Tick-Tock, Tick-Tock

July 26

MacWeek - in it's last week - reports that Apple has shed it's image at Siggraph again in favor of focusing it's efforts on the iMac. Further proof that Apple has shunned it's last credible argument for using a Mac in the first place - for graphic design, multimedia and high-end video. That's alright, since there were plenty of NT boxes around to pick up the slack with 3D modelers as well as Video editing suites for "serious" computers. This isn't too much a surprise to me, since Apple blew off the show a year ago. What is a surprise is that Apple's continuing ignoring of this community would come on the heels of their recent grandstanding with the Quicktime 3.0 "standard" which has been fading into the background of the various propriatary compression schemes that people like Avid use for professional television work. What's even more interresting is that Apple would continue this hypocritical posturing and anti-posturing away from a market that has quite a few tennacious MacJihad members, for a market - the consumer market - that doesn't give a damn about cute two tone desktop boxes selling for 1500 plus dollars with incompatable operating systems, away from what the rest of the world contiues to use. Lord knows, the high end multimedia and graphic community can't use the iMac - since it's non expandable, underpowered, and is less than endowed in the monitor department - particularly when the monitor size offered is relegated to the palate monitor by the average graphic geek. But since when has Apple burdened itself with selling itself to markets of strength or making practical computers instead of misaligned flash?

July 27
Well the screams from TidBits and other bizzare MacJihad groups attempting to throw their surperflouis weight around have been cut short by Adobe Software again. It looks like PageMill 3.0 will be released for the Mac. So shut-up about the "boycots" and go home already. Of course this unused by the professional web-market toy application will make it's way to the MacOS a bit later than the norm. At least a full quarter after it's debut for the Wintel web hobbiest market. So it's nice to know that Adobe will at least achieve parity to keep non-internet professionals on the Mac-side happy with beta-late-than-neverware. On the other hand, that parity comes at a price. The retail on this latecomer is bascially the realization that Adobe and other "might" get around to producing software for a dying OS, as long as when they are damn good and ready. Sounds like another success for Apple - even if it's a token one at that.

July 28

Meanwhile back at Apple, Apple CFO Fred Anderson and Jonathan Rubenstein of Hardware Engineering have been raising quite a havoc. In spite of the hollow cries of the MacJihad that Apple's stock is set to soar to even higher levels with the eve of the iMac's debut - some of the people back at home base don't quite see eye to eye with these overly optomistic predicitons according to recent reports from Cnet. Both have unloaded 133 shares valued at 5 million and 66 thousand shares valued at 2.5 million respectively to reward themselves - as well as get as much out of Apple before the company and the stock tanks. This - again - isn't too surprising since more than one investment group has sided with the realistic crowd that knows that Apple's stock has hit a ceiling or is too high to begin with given the shrinking revenue streams and lowered income expectations. And no amount of rah-rah can take the place of earning a few millions in real-life. Still, if the head honchos at Apple - particularly the head of the financial end of things - can't be trusted to show confidence in the stock, what does that portend for the potential investors in Apple future? Better yet, what does this mean for the long-term stability and financial future of Apple overall?

July 29

As a footnote to the previous newsbite - ever the micromanager and spin doctor Steve Jobs has gone on record for defending the actions of his own collegues and their stock selling frenzy under the guise of just-rewards and all that, "for doing a good job". Although in reality Steve Jobs probably isn't the best barometer of behavior to defend the people on the short-sell end of the stock equation since - after all - Steve himself isn't exactly swimming in Apple stock. In fact one would have to wonder the irony involved in a dammage control press-bite on the heels of his own stock throwaway a year ago which leaves him with a single share (give or take a few ten-thousand for his "interm CEO" title). Furthermore, I wouldn't really take anything Steve Jobs has to say about stock seriously anyway. Lord knows, now TWICE in Apple's history has he dumped his stock when it was trading at the bottem of the curve rather than wait a few months for it to increase in value. Both times he's short-changed himself more than double the value of the shares he's posessed passing up hundreds of millions of dollars for a quick change out. The first time he did this was because he was still groused at Apple after getting kicked out - and needed change to start NeXT inc. The second time in 1997, he dumped it because even he thought Apple was doomed within months and didn't want to dirty his hands with the whole afair of a company in a fast death spiral. Now it's a slower road of terminal illness for sure - probably why Steve hasn't bothered to invest in the company that he's running. Funny that.

