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Why Apple Failed in the 90s
An anonymous reader writes "With news of amazing sales figures for both Mac hardware and the iPod, the future for Apple looks bright. But it wasn't always that way. The 90s were a bad time for the company, and Roughlydrafted.com has a look at Apple's failures of the previous decade." From the article: "During the development of Mac OS X, Apple polished the existing classic Mac OS, and salvaged what it could of Copland developments. Apple modernized its existing Mac APIs into Carbon, which would run software in Mac OS 9, and later allow it to run natively in Mac OS X. Despite fixing the obvious flaws in Apple's operating system offering, Mac OS X did not in itself solve Apple's problem. The company now only had an improved platform that nobody had any reason to buy. The real solution to Apple's problem was stumbled onto by a fortunate accident. "
I don't think their future really is that bright at all. Their future may be extremely bright - to the people already in the cult of Mac - but to your everyday Windows user? They couldn't care less what Apple is doing outside of iPods and iTunes. I do roving computer repair, and I've yet to come across someone who's even asked me about a Mac yet. Lots of people have iPods and don't even know Apple still makes computers. While I'm sure no extreme is as true as is made out (Apple has no future vs. Taking over MS's #1 spot), I think Apple will remain in its niche for quite a while.