“Going by the numbers, Apple appears headed for trouble again. […] But fear not, Mac faithful: Apple may never again pose a threat to Microsoft and its PC allies, but its niche is safe. In the $160 billion PC market, a 3% market share should be enough to fund Apple’s research-and-development push. […] Nothing will come easy for Apple, however. It is rapidly losing its grip on the education market, a former stronghold. […] Over the next year, Apple may get a boost in the professional market. […] Finally, Apple is moving beyond the Mac.” Read the article on BusinessWeek. Also, Apple strengthens server support.
Commentary: How to Milk an Apple
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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“The battle for market share ended 10 years ago,” says UBS Securities analyst Don Young. “But there’s a place in the PC world for an innovation leader.”
Oh my god, somebody actually recognized the obvious: Apple is the innovation leader. What’s going on?!?
I think this article is pretty accurate. I think Apple is looking at many areas to possibly get into. Hopefully, towards the end of the year, the processor problem may finally be solved. I’ve been saying this, but I believe this year is the “Year Of OS X”, not in the sense of world domination, but in the sense of it coming into full bloom and ability to excel in many areas. The current Jaguar has really started to fulfill OS X’s promise and Panther (10.3) should be sensational.
Hi folks,
Out of curiousity, has anyone here migrated to Apple’s X server from another operating system? What does your server do, and what’s your experience with it been? How heavily has your box been stressed?
Inquiring minds want to know…
Yours truly,
Jeffrey Boulier
it handles high loads and has features that are at a good price. That is all I can say have not had the need for one yet. There was a few articles when it first came out showing prcie and performace.
I like what apple is doing. They are maintaining a profitable business model but i still think they need to continue to expand their user base and target markets to maintain/improve support from hardware vendors and sofware developers.
Computing will change quite a bit in the next ten years. Who knows, symbian might end up being the dominant OS. Desktops might actually be the size of a pda or cell phone sans the screen.
Or in other words, Apple lost the desktop race but that does not mean that they have to lose the race that is starting now.
xserve has one massive flaw.. ide drives…
Rated for only 8 hours continous duty in an 24 hour period and 1 yr replacement policy (manufacture).
other than that I think its a good little box.
(In their adds though the black rack mount is ugly, they could
have done better.
“The battle for market share ended 10 years ago,” says UBS Securities analyst Don Young. “But there’s a place in the PC world for an innovation leader.”
Why be so pessimistic? I, for one, do NOT believe thet world will be stuck with Windows forever. What have THEY done recently:
Moved to UNIX? nope?
Open-sourced any part of their OS? nope?
Positioned themselves as a great platform for Java development? Nope.
Written a FAST web browser that people seem to actually LIKE? nope?
Written credible movie editting software? No again– Windows Movie maker is a joke!
Moved to RISC? Still waiting!
Microsoft maintains their position throught corporate inertia, threats, and FUD. I don’t think they can keep it up forever. Just wait– one of these days, the personal injury lawyers are gonna start sniffing up MSFT with regards to all their security holes– like this recent IIS worm. Once MSFT is made ACCOUNTABLE for all the money, damage, and lost productivity they cause, they’ll look sadder than the asbestos industry.
What have THEY [Microsoft] done recently:
Moved to UNIX? nope?[/i]
Their entire OS product line has been switched to an NT base, and boasts the stability of any Unix.
Open-sourced any part of their OS? nope?
Why should they? (Unless asked to by an enormous customer such as a government)
Positioned themselves as a great platform for Java development? Nope.
.NET is in direct competition with Java. Why would they ever do this voluntarily?
Written a FAST web browser that people seem to actually LIKE? nope?
Regardless of your personal vendettas against Internet Explorer, it can’t be argued that it’s not the browser that the overwhelming majority of people use.
Written credible movie editting software? No again– Windows Movie maker is a joke!
No, but they currently control the software that matters: Office. They also control the Windows developer tools with VisualStudio.NET and can further indoctrinate programmers in .NET development that way, which will serve to crush Java.
Moved to RISC? Still waiting!
This will most likely never happen. Microsoft will continue its product line on x86-64, with a fork to the only EPIC architecture, IA-64.
“The battle for market share ended 10 years ago,” says UBS Securities analyst Don Young. “But there’s a place in the PC world for an innovation leader.”
Microsoft is in a very good position to continue their reign as the world’s dominant software company. I don’t see Microsoft being unseated from this position for a long time to come.
this guy seems no different. As we have learned, most if not all financial analysts are liars — rather than try and uncover the true dynamics of an industry and report on it they instead are paid to say whatever will benefit their company.
