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The Big Mac Question
Where is Apple headed and what will happen to its devoted users?
To buy or not to buy -- this is the question facing thousands of dedicated (and boy, are they dedicated) Mac users around the world. The question applies not only to new computer purchases, but extends to decisions about the advisability of merely purchasing new editions of the Mac operating system. By now, even casual readers of the news are aware that Apple Computer, Inc., once one of the most brilliant success stories of the computer age, now lies in tatters on the bottom of the corporate heap, victim of a few early policies and later mismanagement.
By keeping its operating system a proprietary asset, Apple chose a very different path than IBM, which licensed its operating system to virtually all comers, thus insuring the dominance of MS-DOS and the eventual fantastic fortune of Bill Gates. Later on, engaged in both operating system development and hardware manufacture, Apple made a few disastrous decisions in assessing the home computer market that led to truly phenomenal losses. Ironically, the advantages (some would say the beauty) of the Mac lie in the software that constitutes the Mac operating system, rather than in the hardware that constitutes the machine. At issue now is the continued existence of the company, though the current directors and officers at Apple are very upbeat, at least publicly.
After years with IBMs and IBM clones, and then a few years with a NeXT computer, and a short stint back with the PC, I became a Mac user about one and a half years ago. The reader is probably struck by my incredible foresight in making this move on the eve of Apple's seeming demise, but I made the switch due to the nature of the job I accepted about that time. Some may not be aware that, despite Apple's current three percent market share, Mac computers dominate the various media production industries and are a significant presence in the field of education, at all levels. There's a reason for that.
Recent independently-funded research on media corporations has shown that users of Macintosh computers produce an average of $26,441 more annual revenue and $14,488 more net profit per person than Windows users of comparable skill, doing similar work. Not content to make do with a small sample, Gistics, Inc., the California company that conducted the research, surveyed 30,226 media professionals and 10,000 media companies. The conclusion to be drawn from the results of their survey is unmistakable -- to increase profitability in the media production industry, buy an Apple computer. The return on the investment is a very clear-cut fact.
Fortunately for Apple, multimedia production for the World Wide Web and for CD-ROMs is a genuine growth industry that employs burgeoning numbers of new computer professionals each day. Additionally, almost all traditional audio and video production has moved or is moving to digital production methods. And to top it off, our colleges and universities are filling up with students who have grown into computer-literate young adults, many of them professing an earnest desire to work in the various media industries and to be trained and educated on the equipment they will be using as professionals. Steve Jobs, a founder of Apple who has returned to its Board of Directors, has made it his stated intention to refocus the company on the publishing and education markets, where Apple has traditionally been strong.
So, it's a little early to write Apple off -- with a new operating system (the first major overhaul in six years) coming out, a mostly-new Board of Directors, and lower than expected losses last quarter, Apple's stock is rising again -- literally!