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iWork #2 Behind Microsoft Office
http://news.com.com/Apples+iWork+emerges+as+rival+to+Microsoft+Office/2100-1012_3-6030011.html
Corel bills its WordPerfect Office software as "the world's leading alternative to Microsoft Office." But when it comes to U.S. retail sales, Corel lost the No. 2 spot in 2005 to a somewhat unlikely competitor: Apple Computer's iWork.
According to market researcher NPD, Apple grabbed a 2.7 percent unit share, while Corel had a 1.6 percent share. Microsoft maintained its dominance with nearly 95 percent of unit sales.
Apple's share is particularly impressive considering that iWork runs only on Macs, which account for a small fraction of computers, said NPD analyst Chris Swenson. "Apple's success for iWork has been pretty surprising," he said.
Looking at the Mac platform alone, iWork accounted for 17.4 percent, compared to about 82 percent for Microsoft. "Apple's iWork didn't overtake Microsoft Office, but I think taking almost a fifth of the Mac Office Suite market away from an entrenched competitor such as Microsoft is quite an accomplishment," Swenson said.
Corel, meanwhile did see its unit sales of WordPerfect Office grow 6.1 percent year over year, but its dollar revenue from those products dropped by 0.7 percent, Swenson said. Swenson said his sense is that the products aren't getting much advertising inside retail stores.
"I think Corel has their work cut out for them," Swenson said.
Corel recently updated its WordPerfect Office program as well, while Microsoft is due to release a significant update, Office 12, later this year.
The iWork program is a relative newcomer to the Office scene, having debuted in January, 2005. Earlier this month, Apple updated iWork, enhancing the Pages word processor and Keynote layout program with improved table capabilities, but not adding a spreadsheet program as some had expected.
There had been reports, apparently incorrect, on some Apple enthusiast sites that sales of the initial iWork software had lagged.
"One rumor that can be put to rest is that iWork wasn't selling well," Swenson said.
For its part, Corel said that it has 10 to 15 times more sales than iWork when you add in other channels--such as commercial sales and sales through distributors--and that PC makers, including Dell, sometimes bundle WordPerfect Office on their new PCs.
"When you add all of them up we stand strong to our claim of being the leading alternative," said Richard Carriere, general manager of Corel's Office Productivity unit. That said, having a major presence at retailers is important, he added.
"It's a small fraction of the market, Carriere said, adding: "It's very important for showcasing our product and we are present in all the major outlets."
BlueDjinn Hits Slashdot
So, Charles, congratulations on making your Pixar/Disney news hit Slashdot. The #1 effect for your success? Traffic back to BrainWrap.com!
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/22/0739217
Trust me.
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/12/1339211
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/17/0252222
- louismg
Collaboration Tools
Time-out dilleet and all! Trust me, some of us were at one time in our lives, fully immersed in business-level collaboration tools. But the Macintosh has not caught up in regards to support by any of the major players.
Back in the 1999-2000 timeframe, we at 3Cube rolled out a product called PhoneCube that offered Web meetings and real-time desktop sharing that rivals anything offered today.
You can see a demo of it archived at our Web designer's page:
http://www.blacklizard.com/html/work/demos/phonecube/phonecube.html
You can see a Web archive on Archive.org of our Web site:
http://tinyurl.com/9ddnp
We even at one time were the phone conferencing solution for Mac Show Live. Remember that show? I actually made it on there twice to talk about how great our product was for the Macintosh...
Mac Show Asks, "Is The Cube All It's Cracked Up To Be?"
http://www.themacobserver.com/article/2000/10/11.2.shtml
As Blue_Djinn will tell you, I was laid off from 3Cube the day before MacWorld San Francisco in 2001. We still went and saw the show the next morning. Shortly thereafter, 3Cube was absorbed by Oracle in mid-2001, and the tools live on today in the Oracle 10g offerings.
Oracle Collaboration Suite
http://oraclestore.oracle.com/OA_HTML/ibeCCtpSctDspRte.jsp?section=14974
Don't talk to me about WebEx! They still suck!
- louismg
Sold All AAPL at 81.47
So does that make me a bad guy? We all know I'll wait until it goes down again. Profit's not bad...
Sling Media to Roll Out Macintosh Player
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/060110/sling_media_macintosh.html?.v=1
Tuesday January 10, 12:03 pm ET
Sling Media to Roll Out Macintosh Version of Player
SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) -- Consumer electronics company Sling Media Inc. said Tuesday that it will roll out a Macintosh compatible version of SlingPlayer, which will allow Apple computer users to access their television on a Macintosh-based computer via the Internet.
The San Mateo, Calif.-based company's Slingbox is a $249.99 device that hooks up to your television, and routes a television signal to your personal computer via the Internet.
SlingPlayer for Windows systems started shipping last June, while SlingPlayer Mac is expected to ship in the second quarter 2006.
The software will be downloadable from the Sling Media Web site, and SlingPlayer Mac will be compatible with existing Slingboxes.
The announcement was made at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco.
Apple to sell SNL skits for iPods
By Julie Bosman
The New York Times
http://news.com.com/Apple+to+sell+SNL+skits+for+iPods/2100-1026_3-6024976.html
Published: January 9, 2006, 10:25 PM PST
"Saturday Night Live" fans looking to watch classic skits from the show may not have to depend on reruns and DVD compilations for long.
Apple Computer is set to announce Tuesday that it will sell a limited number of archived "Saturday Night" skits through its iTunes Music Store for $1.99 each, for viewing on video iPods or personal computers.
The offering is the latest expansion of Apple's iTunes video library, which includes content from television networks including NBC and ABC.
The Sci Fi Channel, Disney and USA Network have also struck deals with Apple to sell their television content, typically making shows available for purchase one day after they are broadcast.
But the only "Saturday Night" content available on iTunes was "Lazy Sunday," a spoof music video that had its debut on the Dec. 17 episode. The video, which mockingly chronicled a mundane Sunday afternoon through the rapper personas of the cast members Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg, was made available free to iTunes subscribers and quickly became an Internet sensation.
NBC first announced a deal with Apple on Dec. 6 to sell its own content on iTunes after ABC experienced success selling shows like "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives."
Under NBC's arrangement with Apple, iTunes users can purchase commercial-free episodes of new shows like "The Office," and "Surface," as well as classics like the original "Dragnet" and "Alfred Hitchcock Presents." An Apple spokesman said the company sold more than three million video downloads in October and November.
iTunes Music Store Back Up
Hiccups do not product introductions make.
