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Apple CFO Gives Info on Company Direction
osViews.com writes "Mac World is reporting a recent talk given by Apple's Chief Financial Officer (Peter Oppenheimer) at the Goldman Sachs Technology Investment Symposium. The article illustrates several things about about Apple's business plan, much of which is totally new information about the company's current and future direction. Here's the nutshell summary: iPod "Halo" effect is causing some Windows switchers, little demand for satellite radio/iPod integration, iPod shuffle margins below HD ipods, happy with rate of growth - no plans to license OS X, margins on Mac mini equal to eMac (both below corporate average), retail store to expand to 125, no plans for media center PC - prefers to stream multimedia to TV from primary computer over wireless network, no video for iPod, portable media centers a failure."
You can't explain the corporate world's unwillingness to use Macs away with "No Games". It really is the lack of applications.
Look at this way: Many people think that Macs are a superior video editing machines due to the applicaitons, primarily Final Cut Pro. Now realize that video editing is only 1 in a Million niche markets, and in most of those niches Windows or Unix dominates the applicaiton choices.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
Apple has no idea who their market is for the mini-mac. Its selling very well but I don't think they have a clue who is buying them or why.
I just got one and its got some problems.
1) its disk is too small and slow.
2) its case must cost a fortune to make
3) its less 3rd party friendly than any other current mac.
4) the bluetooth and wifi require a second board installed and look like a last minute hack.
I think they should do a mini mac ][ with a bigger case. Two memory slots, no modem, slots for wifi and bluetooth built in and a 3.5 inch disk. A major market for the mini mac is corp replacement for beige boxes and I think they should take advantage of that while they can still ride the hype.
I've been involved with enough product design to see a hack
when I see one. That board socket was intended for something else and the other stuff just got added on latter. Maybe it was the interface for the ipod that was rumored to exist?
The very specific segment of the market it was intended for isn't buying them and several other segments are. Maybe you didn't pay attention to the fact that most of the ones apple is selling are custom built which means apples costs are far higher than had they guessed right.
I bought it to see if I could replace 20 odd beige boxes. The answer is no. The other macs cost too much. Also that US$500 mini mac purchased in Australia at below list price costs US$633 when it hit my credit card.
It is a step in the right direction for Apple and for once wall street agrees but they are going to have fix some things before this product is any threat to the pc business.