PowerMac and Display Rumors

[ryanw]

It must be contagious, because I do this also. I swear if new Powermacs don't come out in April I'm going to go insane. If I would have known nothing was coming out I might have bought something in Jan. Now, however, I can't buy until the update comes, however far off that is. I'm not going to pay for something 6 months old.

All the rumor sites are pretty slow right now. Thinksecret hardly mentions anything anymore. Appleinsider isn't reliable, Macrumors is the only creditible place that is updating. MacOSRumors is nonsense but is updating, so I visit it and get frustrated with myself for doing so because all it is is reader mail, vague guesses that cover all their bases, catchlines to get you to come back, and them begging for sponsers to get them new toys in exchange for advertising.

I'd be willing to pay more money to Apple if had a clear roadmap so I didn't go through all this anixiety. And I don't buy the rumors about Apple waiting until July-Sept and just come out with a 3 Ghz machine with nothing until then. Money is what motivates companies to do things, and there won't be good sales if they did that. They get a boost in sales each update for the people waiting like me, so they'd missed a whole update money boost. Doesn't seem smart to me.

Yea... I don't know why, I never had this tension when I was into the PC world. We'd hear months or years ahead what each company was going to release. AMD, Intel, Microsoft, etc.. and in several cases we'd be running beta versions of Microsoft's "New OS" before it was ever released.

I've always thought this was the smartest thing Microsoft ever did. They would leak beta versions of their latest OS to come out in 6 months and people would run these beta versions at home, and things would blow up really bad all the time. So when the final release of the new OS actually released the people were always happy at all the things they fixed from the beta they were running earlier that year. Even though there were tons of problems, the big problems they had using the beta were fixed. So it was kind of a 'customer conditioning' that Microsoft would do.

I don't understand why I have this lust for apple anouncements, but I do. I can't quite understand it. It might be just because of the agony I used to go through using windows for all these years and the enjoyment I get from each new product. OSX, iPod, iTunes, PowerMac, iMac, GarageBand, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, Safari, iCal, Logic, FinalCutPro, DVD Studio Pro, etc... All stuff that has heavily changed my life in a major way. My entire approach to using technology to accomplish real tasks has changed because of Apple/Steve Jobs.

 

[Opteron]

Dry Spell
pfft

Apple has dropped the ball

 

[Sped]

If Apple truly can't keep enough inventory to supply its resellers with product for 3-4 weeks, the end is near for Apple. I just got the most recent Money magazine and read an article regarding Apple's future, and it doesn't seem good. The article describes Apple's products as cool but its stock as crap. Unfortunately I can't really disagree.

Apple has to execute more or less perfectly to maintain ground. As it stands, Apple is selling less high margin CPUs and more low margin iPods. What this means is that Apple will eventually start to eat into its cash hoard which will be the beginning of the end. The only way to prevent this is to continue to produce compelling high margin products to its solid following.

I really want to buy a new Powerbook. But there is no way I am going to drop over $2000 on a computer that is six months old. Apple better get its act together.

 

[aswitcher]

Tilt Screen

I think Apple would get some additional interest if their new screens allowed Portrait as an option, supported with an os upgrade. Plenty of people work on documents in business and at home, and the option to tilt the screen would be welcome.

 

[madamimadam]

I might just mention that it is quite unlikely that Apple will update the PowerMacs just after they have extended the PowerMac Trade-In deal. Same with the PowerBooks and the iPod deal.

Edit: PowerMac Trade-In = End of April
PowerBook & iPod = Easter

Edit2: New deal = Buy a PowerMac and 23" display and get $500US of the monitor
Extension on .Mac deal = Buy any mac and get .Mac discounted ($99 Australian) until June 26

 

[Sun Baked]

>sped

There's a little more to Apple's Stock price than growth...

The turnaround at Apple is amazing even though the stock price really doesn't reflect it. The company's profit is decent in a bad market, they've been bulking up their patent portfolio with corporate purchases, and their debt-to-equity is much better that many other companies.

Right now they're actually the type of company Warren Buffet would invest in, since they aren't buying revenue like maniacs with debt, or lavishing stock-options on the janitor.