July 30

Think Duh. Me this time, actually. There's been several financial barometers behind the scene that I've uncovered both in this column and in idle speculation. Stuff about the decreased marketshare, the decrease in revenue, the rip-off product margins floating a massive amount of corporate bloat that fetches about 20% of their incoming revenue - still - in spite of all the cutbacks and terminated programs. What I didn't do was put two and two together. Well, a pro-mac writer for Microsoft's investor website did - and boy is my face red. Here's the skinny and upshot. Apple has big-ass operating expenses while - say Dell - has a mere 12% of it's income feeding the workers. But Dell manages to pull big-honkin profits in spite of the fact that the margins on Dell Wintels are razor sharp compared to the fat greedhead figures supporting Apple on the order of over 22-24% on the cost of every product they sell. Here's the problem - and the incoming disaster with the iMac. Suddenly, Apple is positioning itself and it's image behind a low priced (for Apple) box that has margins less than half of what Apple is accustomed to. Now it's pretty much a foregone conclusion that the majority of the customers for this "consumer" Macintosh is the choir of present Apple users - and not nearly as many new users as Apple would like. Well, like it or not, they'd better get more new users because if the choir is the one's queing up for this Macintosh that doesn't hold the same revenue curve of their present margin ladden inventory - they're going to cut their own throat by competing with themselvses and their current cash-cow. Suffice it to say that if the iMac is a hit with the MacJihad, then Apple is going to get the fiscal beating of a lifetime. Let's say the iMac is a "runaway" success suddenly represeting 33% of Apple's total revenue. Out the door is over 16% of it's profits for a success at the cost of inflated prices that have kept Apple alive for all these years. Lord knows, cheap Macs from the cloners were scaring the crap out of Apple before - with margins so slim that Apple couldn't match them and live. Now they are introducing a clone of their own for all intensive purposes and may actually succeed at blowing a hole in their foot the same way they were dodging bullets more than a year ago. In this case it's really a damned if they do and damned if they don't - because with so much assembly runtime, and overall company resources placed behind the iMac being a success, it bombing would result in a quicker death. Having a runaway success with no new sales from it's own fanbase without more major rollbacks in operational revenue dipping would also be a disaster. Either way Apple looses. I'll be watching the fireworks from a safe distance you can count on that.

July 31

Apple on CNN. The nonevent of the week. The Macpress and Jihad are clamoring over themselves over a smidgin of attention - finally - from the media in the form of a 5 minute storybite on CNN/Fortune media magazine. Whoop de shit. Besides providing a generalized and sometimes totally wrong summary of Apple's past they go on to gush in accordance to Apple's own "turnaround" PR sheet. Whatasurprise. What - is - surprising however is the fact that they would recommend Apple's stock as a "pick of the week". What the hell kind of financial journaism is this? I'm hoping this is merely some kind of "awardesque title" that merely puts Apple into some kind of storylead without actually putting out a buy recommendation for a stock that most analysts are cautioning about having reached the top of the earnings curve to such an extent that Apple's own people won't retain it any longer. Certainly I'll be putting more attention twords CNBC rather than Turner and his ilk because after all - CNN is such a corporate mouthpiece for Apple, that even Ted Turner himself will be making appearances on Apple's own damn billboards in a departure from the grave robbing parade of pictures we've been exposed to from Chait-Day and Apple to date. Suffice it to say this was fluff journalism led by PR reports the same way it was in 1989 when NeXT got NewsWeek, ABC, CNN, and other media reps to give glowing coverage to the biggest flop in computing history. This isn't an indicator as much as free advertising that is story and content free for the masses of asses. The rest of the world can thank god that it was a fleeting 5 minutes of forgettable newscasts that was lost in the spew of FoxNews, Cnn's headline news, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomsburg Review, and other competing cable news francheises. One can assume the rating spike on the telepromter was from the MacJihad alone because no one on the street has fessed to having seen it. Yawn.

August 1

Before I reported on Don Crabb's shakey rep with ZDnet after the breakup and odd almagamation of MacUser into the folds of IDG/MacWorld. Now his tenure is officially dead as by his own report in his last MacWeek online column. He is now DEAD DEAD DEAD - HA Ha ha ha ha haaaaaa! Dancing at the graveyard tonight folks - I'll bring the tunes. Actually I could be Boogalooing prematurely since his own online column and his reports in MacCentral will undoutedly continue - but suffice it to say that any resemblance to the larger media machine will be fleating at best since IDG has KICKED HIS SORRY FAT ASS OUTA-THERE! However in a 1989 like fluff peice his own last-bigtime soundbite was an otherwise gushing lovefest for Steve Jobs. I could provide more details, but to be honest, I just had lunch - and I really want to keep the chicken sandwich down thankyouverymuch. However not lost in the fray is the basic conclusion that Donny boy now has as much net-worth and crediblity as yours truly since he's going to be an out of print, net-only one of those - just like me. In other news, the MacJihad on the Evangelist have affirmed their IQ demographics with a new "for-sale" item of T-shirts and Hats emblazoned with the less-than convincing and totally rabid fanboy text of "Get a Mac...Cuz PC's Just Plain Suk". Chait-Day copy it ain't. But with this redneck sentament we can be sure of more turned heads of pitty on the same order of those who push "honk if you're horny" bumper stickers onto the collective concious. Lord knows that the MacJihad's numbers are now so small - that if I ever see one of these WWF mentality fashion statements, it will be a blessing of rarity by proxy. At least it affirming to know that the radical lunitic fringe is alive and well.