------------------
>Salutations,
Salutations to you to,
------------------
> Remembering things from the top of my head, the only profit Apple ever =
made while Gil was in charge was when they sold that manufacturing plant.
>And unfortunately you can't sell a plant every quarter.
Gil was/is a 'turn-around expert'. He's hired by a company, 'cuts the =
fat'(he didn't stop Newton), returns a company to profitability, then =
moves on to the next 'job'. He has a good track record. Too bad he =
didn't expect $J's 'CEO-to-CEO ouster-plan'(history repeats) after =
stream-lining Apple(something $J can't do).
------------------
> And the first profit Apple made when Steve was in charge was announced
>when they released the iMac. And I think it was 54 or 34 million.
Most of the 'profit' was from ARM stock sales. The 'R & D' and =
'advertising costs' for the iMac probably took nine months to turn 'the =
ink from red to black'.
------------------
> The bottom line is that while the Newton is a technological marvel that
>still has no peers, it was a business failure.
Advertising failure.
------------------
> And Steve WAS NOT the reason for that failure. Steve came along in the
>end. If you want to blame someone for the Newton's failures blame Scully.
>Or Spindler. Or Gil. The Newton had plenty of time to gain a foothold or
>become profitable during their watches.
Just as sales caught up to demand IS NOT the time to stop production. $J =
wasn't the cause of failure, but his misdirection of Newton Group was the =
last nail in the coffin just as other nails were about to come loose.
------------------
> If the Newton sold enough, it would never have been killed. Products =
are
>dropped because not enough people buy them.
Some superior products are stopped so that more profitable products can =
sell better. Control of market gets a company more profit than superior =
products, you just have to 'skirt' the laws just enough(like M$, the big =
3).
------------------
> Sure, some companies will keep a product around to build a market. But =
if
>that company hits survival mode, which Apple was in for years, then they
>need to think about the company first.
That's why Gil spun off Newton, cut production lines of 'slow-selling' =
models, and fired lots of people(down-sized before $J slid in).
It's kinda crazy to think $J believed 1.5 million iMacs would be sold in =
five years, It was like the Original Mac was re-born. Well, my sister =
finally bought her first computer in 1998, an iMac(rev.b).
Main reasons...1. Mac OS. 2. Price(back then US$999.00).
------------------
!ooW %-)
Pres. of Los Angeles Newton Users Group!
lanug2000_at_yahoo.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lanug2000
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