I wouldn’t trust anything that comes out of an analyst’s mouth. Investment banking companies are real scum – I recommend any youngster to spend some months working in NYC as broker — anyone can do it — it will turn your stomach and I’m not just talking the boutiques but the big guys are scum too.
Anyway, sad that Apple is losing the education market but you really have to wonder how they can even compete there against either Microsoft and its wealth of software or Linux and its price.
Personally I wish Apple would forget the server market and concentrate on consumer products — license their technology to Sony, Microsoft, etc.
I was reading somewhere (www.arachnoid.com I think) how it is interesting that the richest man in the world runs a SOFTWARE company rather than a HARDWARE company. Software is harder to pull off and thus can bring in BIG BUCKS (if it isn’t GPL’d!!!!!).
Focus on software and technology that you can license to large firms with good manufacturing capacity.
Hi, welcome to earth. Here we like to make arguments that make sense. These don’t make sense:
-Moved to UNIX? nope?
-Open-sourced any part of their OS? nope?
-Positioned themselves as a great platform for Java development? Nope.
-Written a FAST web browser that people seem to actually LIKE? nope?
-Written credible movie editting software? No again– Windows Movie maker is a joke!
-Moved to RISC? Still waiting!
I’ll start in reverse order.
How exactly is RISC going to help them? Yes moving to a G4 which everyone and their grandmother’s boyfriend knows to be slower is a good thing? Unless your thinking of the GUPL chip… which isn’t out yet. Thats like saying yeah Apple needs to move to the Itanium 4 if they are going to get anywhere.
Credible Movie Software. I don’t think Microsoft needs to do this. Adobe actually keeps up with the MS version of Premier. So MS doesn’t have to develop an “in house” application to fill a gap. Apple does. But I guess then I could argue the Apple needs to support TiVo since Win XP Media Center Edition does it, and Apple is supposed to be the media hub.
Writting a fast web browser that people like. What people like tends to be very subjective. However, MS has the dominant browser – most sites use IE specific extensions. When it comes down to it, people like things that work. Take Safari around the internet – there are lots of pages it chokes on. (Same thing in OmniWeb.) When your browser is the one everyone develops for to the extent of ignoring standards, I’d say you’ve pretty much won that sector and don’t need to do anything.
Proved themselves as a great platform for JAVA development… why? They have .NET. Thats what interests them. They could really careless about JAVA. Which is why they were thinking of completely dropping JAVA from the OS default install. However I guess now with court ruling your point is some what out of date since they have to include Sun’s JVM. So unless you think Sun’s JVM is not good for development (personally I think IBM’s is more stable) then I don’t see how this is important.
Open sourced any part of their OS… what are you thinking? Just because its OpenSource doesn’t make it good. There are plenty of things that are open source that suck like: ogle, mod_mp3, icecast’s shout encoder. Those are ones that I’m familar with. I’m sure there are others. But specifics really don’t matter your just taking some general stance that opensource is a panacea for everything. Stop smoking penguin poop.
Moved to Unix. Again. Stop it with penguin poop. I guess VMS would be good if it moved to Unix? or maybe Atheos or BeOS would be good if they moved to Unix? Also which Unix? Or just some vague idea of Unix is all that is neccessary?
I’m not anti – apple, linux, or windows, but I am anti-moron…
If you want to show how apple is an innovator why don’t you talk about useful things like:
– first to support the MPEG4 standard
– Rendevous
– first at having an advanced GUI that runs off the GPU
– standards compliant
Things like oh its open source are not an innovation. Guess what BSD has been doing it longer and more “openly” than anyone else around today.
“Moved to RISC? Still waiting! ”
They tried that with Windows NT, (which worked on PPC, Mips & Alpha)and failed on every one of those platforms. However Micro$oft says that Longhorn will run on four 64 Bit Platforms, two of those will be IA64, and X86 64, but what will the others be?
I agree that the poster picks arbitrary and uninteresting criteria–what Apple does is not necessarily, in fact most likely, not good for MS.
But this…
“Credible Movie Software. I don’t think Microsoft needs to do this. Adobe actually keeps up with the MS version of Premier. So MS doesn’t have to develop an “in house” application to fill a gap. Apple does. But I guess then I could argue the Apple needs to support TiVo since Win XP Media Center Edition does it, and Apple is supposed to be the media hub.”
