I’ve been busy, OK?
Kokopelli New Media has taken a strong upswing, and kept my dumb ass busy for months. Now, things have progressed into something a little more structured and I have set aside time to write about the latest and greatest on the web.
So lets get right into it.
Continuing with my ‘Where have you been’ theme, Where the hell has Apple been? Apple used to represent ‘insanely great’. It was the future, the next generation. Now, it is completely out of the ball game. People talk about Apple leap-frogging the competition (Microsoft) but they will be lucky to play catch up with the rest of the 32-bit, multi-threaded, multitasking, micro-kernal world.
For anyone not paying attention, Apple bought the Next operating system. Next founded by Apple founder and legend, Steve Jobs, basically put a decent GUI on Unix. It is a decent operating system. Certainly better that that dog of an OS Mac users run now. Next was acquired for 400 million dollars. (In my opinion they could have gotten it MUCH cheaper.) The latest news is Apple firing 2,700 hundred people and posting big losses.
There are two ways of looking at this. Apple is being smart and pulling off a huge restructuring and redesign to be leaner, faster and more adaptable for the changing market or, they are in a state of panic.
My guess is panic city.
Apple is the IBM of the 90’s. They can’t adapt. They keep trying, and keep digging a hole. Can you dig it? The credo of today’s software companies is simple. Web, Web, Web. Apple’s web offerings have been pathetic. Cyberdog?? Please, it’s terrible. Apple hasn’t made any serious web offerings in the past year and have been stalling on the OS upgrades for who knows long.
Here is the bottom line for Apple. Apple clone makers are spreading the hardware market very thin. They are also popularizing the PowerPC platform. The Mac OS is dated and severely lacking in modern technologies. Apple bought Next to replace it’s OS, but I have to ask myself; If a clone maker releases clones with the BE OS, what do I need Apple for?
Apple is in a lot of trouble. Steve Jobs may be a legend and a visionary, but a businessman he aint. Next was last weeks trash before Apple bought it. If apple wants to succeed, it had better release a new OS quick and it better be web friendly.
Prediction: OS war on the PowerPC between: The Be OS, Next/Mac OS and NT 5.0 in 1998.
Whatya think?