Just bought 3 more songs. Now my Purchased songs list holds a mere 920 items for 3.7 days worth of good stuff.
But you knew that.
http://www.last.fm/user/louismg OR
http://www.musicmobs.com/user/louismg give you even more data.
Attending MWSF?
I don't think I can trick work into letting me. Maybe I'll call in sick, but the whole idea is doubtful. I trust AAPLannie can go and take good notes.
- louismg
Remember the rally? YABO!
It's been awhile since that was mentioned here. For you newbies, maybe an old hand can fill you in.
Henry Blodget - Up and Running
Just check here: http://www.internetoutsider.com/
Hey Blue, you should post that on the Daily Kos!
Oh wait...
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/9/104925/292
Official Apple Press Releases (3)
Apple Introduces the New iMac G5
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051012/sfw074.html?.v=24
Apple Announces iTunes 6 With 2,000 Music Videos, Pixar Short Films & Hit TV Shows
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051012/sfw072.html?.v=32
Apple Unveils the New iPod; Fifth Generation iPod Now Plays Music, Photos & Video
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/051012/sfw073.html?.v=28
Wall Street Journal Coverage
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB112913603936866808.html
Apple Unveils Video iPod
A WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE NEWS ROUNDUP
October 12, 2005 1:44 p.m.
Apple Computer Inc. unveiled a new version of the iPod capable of playing video and a new iMac computer, part of the company's ongoing effort to expand its position in digital entertainment.
Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs introduced the new products at an event in Silicon Valley. The new video iPod, which had been widely anticipated, is the latest in a series of enhancements to the popular digital music player.
Early versions of the iPod had black-and-white screens. The company first introduced color screens in October 2004 and now most models, except for the screenless iPod Shuffle, have color displays.
In July The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple had started discussions with major recording companies about licensing music videos for sale through iTunes at $1.99 each. The report also said Apple had informed some media-industry executives about plans to launch a video iPod.
A move into video is a risky bet for Apple that it can parlay the success of the iPod into a category where entertainment companies have yet to widely license their content. But Apple is looking to capitalize on the popularity of its brand.
The announcement comes a day after Apple reported its quarterly profit more than quadrupled on a 57% increase in revenue, but sales of the company's iPod portable music players weren't strong enough to satisfy some investors.
Apple shipped nearly 6.5 million iPods in the September quarter, including one million of its newest model, the iPod nano. Some analysts were expecting the company to ship between seven and eight million iPods in the quarter.
iPod Video Only a Video of iPod
Blue... remember when the iPod was introduced? There was a video posted to the Apple site - as there have been for many other product launches since...
It does not indicate a "Video iPod" but instead... an "iPod Video".
Heck, there's a Tiger Video! What do you think it all means?
http://www.apple.com/macosx/quicktours/
Here's the original iPod Intro Video
http://web.archive.org/web/20011126222726/www.apple.com/hardware/video/ipod_intro_480.html
Dr. Blue,
One may interpret your state of reaction as an over-reaction.
In fact, your exclamations mirror those of the juvenile rumormongers found elsewhere, who find secrets where there are none.
Existing MacNN Thread
http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=269028
iSchedule from Arima
http://www.arima.com/SolutionsITArima/eng/productiSchedulePage.htm
You may still use MS Access at the office on your Windows machine, and answer the survey. Just because it's not on the Mac doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
- louismg
From that thread, the full list:
Please select all that apply
AppleWorks
Address Book
DVD Studio Pro
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Express
GarageBand
iCal
iChat
iDVD
iMovie
iPhoto
iSchedule
iSync
iTunes
Keynote 1
Keynote 2 (which is part of iWork)
Logic Express (Logic Silver/Gold)
Logic Pro (Logic Platinum)
Mail
Motion
Pages (which is part of iWork)
Pluto
QuickTime
QuickTime Pro
Safari
Shake
Soundtrack
Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Illustrator
Adobe InDesign
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop Elements
Adobe Premier
Microsoft Access
Microsoft Entourage
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Internet Explorer
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Word
Cumulus
Dreamweaver
FileMaker
iView MediaPro
Toast
QuarkXPress
Quicken
QuickBooks
World Book Encyclopedia
Some other application(s), please indicate the names of these applications
None of the above
Re: Unless You Live In Utah
Sinclap, that's not exactly the response of understanding, knowledge and tolerance one typically expects, but instead exposes your own bigotry and ignorance.
Thanks,
- louismg
Re: Jean Louis Gassee
That reminds me of something a guy I know wrote more than eight years ago while at the 1997 BMUG Macfest.
http://web.archive.org/web/19970717135151/www.dailycal.org/archive/04.28.97/news/macs.html
Ellen Hancock! Jean Louis Gassee! Mac OS 7.6!
Those were the days.
And I loved this quote:
"I said, 'What do we have planned between July 1996 and December 1997?' and they said, 'Nothing,'" Hancock said. "I said, 'I think that's strange -- we have 25 million users; don't you think they want anything?'"
Yahoo! Buys Konfabulator
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/050725/yahoo_konfabulator.html?.v=2
Yahoo Buys Maker of 'Widget' Applications
Monday July 25, 12:08 am ET
By Michael Liedtke, AP Business Writer
Popular Web Site Yahoo Inc. Buys Maker of 'Widget' Applications
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Hoping to pave a new path to its popular Web site, Yahoo Inc. has acquired Konfabulator, a tiny software maker that provides a computer platform for monitoring the weather, stock prices and a wealth of other customized information without opening a Web browser.
The deal, finalized late last week for an undisclosed price, gives Yahoo access to a toolbox of mini-applications -- known as widgets -- that have built a cult following since Palo Alto-based Konfabulator first introduced them for Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh in 2002.
Apple liked the concept so much that it includes a widgets dashboard in the Mac's operating system. With just three employees, Konfabulator designs its widget software to run on the ubiquitous Windows operating system as well.
The widgets are designed to make it easy for outsiders to develop and share new applications -- a concept that Yahoo wants to encourage as it experiments with new ways to make the wealth of information on its Web site more useful, said Toni Schneider, vice president of the company's developer network.
"We are lowering the bar and letting people do a lot more with our material," Schneider said.
Online search engine leader Google Inc., one of Yahoo's biggest rivals, recently began encouraging third-party developers to plug in new applications for its mapping service, which already is being tweaked to track crime and apartment vacancies in some cities.
Konfabulator's widgets will be exposed to a much wider audience under its new ownership. Yahoo ended June with 181 million registered users.
