have still had lots of cash on hand but they
were losing lots of money every reporting quarter, bleeding a long slow
death, if something was not done to stem the flow of red ink. This bleeding
continued for a very long time. Sales were at an all time low, down to no
more than 3 percent or so market penetration when the Microsoft support and
money finally came. Sales were so low in fact, that Apple had
self-admittedly and openly taken a long hard look at their future and if
they had one. I distinctly recall that. Along with Microsoft's money came
support, some of which were very public guarantees from Microsoft of things
such as software design, continued availability, some limited cooperative
technical research and sharing and such. I don't recall all the details but
I do clearly recall that the Microsoft support was a turning point which
without it, Apple might have easily have gone the other way, the way MG did
under British Leyland because of lack of support for the MG marquee. With
Microsoft's public support, the buying public's confidence was restored in
Apple. Prior to this people were NOT buying Apple computers in sufficient
quantity any more to keep the business viable. That was MY point and THAT is
how I remember it.
Of course Apple HAS made a recovery with that Microsoft support, and with
the introduction of new OS's, new hardware and better marketing - but you
still can't get away from the fact that they CONTINUE to have such a very
small percentage of the market share. They basically are a niche player,
with their own little specialty following, mostly graphics designer types
(of course with very vocal general user exceptions), hanging on to what the
know, in spite of the fact that PC's having made such advances so as to
catch and maybe even surpass Macs in that area too (depends on your bias).
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to respond. Sorry to the rest of the
list. Wish this had more MG content. I'll leave it alone now that I've had
my say.
By the way, your two daughters sure look "fun" sitting in your A. Come visit
my family too on my website!
-Jerry Erbesfield
73 B Black Beauty roadster
jerbesfield@mindspring.com
website- http://jerbesfield.home.mindspring.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Steve Morris [mailto:MGA1500@mac.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 30, 2002 6:53 PM
To: Jerry Erbesfield; MG List
Subject: RE: Off-topic: Viruses and Macs
On 4/30/02 2:20 AM, Jerry Erbesfield <jerbesfield@mindspring.com> wrote:
>I don't know about the numbers you are using but virtually everybody in the
>computer industry knew that Apple was reeling during this period, having
>marketing and sales failures after marketing and sales failures and on the
>verge of giving up the ghost. If it hadn't been for Bill Gates intervention
>and his very public support, in many areas, not just the cash, Apple almost
>certainly would have folded in those times. His support added the
legitimacy
>that Apple HAD to have to survive. Only pure die hard Mac fans have
disputed
>this in the past. Gates pulled out Apple just as the government pulled out
>Chrysler and just as British Leyland did NOT pull out MG (the required LBC
>content).
At the risk of extending this off topic thread, I can back up Max's
numbers. I am an Apple stockholder, and had the annual report during
those times. I'm not positive about the 4 billion number, but it was
several billion. Apple's sales at the time were higher than dozens of big
name well repected businesses as published in Time or Newsweek or
something.
I am also a Microsoft stockholder, so I am unbiased in this matter. I own
Apple computers, but in my job, I've worked on UNIX and WinNT OS machines
over the last 20 years.
Steve
Steve Morris Avon, Ohio
1958 MGA 1500 Red/Black
NAMGAR #5987 BuckAyes Ohio Chapter
LoCo Brits MG Drivers Club #5422
<mailto: MGA1500@mac.com>
http://homepage.mac.com/mga1500
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