Premiere is also available for the Mac.. it’s not a matter of Apple filling a gap butof opening of the mainstream consumer to low cost and easy-to-use media editing.
Also, TiVo does support Apple. Already there is support, but in addition, they announced that they will be building Rendezvous into their devices.
So, I agree with most of your objections, but on these points, some correction was needed.
>I don’t see Microsoft being unseated from this position for a long time to come.
Maybe not, but remember when IBM was the enemy or Apple had 40% market share, it’s not that long ago. MS may be really worried as governments like Extremadura (a region in Spain) release their own opensource linux distro, in this case called LinEx (debian).
The day Macromedia and Adobe start writing software for Linux forget about the industry inertia.
MacOSX may possibly be the smartest option apple has ever made. The mixture of Unix word and proprietary tools can be maybe not winner but a model can live peacefully with linux and open source.
I have read that the new powermacs will increase it’s support from apple (the Xserve too) because it may justify the huge inversion due to new IBM processors. However just rumours.
I’m also interested on how Palladium affects the industry. This could cause a huge switch to apples and penguins. Actually I’m really messed up with Palladium and similar projects and their possible repercussion on the industry.
Hey Eugenia ! what about a nice review about it 🙂
>Hey Eugenia ! what about a nice review about it 🙂
About Palladium? Not by me. I hate security articles. They bore me to death…
Apple is selling like the 3rd most PCs in the market today to begin with, keep that up and 3% marketshare will go up.
>>>>I’m also interested on how Palladium affects the industry. This could cause a huge switch to apples and penguins. Actually I’m really messed up with Palladium and similar projects and their possible repercussion on the industry.
Why? IBM is the number one TCPA supporter and the first company to embed security features in their chipsets, the same chipsets that will powered power4 derived macs in the future. Samething for linux. TCPA is the best thing for redhat. You still get the source code for free but unless you pay redhat some cash, you are not going to get the tcpa key. Forces all freeloaders to actually pay for linux.
This comes up again and again. In the mid-90’s, Apple licensing its OS was almost the final nail in the coffin. The Mac clones cost less and Apple was on the brink. Apple is still not in a position to do this. They are coming out with more and more really good software and it would seem that will continue, not to mention the ongoing blossoming of OS X.
It could be that someday Apple could be in a position to do otherwise. But, for that to happen, there would have to be a pretty big shift in the dynamic of the computr and business world. It could be many things but, in essence, it would have to be something that would make Microsoft totally vulnerable and/or a tremendous shift away from Microsoft for any number of reasons. Until something like that happens, Apple must sell their software only on their hardware.
I told you I’m complete mess up on how it will affect the industry. Yours is the kind of opinion I’m looking for.
> “Samething for linux. TCPA is the best thing for redhat. You still get the source code for free but unless you pay redhat some cash, you are not going to get the tcpa key. Forces all freeloaders to actually pay for linux.”
I agree that TCPA (not Palladium) does have the potential to be beneficial for Linux as well as other OSes, but Im afraid you are mistaken about RedHat Linux. Nobody is a “freeloader”. RedHat gives away their OS for free. On purpose. In fact, they go out of their way to ensure that everything included is completely open and free for use, with licenses equivilant to, or more lax then, the GPL.
Great Machine!
1 word – LOUD! Have that removed!
>>>>RedHat gives away their OS for free. On purpose. In fact, they go out of their way to ensure that everything included is completely open and free for use, with licenses equivilant to, or more lax then, the GPL.
RedHat also, on purpose, provides no documentation on how to recompile your own versions of the enterprise edition, even though 100% of the enterprise edition source code is available under GPL.
We’re currently developing and testing our new Internet enabled products running on an XServe. These are educational software products sold primarily to schools on an annual subscription basis.
When deployed this summer, we’ll start by adding a second XServe as a fail over unit. As our user base grows, we’ll add more XServes.
The XServe met our price to performance requirements and ease of deployment better than anything else we found on the market, especially when considering the unlimited user license and it’s compatibility with the tools/technologies we built our products with. As our products are coded in Java and use MySQL for the database, the XServe is a perfect platform for us. We also make use of Apache and Tomcat.
While we could have went the Linux box route, it would have required more time for configuration and maintenace. A Linux box also wouldn’t come with the same level of support (not just someone to call, but support through system monitoring applications).
The XServe was up and serving our products for testing within less than an hour after arrival. Aside from the noise, I couldn’t be happier with the decision to standardize on these servers for our products.