The widgets will draw upon information and services already on Yahoo's Web site without requiring a browser to see it. The material instead is displayed through an animated icon on the computer desktop.
To help popularize the widgets, Yahoo plans will give away the Konfabulator software that empowers the applications. Konfabulator had been charging $20 for the software. Anyone who bought version 2.0 of the software since mid-May will be given refunds, said Konfabulator CEO Arlo Rose.
Yahoo can afford to be generous, having made $755 million in its most recent quarter, including a $563 million profit from selling its remaining stake in Google.
The Sunnyvale-based company still expects to make money from Konfabulator.
Yahoo is counting on the widgets to make users more curious about certain topics, services or events, ultimately driving more traffic to its Web site so it can serve up more moneymaking ads and expand its current base of 10.1 million subscribers who pay for premium services, Schneider said.
Konfabulator's widgets can be programmed to perform a wide variety of tasks. The most popular applications are local weather and stock quotes, Rose said, but third-party developers have developed thousands of other uses.
For instance, there are widgets that monitor the local traffic or show the remaining power left on a laptop computer's battery. Other more whimsical widgets serve up comic strips and horoscopes.
The Yahoo deal "gives us whole new buckets of content to grab stuff from." Rose said.
Longhorn Renamed as Windows Vista!
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000843051462/
So there’s been some buzz on this and now it’s looking confirmed by a few insider sources — the official name for the new Microsoft Longhorn operating system is going to be Windows Vista. As in “a view into the distance” which surely refers to the prolonged development timeline of the OS (ouch, we had to.). Look for the official announcement tomorrow morning.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2005/jul05/07-22LHMA.mspx
Media Alert: Microsoft Unveils Official Name for “Longhorn” and Sets Date for First Beta Targeted at Developers and IT Professionals
Company announces official name of its next-generation Windows client operating system.
Party down!
Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006
Monday June 6, 1:30 pm ET
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050606/sfm142.html?.v=9
WWDC 2005, SAN FRANCISCO, June 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007. Apple previewed a version of its critically acclaimed operating system, Mac OS® X Tiger, running on an Intel- based Mac® to the over 3,800 developers attending CEO Steve Jobs' keynote address. Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple's software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Our goal is to provide our customers with the best personal computers in the world, and looking ahead Intel has the strongest processor roadmap by far," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "It's been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel's technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years."
"We are thrilled to have the world's most innovative personal computer company as a customer," said Paul Otellini, president and CEO of Intel. "Apple helped found the PC industry and throughout the years has been known for fresh ideas and new approaches. We look forward to providing advanced chip technologies, and to collaborating on new initiatives, to help Apple continue to deliver innovative products for years to come."
"We plan to create future versions of Microsoft Office for the Mac that support both PowerPC and Intel processors," said Roz Ho, general manager of Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit. "We have a strong relationship with Apple and will work closely with them to continue our long tradition of making great applications for a great platform."
"We think this is a really smart move on Apple's part and plan to create future versions of our Creative Suite for Macintosh that support both PowerPC and Intel processors," said Bruce Chizen, CEO of Adobe.
The Developer Transition Kit is available starting today for $999 to all Apple Developer Connection Select and Premier members. Further information for Apple Developer Connection members is available at developer.apple.com. Intel plans to provide industry leading development tools support for Apple later this year, including the Intel C/C++ Compiler for Apple, Intel Fortran Compiler for Apple, Intel Math Kernel Libraries for Apple and Intel Integrated Performance Primitives for Apple.
Intel (www.intel.com), the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products.
Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award- winning desktop and notebook computers, OS X operating system, and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital music revolution with its iPod portable music players and iTunes online music store.
NOTE: Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple. Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
APPLE TO INTEL - CONFIRMED!!!
http://biz.yahoo.com/e/050606/aapl8-k.html
On June 6, 2005, Apple Computer, Inc. (Apple) issued a press release regarding Apple's plans to deliver Macintosh products using Intel microprocessors. A copy of Apple's press release is attached hereto as Exhibit 99.
If it is Leopard, can you wait for "Apple to Change Its Spots"
- Crappy headline heard here first.
Apple NAB Press Releases
Apple Continues to Lead the Industry in the Adoption of HD Video at NAB
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050417/nysu020.html?.v=4
Apple Unveils Final Cut Studio
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050417/nysu021.html?.v=2
Apple Introduces Soundtrack Pro
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050417/nysu018.html?.v=6
Apple Announces Shake 4
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050417/nysu019.html?.v=4
Comcast speeds are stable
Communications 3.1 megabits per second
Storage 379.7 kilobytes per second
1MB file download 2.7 seconds
Subjective rating Awesome
Fi - it seems that we Comcast customers don't have much variance.
KavaSoft - fantastic apps
Bootz and all... I admit to not having tried Shoebox 1.0 yet (I will this evening), but I heartily endorse all of KavaSoft's apps. I know the developer behind the projects, and he is a bright guy focused on bringing smart tools (and games) to the Mac OS X platform.
Try them all. Buy them all.
- louismg
Apple Gains Marketing Exec from HP Turmoil
HP exec follows Fiorina out the door
By Ina Fried
http://news.com.com/HP+exec+follows+Fiorina+out+the+door/2100-1010_3-5575413.html
In the wake of Carly Fiorina's forced resignation, Hewlett-Packard's top marketing executive is leaving the company, CNET News.com has learned.
Allison Johnson, HP's senior vice president of marketing, was one of Fiorina's closest advisers at the company, having led the company's public-relations campaign during the contentious proxy battle over the acquisition of Compaq Computer as well as the "+HP = everything is possible" advertising campaign that followed the deal's closure.
A source close to the company said Johnson's decision was unrelated to Fiorina's departure and made prior to the board's request for Fiorina's resignation.
Another source said HP's board and executives asked Johnson to stay on through last week's CEO announcement and this week's quarterly earnings announcement.
Johnson was not immediately available for comment.
The marketing guru is leaving HP to take a top marketing post at Apple Computer. She will become vice president of worldwide marketing communications, reporting to CEO Steve Jobs, an Apple representative told News.com.
At Apple, Johnson will be responsible for Apple's global advertising and related efforts. She joins as Apple's image is soaring. The Mac and iPod maker earned the top spot in a recent survey regarding corporate brands.
Johnson had previously worked at Apple and has also held posts at IBM and Netscape Communications before joining HP in 1999.
At HP, Johnson's role stretched beyond marketing under Fiorina. She was described by one former co-worker as the "prime minister" of HP, BusinessWeek reporter Peter Burrows wrote in his book "Backfire: Carly Fiorina's High-Stakes Battle for the Soul of Hewlett-Packard," which traced the HP-Compaq fight.
