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Apple is Going Out of Business ... Again
gsfprez writes "Its been a while ... and strangely, the world almost seemed empty without the constant drumbeat of how Apple is on the verge of going out of business. If you're a fan like i am, then you're in luck, because this Canadian tech journalist didn't get the memo that Apple's been going out of business longer than most tech journalists have been in business. And besides, someone needs to let Robert Thomson know: when writing a story on how Apple is about to die,
you have to
call
them "beleaguered". Come on, that's Tech Journalism 101, people. In any case, he brings up no new points to bolster his argument: he confuses his personal inability to use third-party software that works fine for most of us with legitimate bad third-party support, and uses this to draw his illogical conclusion. Illogical because it's the same reasons/unrealized conclusions that were the staple of tech journalism from 1985-1999."
...I'm laughing so hard. He spends two paragraphs being mad at his Palm m515 (Software that was not written by Apple) so it MUST be Apple's fault.
I wonder if he is being paid by Microsoft as part of the new "UnSwitcher" campaign? I'd say he should take the fork he was going to stick in Apple, and...well...you get the idea.
In all actuality, I'm curious as to what Apple's market share is now? I don;t know that it has ever been as low as 3%. More like 5%. But I'd venture a guess that with OSX converting Linux users left and right that it'd be around 6-8% by now. Thoughts?
My
This betrays the same sort of misguided thinking that caused the internet tech crash.
Market. Share. Is. Not. Necessarily. An. Indication. Of. A. Company's. Success.
Why can't people understand this? Why do they keep clinging to notions that have been disproved time and time again, are intuitively wrong, and yet people still believe them?
Apple doesn't have to beat PCs in market share. All they have to do is make a profit. That's it. And they don't even have to make a profit every quarter, as long as their cash reserves are large enough (and they are). They just have to over the long run bring in more money than they spend. It's so simple, why can't these people understand it? Why do they insist that "market share" has something to do with it? Enron had a sizeable market share. So did Worldcom. What they didn't have was profitability.
So this reporter is comparing his clearly outdated Powermac and his new iBook (the weakest, speed wise, branch of the Apple tree) to regular PCs. And the main complaint is that Palm software doesn't work? And Apple created Safari becuase there is no development for browsers on the Apple platform? Please, no one tell the folks reponsible for Chimera, Navigator, Omniweb, et al, about this. If this was a post it would be an obvious -1 Troll. Even IE has an update in the wings. Jeez, with my 6 years life out of each of my Macs (one desktop, one notebook) I only have 3 yeras left until my laptop stops functioning, and 6 years left on my new iMac. Maybe they can oust Steve Jobs, and bring him back again.
--No, author used old PowerMac until the day his iBook came in.
Author gets new iBook.
--Just so; very good!
Author can't run Palm 515 software on new iBoook.
--Correction: author can't get Palm 515 software to run properly on new iBooook. But he sees enough to know it doesn't "just work".
Author sees release of Safari. Author extrapolates that since Apple is releasing own web browser, Apple can't get decent third party software support.
--Actually, author sees that Apple can't get decent third-party support, considers Safari evidence that Apple sees same problem.
Author sees this as imminent demise of Apple.
--Right again! But it's only one man's opinion.
It's interesting that so many true believers rise to the bait yet again. Don't you people have any faith?
Cause this is what non-tech's use to make their "informed" tech decisions. We need to know what the... um... "muggles" are thinking if we're going to successfully make them follow the correct course of action when it comes to purchasing and adoption.
"You're never ready, just less unprepared."
"First of all, my iBook didn't like the software I needed to run my Palm M515. Crashes and screen seizures were regular occurrences. And the iBook doesn't play well with a lot of things that are part of the Microsoft world."
Errhm. He has one buggy Software from Palm (unless of course "Crashes and screen seizures" had nothing to do with the Palm software - then he had a broken machine and was too stupid to notice), and unnamed problems with "parts of the Microsoft world." - probably meaning something like this.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
It's important not to exaggerate when you're refuting an argument. In this case, exactly how many thousand of these Windows apps are useful, unique, and stable?
The argument goes both ways.
I've been using Linux since '94 too, but always in conjunction with another desktop OS, since at work I've always needed to run certain proprietary software apps that don't run under Linux. My transition has been Linux plus OS/2 then Windows NT then Win 98 (thanks to a job change) and now OS X (thanks to a job change that let me get a whole new system). I still use a Debian Linux box as a server, and for running various apps that haven't been packaged for Fink & that I don't have time to adapt and compile.
The combination of OS X + Linux is a pretty unbeatable work environment. I'd guess there are a lot of Linux "adders," maybe more than "switchers."
Hey you! Heard of Maya? Did you know it's been ported to Mac OS X? Yeah that's right, there's even a free learning edition. Hmmm... Adobe Premiere and After Effects? Those run on the mac too, and there's even more video related software coming for Mac OS X, not to mention film gimp.
WTF do we care about "Wise Installer"? That's like saying "yo, I got installshield on my PC man". Many mac apps don't even need an installer. If you're referring to a installer-making app, the OS X developer tools include a package making utility.
Visual Studio is a payed-for package. Mac OS X comes with a developer tools CD in the box, or you can download the stuff online, and it's based on GCC.
Out of curiosity, how big (physically) is that display? How long does your battery last? Do you have firewire built in? How about DVI?
I know nothing about video cards, so I won't compare the FireGL to the PowerBook G4's Radeon Mobility 9000 or NVIDIA GeForce4 420/440 Go with 32/64MB of video ram. I'll leave that to a video-card geek.
You sir/madam, are (most likely) a big fat troll. I bet you haven't even used a mac.
*Sigh of relief* Okay, now that I got that off my chest, let me state that I know I sound like a big fat troll myself, but unlike money_shot, I didn't make a blanket troll statement like "Seriously though, no one buys macs for 3D or business use, which is what most computers for businesses are bought for. That leaves a few flaky designers who are more interested in looking cool than getting work done."
One last thing: Video toaster is back, and guess what? It runs on windows.
Ron Paul 2012
Well, where do you begin to argue with him?
He appears to be totally unaware that Apple is actually one of very computer makers that still turn a profit despite the recession, and draws his conclussion solely based on bad experiences with a Mac "built before the Internet" and the buggy Palm software.
I have been using Mac OS X on 2 iBooks for over 2 years now and can't remember when was the last crash. It's quiet, light, stable, cheaper than a similar Wintel portable, definitely the best system i have ever used.
You met the above only as an aside you but its not a bad analogy. 7-10 years ago a huge percentage of Internet usage was Usenet usage. I would bet that usenet volumes today are higher than they were in the hayday of the usenet, the number of posters is higher, the number of newsgroups is higher.... That is usenet in every respect has continued to grow and thrive. OTOH as a percentage of internet traffic and/or as a percentage of internet users today usenet usage is miniscule. It many ways this is similar to Apple. Apple today in every respect sells 10x as many computers as they did during the glory years. Yet as a percentage of the market....