Big Mac rumour hush hush
The folks at Apple are rumored to be working on a “Photonic” Keyboard.
No keys at all. Two micro lasers set some 15 inches apart will pulse to create a holographic key board in front of the users eyes. Finger tabbing the photonic keys cause an interuption in the light beam which is then measured relative to each Microlaser OT position. ( Optical-Tringulation )
Apparently being tested via skunkworks, & upscreened fighter aircraft instrumentation technology with civilian uses.
Hush hush..pass it on
well apple did collect royalties from its os licensing.
i and several geeks i knew bought power computing macs. they were solid, and they work to this day.
palm is able to sell both its os and its hardware.
with its zany advertising power computing could have been the dell of the macworld, selling macs to people who would have bought dells instead.
appleforever: Oh my god, somebody actually recognized the obvious: Apple is the innovation leader. What’s going on?!?
Okay, in the past 4-5 years, what innovation did Apple bring out that is so novell? What Apple manage to do is to pull different ideas together creating a niche for themselves. They are not PARC.
They are a business. Being the trend-setter doesn’t mean the innovator. Apple is a trend-setter, for example, they brought the end of ugly beige boxes. Nothing terribly innovative about that, but nontheless, nothing can deny that set a trend.
Poor Richard: Moved to UNIX? nope?
What’s the point of moving to UNIX? Microsoft can succeed without doing that. They can make a stable, secure OS with Windows NT. Just like they can also make a instable, insecure OS with UNIX.
Poor Richard: Open-sourced any part of their OS? nope?
Did Apple open source any parts that have to do with their ocmpetitive egde? Nope. They open sourced parts they are better off open sourcing.
Poor Richard: Positioned themselves as a great platform for Java development? Nope.
Yes, I mean, Mac OS X has J2SE 1.4, right?
Poor Richard: Written a FAST web browser that people seem to actually LIKE? nope?
Actually, at one point of time, not so long ago, Microsoft make a very fast, very good browser that would dominate the market even if Microsoft didn’t bundle it with Windows. Right now I suspect they hit the Mosaic wall Netscape hitted 6 years ago, and it is technically very hard for them to proceed.
Poor Richard: Written credible movie editting software? No again– Windows Movie maker is a joke!
Have you even tried Windows Movie Maker 2? Nope?
Poor Richard: Moved to RISC? Still waiting!
What’s the point actually? There isn’t a pure RISC platform out there that can compete with x86, and x86 today is pretty much a combination of CISC and RISC.
Bascule: Microsoft will continue its product line on x86-64
While Microsoft once promised server software for x86-64, that promise was never followed up. Plus, there isn’t any plans for a x86-64 Windows XP. Besides, it doesn’t matter, Win XP would still run on x86-64, but wouldn’t be optimized for it.
Boshon: As we have learned, most if not all financial analysts are liars
You too are a liar. These analyst are from research institutes that depend on money from their customers. The customers would run away if the info is inaccurate.
Accountants may be liars, but analysts? Wasn’t it a group of analyst that uncovered WorldCom debts?
Take Safari around the internet – there are lots of pages it chokes on.
Most of the chokings, ironically, I noticed, doesn’t happen on Konqueror.
vince: – Rendevous
It is actually a product of ZeroConf, Sun and Apple being the most active member, but IBM is involved too.
vince: – first at having an advanced GUI that runs off the GPU
While being the first to have a commercial product in the market, the idea isn’t entirely new. Fresco for example used SDL a year before any iota of information on QE is released.
Vince: – standards compliant
In the truest sense of the word, what’s so innovative about that? Besides, Apple only follows standards where they benefit.
Anonymous: Also, TiVo does support Apple. Already there is support, but in addition, they announced that they will be building Rendezvous into their devices.
The point was that Apple doesn’t make anything like a TiVo, not that TiVo can’t network with Macs.
Enersto: I’m also interested on how Palladium affects the industry.
You would have to wait and see then, Microsoft have not really been very open on what Palladium is and isn’t.
Evan: Apple is selling like the 3rd most PCs in the market today to begin with, keep that up and 3% marketshare will go up.
Apple is selling the third most PCs… if Dell merges with IBM and Acer.
Devon: RedHat gives away their OS for free.
even so, they would benefit in the server market, particulary the advance server market with TCPA.
Anonymous: well apple did collect royalties from its os licensing.
However, Apple depended mostly if not solely on hardware sales. They saw clones as a way to expand their market and keep Macs afloat, not to make money.