In an e-mail to staff Monday afternoon, Chief Marketing Officer Mike Winkler said that for the time being, the leadership of HP's corporate marketing team will report to him. He also reiterated that Johnson's move was planned prior to Fiorina's resignation.
"This was a personal decision made prior to and independent of the change in CEO," Winkler said in the e-mail, which was seen by News.com. Winkler added that Johnson's departure "does not imply any changes to the strategy and direction of the marketing function or the company overall."
Word of Johnson's planned departure comes less than a week after Fiorina was ousted by HP's board.
At HP, Johnson served as vice president of global brand and communications, before being named senior vice president as HP launched its plans to buy Compaq.
Despite being rivals in the consumer PC market, HP and Apple have been collaborating lately. Since last year, HP has been reselling the iPod and also distributing Apple's iTunes music software on HP laptops and desktops.
CNET News.com's Richard Shim contributed to this report.
OT: Re: Pelosi and Boxer
It has been pleasant to see Boxer standing up as a vocal mouthpiece opposing Condaleeza Rice, and seeing Pelosi as the counter, alongside Harry Reid, following Bush's State of the Union. If we cannot be proud of those who are working the hardest to provide opposition to the liars and misleaders we have in there today, then who can we be proud of?
I stand behind Pelosi and Boxer and Reid and Dean, and apologize for nothing. If only we had 50 Boxers.
- louismg
The Divine Origin of Steve Jobs
From the incomparable Rudy Park: http://www.rudypark.com
Salon: Hallelujah, the Mac is back
Weary of spyware, tired of virus attacks, a nation turns its lonely eyes to ... Apple?
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2005/01/31/mac_is_the_future/print.html
- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Farhad Manjoo
Jan. 31, 2005 / Twenty-one years ago this month, Steve Jobs, Apple Computer's theatrical co-founder, launched the company's annual shareholder meeting in Cupertino, Calif., by quoting Dylan: "For the wheel's still in spin/ And there's no tellin' who that it's namin'/ For the loser now/ Will be later to win/ For the times they are a-changin'." Then, after a brief diatribe on the stupidity and villainy of IBM, Apple's main rival at the time, Jobs cast himself as the hero in a near-epic, if ultra-geeky, battle between good and evil: "It is now 1984," he said. "It appears that IBM wants it all ... IBM wants it all, and is aiming its guns at its last obstacle to industry control, Apple. Will Big Blue dominate the entire computer industry? The entire information age? Was George Orwell right?"
Jobs is hammier than an Easter feast, and it's easy to discount his perpetually revolutionary air, but that 1984 shareholder meeting -- at which the company, besieged by IBM, unveiled its radically different Macintosh home computer -- was nevertheless magical. You can read this account by Andy Hertzfeld, a Mac co-creator, to get a sense of the tension and the mania in the auditorium that day, the feeling that this was a moment for the history books. Or watch a video of the event that's recently been making the rounds online: "Chariots of Fire" rises in the background as the Mac is switched on, and the audience gasps as the machine before them actually speaks its name in greeting. And why shouldn't they gasp? Outside of Kubrick films, whoever had seen such an amazing machine before?
If you're into this sort of thing, the clip can give you goose bumps. Isn't it a shame, you say, that Apple hasn't been this cool in decades? And then: Isn't it wonderful that the magic is back?
After all, we've been living, for the past couple years, in Apple's world, a time and place in which the normal rules of commerce no longer seem to apply to the once much-beaten-down firm. The company has seen an extraordinary string of hits recently. The iPod is bigger than Jesus. Apple is literally selling these things faster than it can make them. Now, for the first time in almost two decades, there's a good -- great -- feeling attached to the Apple brand, a haze of optimism that is unlike the sensation we feel for all but the most cherished of consumer tech products. (There's Google, there's TiVo, and there's Apple: Can you think of any other company that has recently changed your life as you know it?)
So, perchance to dream: After iPod, can Apple make a comeback in the world of personal computers? On Jan. 22, the company began shipping the Mac Mini, a diminutive entry-level machine aimed at Windows people. The computer is tiny, beautiful and, at $499, cheap; already, it's receiving generally positive praise from reviewers.
What happens now? The entire effort could fizzle, certainly. Apple releases nice Macs all the time that never spark in the Windows world. There is a theory, though, that this go-round might be different, that the moment may be ripe for the Mac Mini to take off. The landscape of the personal computer market has altered. In recent years, the home computer has increasingly become a digital entertainment center; people use it for the Web, they use it for e-mail, and they use it for photos, movies and music.
The Mac is not just good at these few tasks: It's the best there is. There's simply no arguing that Apple's built-in software and operating system make for the single most powerful photo, music and movie system you can buy.
But the things that the Mac is good at make up just one part of the story. There's a flip side -- the increasingly obvious failings of PCs running Microsoft Windows. Among Windows users, there's a rising feeling -- accounted for mostly by anecdotes and not all that well-measured, but nevertheless important -- that the system is becoming too hard to maintain. Talk to experts at computer security firms and they'll give you some pretty scary straight talk about how spyware, adware and viruses are just killing the user experience on an ordinary Windows PC.
It's not unusual for people to throw out their year-old Windows computers because they've become just too clogged with bad junk, says Richard Stiennon, vice president of threat research at the anti-spyware firm Webroot. The Mac, in contrast, simply doesn't suffer such afflictions.
David Gelernter, a computer scientist and tech visionary at Yale, likens today's PC market to the American automobile market of the early 1970s. At the time, Americans were buying American-made junk -- and because they didn't know any better, they were putting up with the junk. "So what happened?" Gelernter asks. "What happened was that Japan started exporting huge numbers of Hondas and Toyotas, and people saw that for a reasonable price they could buy a car that didn't fall apart in two weeks. When you picked it up at the dealer all the parts were in it, the whole thing worked. Until that happened, people were satisfied with the garbage they were getting from Detroit."
Forget the iPod. What if the iPod's just a gateway drug? What if Apple's future is much grander: What if Apple could become the Toyota of the computer business?
Apple's computer business isn't so bad. But it's not the stuff of dreams, either. In the winter of 2004, Apple sold about a million Mac machines. This represented a 26 percent increase over sales from the same quarter in the previous year, but during the course of the year, Apple's numbers zig-zagged between increases in one quarter to declines in the next. Its share of the world's computer business remains dismal. The company now has about 2 percent of the worldwide computer market; its market share in the United States stands at just above 3 percent, a tenth of the share of the top Windows PC maker, Dell.
We won't pause long to chew on the paradox of the Mac -- the mystery over why, so far, the world's best desktop computers are also the world's least popular machines. That's an old chestnut among tech journalists, and it's a lame one, too, as the answers are pretty close at hand: Consider the Mac's (perceived) high prices, the curse of tech-industry network effects, the business missteps and strategic stumbles Apple has made over the years, and the savvy and sometimes criminal behavior of its competitors -- consider all this and it's no surprise that the Mac's not the main machine in town.
Now, many Mac lovers will argue that market share doesn't matter. BMW and Mercedes, they point out, have a small share of the auto market, and nobody frets about that. This may be so, but computing platforms are different from cars. Unlike automobiles, your computer improves as more people use systems like it -- as more developers become interested in your system, you get more and better software, for one thing. It's true that the Mac's not in danger of dying out as a platform, and that the Mac does benefit, in some ways, from its small market share (it's a lower-profile target for attackers, for instance). But do you remember the famous 1984 Mac commercial, the one that argued that this was not just another PC, that it was instead a revolutionary product? The Mac's current market share does not speak well of the fate of that revolution. If more people used the Mac, and if it became an actual threat to Windows, we'd see two gains: Mac users would benefit from a more vibrant platform, and, perhaps more important, all other systems would improve due to competition.
To tech industry observers, the Mac's tepid sales in 2004 were something of a surprise. During the same year, the iPod experienced phenomenal sales; Apple saw a 500 percent increase in sales of the music device in the winter quarter of 2004 compared to same quarter in 2003. In 2004, the company sold several times more iPods than it did Macs, meaning that the device was purchased by millions of people who didn't own Macs. Their only association with Apple came through the brilliant music player, and some analysts and Apple execs thought it was natural to expect some kind of "halo effect" from the iPod -- all those Windows people with favorable impressions of the iPod might consider switching to Macs.
But that halo didn't seem to work. For some reason, in 2004, vast numbers of Windows people didn't look at their iPods and decide to buy Macs. Why not? Perhaps the answer lies in what Jason Snell, the editor of Macworld magazine, says is the essential difference between Windows people and Mac people: Mac people love their computers on a personal, emotional level. Windows people, on the other hand, prefer to think of their machines as office tools, gadgets no more special than the stapler. Windows users don't expect much in the way of quality, beauty or elegance from their machines; if they did, they'd be Mac people. Instead, they expect their PCs to perform a great many tasks, and they've resigned themselves to having to labor over those tasks.
This is not at all how we think about our iPods. The iPod is a consumer electronics device; it does one thing, plays music, and it does that one thing extremely well. The device is also intensely personal: People buy the iPod as much for form, for the way you look when you carry it around town, as for function. Your Windows PC, by contrast, is all function, no personality. Computers are the workhorses of our lives, slaves to the routine and the mundane. You do your taxes on your PC. You pay homage to John Coltrane on your iPod. Thinking about it this way, it seems clear why Windows people didn't look at the iPod as a first step to the Mac: In the mind of the typical Windows user, there's no clear connection between a desktop computer like the Mac and the iPod. The two exist in separate product universes. The iPod is sublime. Your computer is a chore. Why would you ever associate the two?
But the Mac Mini, Snell says, eases the mental transition between the iPod and the desktop machine. Indeed, one way to think about the Mac Mini -- and the way that Apple may be thinking about it -- is as the iPod of computers. Yes, the Mac Mini can do everything that any other Mac can do; it's a full-fledged computer. But "there's a big part of Apple that wants to be a consumer electronics company," Snell says, and the Mac Mini has the look and feel of a consumer electronics device -- a friendly, personal thing that will be marketed mainly for its core functions, its facility with your pictures, movies and music.
"I was visiting some friends this weekend," Snell says, "and they're PC people, they don't own Macs. But one of them was describing going to a friend's house to use iPhoto so she could make a photo book for their daughter's birthday. They loved the Mac, and they were seriously talking about buying a Mac Mini." What's interesting, Snell points out, is that these people didn't want the Mini for its intrinsic computer power; they were going to keep their PC up and running. They wanted the Mini as a household digital hub, as an appliance, rather than a computer, that made it easier to play with their photos.
Windows users often think about the buying of a Mac as a terminal decision. Indeed, you don't just "buy" a Macintosh; in jargon that Apple has popularized, you "switch" to the Mac, you make a change to your life in order to reorient yourself to a whole new platform. Put that way, buying a Mac is a huge decision; it involves learning a new operating system, transferring files, and buying new, expensive software to replace the software on your Windows machine. But if you think of the Mac Mini as an appliance, as a device for photos and making movies, you can conceive of using the Mac without "switching," Snell notes. You can use the Mac alongside your Windows computer, in much the same way you can use an iPod in your Windows home. Stephen Baker, an analyst at the NPD Group, a market research firm, echoes this thought. "The whole 'switching' thing isn't the way to look at this," Baker says. "People who are buying these are not switching all their Windows PCs to Macs. As more and more households get more and more kinds of computers in the house, they have a range of PCs for different uses. It's reasonable to expect that the Mac will be part of that range," he says.
Apple has been down this road before. The iMac, which Apple released in the 1990s, was also supposed to be something like an appliance. It was the Internet computer, the machine that made connecting to the booming and then mysterious Web a very painless thing. The iMac was in fact a hit for Apple -- but it didn't reverse the Mac's dwindling fortunes. So why should we expect Mac Mini to have any more success?
Well, for one thing, the Mini's cheaper than the iMac was. It is still possible to buy a Windows machine that costs less than the Mac Mini, but you'd really be scraping the bottom of the barrel, and even if you got something with comparable computing power -- as fast a processor, as big a hard drive, as much memory -- you still wouldn't be getting what you get with the Mini. A comparably priced Windows computer is a cheap Windows computer; a Mac Mini, with its built-in top-of-the-line software, is a digital media appliance that fits on a countertop, connects to your HDTV, stores all your photos, catalogs your music, edits your movies and (if you slap down $100 for the DVD-burning drive) creates your DVDs. Thanks to the Web, it is also now easier to start using the Mac without really going through the hassle of "switching." Key applications -- like e-mail in the form of GMail, or photos with Flickr -- are available on any platform, reducing your dependence on Windows.
But the main reason that the Mac Mini may find more success in the Windows world than the iMac did is that these days, the Windows world isn't doing too well. There are about 100,000 known pieces of "malware" -- viruses, worms and Trojan horses -- targeted at the Windows operating system, says Vincent Weafer, a computer security expert at Symantec. In addition, there are between 40,000 and 100,000 individual bits of spyware (defined broadly) aimed at the OS. Weafer says that by all accounts, the spyware problem reached a fever pitch during the past year. "Judging by submissions and support calls, it was getting a lot worse," he says. "We are also seeing a trend where a subset of the programs are becoming a lot more viruslike -- to hide themselves on your machine, they're using methods like viruses to try to become more persistent." Some people calling Symantec looking for answers to their spyware and virus problems are just beyond help, Weafer says. "They've tried many different things and it doesn't help. They'll end up reinstalling or cleaning it out or buying a new one -- a lot of this stuff is just so deeply embedded, it becomes more and more difficult to get rid of the gunk, the sludge at the bottom of your machine."
Spyware is big business; in the strange economy that is the spyware market, a parasitic piece of software can earn its owner $2.95 per year for every computer it's installed on. "If you want to earn some free money, you infect a million machines and you make almost $3 million a year," says Richard Stiennon, of Webroot. These incentives have caused spyware writers to build quite harmful applications, some of which are nearly impossible to get off your machine. "There are about a dozen pieces of spyware that are installing themselves in such a way that they're pretty much destroying the machine when they get on it," Stiennon says. People who are infected with such persistent bugs will notice the damage. Their machines will run slower, and key applications -- like the Internet Explorer Web browser -- basically cease to function. For Windows users, protecting against this software has got to be a full-time job, the experts say, involving multiple pieces of anti-malware software.
Compared to Windows, the Mac is a Fort Knox of security. There are only about 200 pieces of malware known to attack the Mac platform, and security analysts could not identify a single instance -- not one -- of spyware aimed at the Mac. There are a couple of reasons for this. One is that the Macintosh operating system is inherently more secure than the Windows platform. As a technical matter, the Mac operating system, which is based on Unix, has a much smaller "surface area" for attackers to target, Stiennon says. Windows, by contrast, "is a really dirty OS that requires thousands of system calls to do simple functions -- and every single system call is an opportunity" for an attacker to get at the system, Stiennon explains.
According to experts, though, it isn't the Mac's better structure that accounts for why so few pieces of malware and spyware are aimed at the operating system -- it's the size of its user base. If miscreants really put their heads to it, they could probably come up with many dangerous attacks against the Mac -- but who would want to? Faced with the choice of disrupting 95 percent of the computer users in the world or just 3 percent, which would you choose? The choice is especially obvious for the purveyors of spyware, who, remember, depend on high numbers of infected machines to make money. If you want to make a killing in the spyware business, you're not going to get far by attacking the Mac.
This is, though, a distinction without a real difference. To the individual Mac user, it matters little why the machine is less vulnerable to attacks. The only thing that matters is this: "If you switch over to the Mac," says Weafer, "you'll be relatively safer."
A couple weeks after Apple unveiled the Mac Mini at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, I called up Andy Hertzfeld, one of the engineers on the original Mac team, to see what he thought about the idea that the Mini could create a new opening for Apple with Windows users. Considering its appeal as a digital-media appliance, and its relative security from malware, wasn't the Mac Mini ideally positioned, I asked him, to take the Windows world by storm?
Herztfeld, who left Apple in 1984, is still a dedicated fan of the company's wares and a keen observer of its fortunes. (He recently published an insanely great memoir, "Revolution in the Valley: The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made.") Because he buys just about every piece of hardware the company makes, Hertzfeld had ordered the Mac Mini, and was awaiting delivery of his unit on the day I spoke to him. He planned to use the machine as the hub of his home theater system, and he said he expected many people would use it in similar ways -- as an extra machine, or as a digital media appliance, or just something cool to have around the house. The Mini, he said, was the product of a "confident Apple," a company buoyed by the success of the iPod and unafraid to take the fight to its rivals.
Pleased as he was by the new machine, though, Hertzfeld didn't think it could overturn the Microsoft monopoly. For one thing, he didn't believe that the Mac could really capitalize on its security strengths over Windows. If Apple were ever to take out an ad promoting the Mac's security, "it would only motivate attacks," Hertzfeld pointed out. "Even I have enough of the perverse hacker in me to try something." And certainly as the Mac's market share rose, so would the number of attackers targeting the system.
Hertzfeld believes that the Mac Mini, given the timing and Apple's recent successes, could likely increase the Mac's market share by a bit. If the system did extraordinarily well, if it were successful beyond Apple's wildest dreams, maybe the company would get to a 10 percent market share, he said. But Apple's problem, as Hertzfeld sees it, isn't in getting to 10 percent of the market. The company is smart enough to do so; and if that happened, it would be phenomenal for Apple -- but would it really be a revolution in the PC business? Hertzfeld didn't think so.
The problem with the modern personal computing environment is that, in some fundamental sense, it's a broken business. "There's a poison in the computer industry," Hertzfeld says, "and that is the fact that the common software base is controlled by a predatory software company with a lack of ethics." In case you didn't get the reference, Hertzfeld is talking about Microsoft, which, through Windows, controls the underlying software development base for the PC industry -- essentially, it controls the standards, the keys to empire. "Microsoft is not a good steward of the standards," Hertzfeld says, and if Microsoft is to be beaten, and if a company like Apple is to exert more dominance in the PC world, Microsoft has got to first lose control of the standards. Hertzfeld actually believes that this is occurring; Microsoft is in fact slowly losing its grip on the software development standards, he says. "But I don't think Apple is the driver of that dynamic -- I think the free software movement is pushing that."
Hertzfeld is an ardent believer in the free and open source software movements -- in which software programmers all over the world voluntarily write code that anyone can share, modify or distribute. In the late 1990s, he co-founded Eazel, a company that created a slick file manager app called Nautilus for use on the open-source Linux operating system's GNOME desktop environment. If Apple really wants to change the personal computer business, it will need to do more than release a machine like the Mac Mini, no matter how good it is, Hertzfeld says. It will, instead, need to commit to free software. "Eventually the fix [in the PC business] is for the Windows monopoly to get marginalized by free software, and Apple could make a gulf of difference in that effort" by contributing some of its code, resources, energy and branding power to the free software movement.
Does Hertzfeld have any real hope that Apple, which guards its code just as closely as Microsoft holds Windows, may go the free software route? "I don't predict they will," he says, "but I don't predict they won't, either. They're smart people." What he means is that they may eventually see that it's in their interest to do so.
When discussing the PC business, an important thing to remember is that nothing's quite settled yet. The personal computer is a young product, and the PCs we have today are not the PCs we'll have forever. David Gelernter, the Yale computer scientist, raised parts of this argument in December in an Op-Ed in the Wall Street Journal, published on the occasion of IBM's sale of its personal computer business to Lenovo, a Chinese firm. Gelernter lamented that sale; it indicated, he wrote, that IBM no longer saw potential for the greatness of the PC, and that this "is a shame, even a tragedy -- because the modern PC is in fact a primitive, infuriating nuisance. If the U.S. technology industry actually believes that the PC has grown up and settled down, it is out of touch with reality -- and the consequences could be dangerous to America's economic health."
A conversation with Gelernter is an eye-opening experience. As modern computer users, we go through our lives resigned to mediocrity; this is true of Windows users, but it's even true, he says, of Apple users. The computer can be so much more than the systems we have today. Gelernter wants machines that are "transparent," that are more like appliances than fancy gadgets, machines that put your data, your information, before their own idiosyncrasies. "I don't care about the machine, I care about my documents," he says. It shouldn't matter which computer he goes to in his house, or whether the machine he's on is new or old; he should get access to his life on any machine. And why should anybody spend any time at all "securing" your machine from outside threats, he wonders. Why can't the machine do this for you? "Most people don't want to spend their time to download the latest thing to deal with the latest disaster to strike," he points out. Would we deal with such tediousness for other products we use on a daily basis? "Would anyone ever say, 'Hey, my brakes don't work but that's O.K., I can just download a new anti-lock braking system.'" No; you wouldn't use a car in which the brakes didn't work. Yet we put up with computers all the time in which key functions just stop working, and, routinely, we are OK with that.
The industry desperately needs a new player. Some new company, or new idea, needs to come along to shake the PC business from its foundations. Which company could this be? Well, he knows which firm it won't be -- it won't be Microsoft. "I don't think Microsoft has the freedom to do it," Gelernter says. "If you were the most successful company in the history of mankind, if you were running this moneymaking machine that has done a better job making money than any similar mechanism in history -- if I were that person, I would be far too cautious. Why would I change what I was doing?"
Gelernter believes that IBM or Sun, tech firms that have a long history of research, are two Americans companies that have the best chance of creating a fantastic PC experience. Or, he believes that an unknown Asian company, some firm in Japan or India or China or South Korea that we have not yet heard of, will come along one day and surprise the American PC business in much the same way Japanese auto companies surprised Detroit in the 1970s.
But there's one more American company he thinks has a chance of profoundly altering the way we use computers: Apple Computer. "When we all reluctantly turned off our Macintoshes five years ago, we dived into the PC world, and we haven't looked back," he says. But Apple's recently been building machines that are headed in the right direction, Gelernter says. And God knows they're smart engineers.
"Apple could get a brainstorm," he says.
And Apple's brainstorms, from the Apple II, to the Mac, to the iPod -- and, now, maybe even the Mac Mini -- have a tendency to set the world spinning in directions we'd never thought possible.
FiBait,
On all four of the computers I installed iPhoto '05 onto, the solution was to do a search for documents with the word "iPhoto" in them, and DELETE everything - except the iPhoto library.
Then reinstall from the iLife CD, doing a custom install for just iPhoto. Once that is complete, iPhoto should prompt you to attach your existing library to iPhoto '05, and then everything is perfect. Adobe PhotoShop CS was on all 4 machines, but even with it, and without the edits suggested elsewhere on this board, iPhoto '05 now works very well.
- louismg
iWork '05 and iLife '05 are Here
Arrived today at the office. iWork is heavier than iLife. That's all I can report now.
- louismg
Exclusive: Headless iMac (Mac Mini) a "Headhunter"
Okay, so it's late at night, which may be the cause for the sudden burst of clarity.
Look at http://www.apple.com/macmini/graphics.html and you can see a quick description of the Mac Mini's graphic capabilities. No big deal, right?
Now, look at some of the subject headers...
Encourage Vivid Imaginations
Choose Flexible Displays
See It All Clearly
Do More Simultaneously...
Not interesting... but see these three?
Lock the Target
Spread the Net
Catch the Man
Maybe it's me, but I sense a little Front 242 influence, for those of you who know the group.
See the lyrics and chorus from Headhunter...
http://front-242.lyrics-songs.com/lyrics/15493/
(Lock the target, bait the line,
Spread the net, then catch the man)
The group's most famous song. So is the "Headless iMac" a "Headhunter"?
Enjoy,
- louismg
WSJ: Out of Tune: iPod Shortage Rocks Apple
http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110314977967901339,00.html
Holiday shoppers hunting down an iPod better be patient.
Shortages of the hot portable music player from Apple Computer Inc. are common at major retailers across the country. Many of the most-popular models -- including some of the colorful, diminutive iPod minis and the 20-gigabyte white iPod -- are out of stock through Amazon.com Inc., Buy.comInc. and other Web sites.
Target Corp. stores in Chicago and the San Francisco Bay Area say they are out of many iPods, as does J&R Electronics Inc. , a big electronics store in New York. Best Buy Co. is out of most iPods on its Web site, although a company spokesman says the vast majority of its stores "have at least one" iPod in stock.
"Given how strong demand has been all year you would have thought [Apple] would have gotten every last one they could into stores," says Stephen Baker, director of industry analysis at market-research firm NPD Group. "I suspect they have. It may just be they can't build them fast enough."
Apple is contending with what appears to be immense demand for the gadget. The iPod line currently represents about a quarter of Apple's sales -- and the holiday season seems to be exceeding even the bullish expectations of many retailers and analysts. Gift hunters can still find iPods in a number of locations on- and offline -- most notably at Apple's own stores and its Web site -- but maybe not the exact model they are seeking.
"It's right up there with the most highly demanded products I've seen, and I've been in this business since '87," says David Weisman, senior director of home merchandising at Crutchfield Corp. of Charlottesville, Va., an electronics retailer with a Web site and stores in Virginia.
David Samuel, a high-tech entrepreneur, couldn't find a green iPod mini at a Best Buy store in California's Marin County last weekend. So he drove to a retail store operated by Apple at a nearby mall, where he found one. "It was an inconvenience," says Mr. Samuel, who was defeated in his goal to buy all his electronics gadgets at one store.
Apple, which has at least one contract manufacturer in Asia assemble the iPods, says it is working to remedy the shortfall. "To try to meet the high demand, we're making and shipping iPods as fast as we can," Apple said in a statement. "So, if one store has run out, you may find iPods in another authorized iPod reseller."
Or elsewhere. The spotty availability of the iPod has created a booming aftermarket for the devices on eBay Inc.'s auction site, where a pink iPod mini earlier this week fetched $380, or more than $130 above the music player's suggested retail price. In April eBay created an iPod category on its site in response to active trading of the gadgets among its users. In its first month, there were 3,000 iPod-related listings, according to an eBay spokesman. Now there are about 18,000 listings in the category.
Such iPod-mania suggests that Apple's manufacturing and distribution system hasn't kept pace with the company's larger-than-life marketing efforts for the device. The iPod has achieved near-cult status among its fans because of its elegant design, ease of use and cozy integration with the iTunes Music Store, from which Apple sells digital, downloadable copies of songs for 99 cents each. Apple now offers a broad spectrum of the devices, all of which can store thousands of songs, ranging from the $249 iPod mini to the $599 iPod photo, which also displays an owner's photos on its color screen.
The iPod line is now a crucial piece of Apple's business, accounting for 23% of Apple's $2.35 billion in revenue in its most recent quarter. Since it began offering them in October 2001, Apple has sold over 5.7 million iPods, more than a third of them in the company's latest reported quarter. In the holiday quarter alone, some analysts expect Apple to sell more than four million units.
Consumers have adopted the iPod faster than they did Sony Corp.'s Walkman in its early days, about six million of which sold in the Sony device's sixth year on the market, estimates Piper & Jaffray Co. analyst Gene Munster.
Apple, in contrast, has sold approximately the same number of iPods in about half the time. More than five million iPods, in contrast, were sold by its third year on the market, though the Apple product is still dwarfed by the 300 million Walkmans sold during that product's 20-year history.
Surprising to many analysts is the fact that the iPod is increasing its market share every month, even as it faces an onslaught of lower-priced and improved devices from rivals including D&M Holdings Inc.'s Rio, Dell Inc. and others. Apple's share of the market for digital-music players that store songs on hard disks rose to 92.7% in October, from 81% during the same month last year, according to NPD Group.
The iPod is a key attraction for Apple's chain of 100 retail stores, which are an increasingly important part of its business. The current broad availability of the iPod at Apple Stores hasn't gone unnoticed by some of the company's retail partners, who seem stuck with more limited supplies of the devices during the holidays. "There's no question in my mind they give priority to Apple Stores and Apple.com -- I don't want to go as far as to say 'hoarding,' " says Mr. Weisman of Crutchfield.
He says competing with electronics manufacturers in the retail business is a "new experience," though Crutchfield is also increasingly competing with other companies like Sony. An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment.
The Complete U2 Is Now Available
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtist?artistId=78500
446 songs for $149 bucks - practically a steal?
- louismg
Dead Cat Bounce or Falling Knife?
Re: NFLX... while some may be screaming, I like my 10.35 buy this morning.
Now if only I hadn't sold all my AAPL at 34.75.
- louismg
OT: WinLoseOrDraw...
God Forbid Powell be "political" by being the only member of this administration to actually tell the truth. It's clear to everybody except for a handful of wingnuts in the White House that the situation in Iraq is getting worse. If you think that's a political statement and not a true statement, then you're not educated enough and observant enough to earn the right to vote this year.
Purchased iTunes songs? At least 443.
I know that I have actually deleted some iTunes songs I had purchased - because they no longer had any use to me. I would conservatively say my purchases from the iTunes Music Store from the end of April last year exceed 500.
- louismg
OT: Hurricanes vs. Electoral Vote
Has anybody mapped out an overlay of the county-by-county electoral vote in Florida vs. the hurricane's expected path? One would wonder if the Republican counties will get hurt more than the Dems in this round?
Karma.
How To Get The Inside Scoop On Apple
See: http://jobs.apple.com/
Title: Cashier
Req. ID: 2162695
Location: Santa Clara Valley, California
Country: United States
Cashier/Prep Cupertino
Primary Duties:
Represent Caffe' Macs
Answer questions on all food items and specials
Operate a computerized cash register
Monitor overall operation
Culinary basics: slicing, portioning, , chopping, and all other techniques as required for food preparation.
Skills and Abilities:
- Courteous, customer service attitude
- General math skills
- Ability to communicate with customers
- Willingness to perform the job responsibilities in a dependable manner
- Willingness to accept direction
- Ability and desire to be a team player
Qualifications:
Have 3-5 year of cash handling experience
Have one year of public contact experience with excellent verbal communication skills
Must be reliable and punctual
Be able to handle stress and maintain a positive attitude
Be enthusiastic and enjoy working with Apple Computer, Inc co-workers
Physical demands:
May lift and/or carry objects weighing up to 50 pounds.
The "Affiliate Site" Opportunity Was Clearly Coming
There has been a job posting on Apple's site regarding this for some time...
https://jobs.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Employment.woa/7/wo/ytFJOzyh2ttBTFXTZg8I4g/3.2.22.9.2.0.2.3
Title: Affiliate Program Marketing Manager
Req. ID: 2131256
Location: Santa Clara Valley, California
Country: United States
The World Wide Apple Online Store is seeking an experienced Affiliate Program Marketing Manager to grow the network of affiliates world wide. This person will have ultimate responsibility for both developing the affiliate strategic plan and managing the day-to-day relationship with our third party program provider, Linkshare. The specific areas of focus for this manager will be developing an aggressive acquisition plan, developing quarterly programs and incentive plans, forecasting, assisting in the roll-out of the program in other regions and leading datafeed programs. This person will work closely with Linkshare, technology, marketing and the International program managers.
Responsibilities:
Develop strategic program road map
Build strong relationships with Linkshare and affiliates to ensure strong program growth
Develop aggressive affiliate acquisition plan
Develop forecasts and measure against revenue, margin and cost goals
Report on results, including products and programs
Manage affiliate program budget
Lead meetings with world wide team members to review program strategies, results and best practices
Monitor Apple’s brand presence and communicate new programs and offers to affiliates
Work with direct marketing team to develop rich newsletter program
Lead datafeed projects, partnering with technology and business requirements team
- BA/BS plus 6-7 years online and/or ecommerce experience as well as 3-5 years of online and/or ecommerce experience.
- Program management or account management experience
- Demonstrated analytical and quantitative skills, as well as rigorous attention to detail
- Proven track record of growing and managing marketing programs
Ability to thrive in fast-paced, dynamic environment as a team player