Of course these dry spells for new product are a bit ridiculous with the number of years they've been going on...

Though low margin iPods are a lot less dangerous than a low margin computer with a $599 price tag that they may need to unload to a discounter for $99 and eat a huge loss on.

A bit more room for error, as long as the computer market doesn't hit the red ink.

Of course Apple is also playing with a larger volume of unit than they're used to, but have also been running inventory rather low -- and not selling as many as they could, aka dry spells.

 

[Belly-laughs]

Yeh well.. Applensider also saw fit to turn this photoshop into an article..

I don't buy into a lot of their "inside info."

Now, let´s see what they do about this

 

[jade]

If Apple truly can't keep enough inventory to supply its resellers with product for 3-4 weeks, the end is near for Apple. I just got the most recent Money magazine and read an article regarding Apple's future, and it doesn't seem good. The article describes Apple's products as cool but its stock as crap. Unfortunately I can't really disagree.

Apple has to execute more or less perfectly to maintain ground. As it stands, Apple is selling less high margin CPUs and more low margin iPods. What this means is that Apple will eventually start to eat into its cash hoard which will be the beginning of the end. The only way to prevent this is to continue to produce compelling high margin products to its solid following.

Those analysts do not have a problem with ipod margins, really the margins are excellent 20-40$ profit, but the revenues of ipods make up I believe a measly 7% of Apples revenues.

And well since Apple is a computer company, it really doesn't help much on the whole scheme of things.

Apple has quite a few key issues to address in order to increase marketshare and revenues.

1. the "hit" factor. Apple relies on hit products to drive sales. iPods, Albooks, imacs etc. If one of these projected hits fails it screws up the revenues for the quarter, or if it is too successful, shortages ruin Apple's reputation (See imacs, ipods and 15" powerbooks)
2. Inventory issues. Apple needs to get the manufacturing problem licked. Something new comes out, retailers have it for a week. apple announces unexpected demand and is unable to keep supplies of the product. Retailers are irritated because customers leave their stores to find it in stock elsewhere, or Apple loses because the person picks an alternative. Also messes up revenues, and leaves the sales in peaks and valleys (See ipods, powermac g5s and xserve g5s)
3. Pricing. Apple's pricing hasn't kept pace with the industry sweet spot. (See declining sales of imacs and emacs)
4. Quality control. Overall apples quality is good, but of course with all of the bad press steming from the white spots and logic boards there is definitely work needed.
5. Declining marketshare and developer support. Of course all of this goes back to sales and attractig new customers. Apple is making inroads in unexpected markets, but really needs to come up with a compelling enterprise-class solution, and quit stopping at selling to the artists. How about the rest of the office, or university?

Maybe we will see some of this improve soon.

 

[sonyrules]

ok, here goes:

Apple Computer inc. (Cupertino, CA) announced today that it is pulling out of the computer technology sector to pursue development of a consumer electronics line. CEO, Steve Jobs broke the news this morning on an analyst call; "these iPod things are too damn sweet, I just love them and can't see myself doing any other kind of business when there is so much cool music technology to throw billions at!" When asked to comment on pending Beatles lawsuits Jobs responded "F%(S em!", raising serious doubts among stock holders as to his current state of mind. "Sure Steve did a lot of acid when he was younger, but no one saw this coming", an unnamed source told us late this afternoon ...

Oh, thats too funny

 

[ryanw]

Those analysts do not have a problem with ipod margins, really the margins are excellent 20-40$ profit, but the revenues of ipods make up I believe a measly 7% of Apples revenues.

And well since Apple is a computer company, it really doesn't help much on the whole scheme of things.

Apple has quite a few key issues to address in order to increase marketshare and revenues.

1. the "hit" factor. Apple relies on hit products to drive sales. iPods, Albooks, imacs etc. If one of these projected hits fails it screws up the revenues for the quarter, or if it is too successful, shortages ruin Apple's reputation (See imacs, ipods and 15" powerbooks)
2. Inventory issues. Apple needs to get the manufacturing problem licked. Something new comes out, retailers have it for a week. apple announces unexpected demand and is unable to keep supplies of the product. Retailers are irritated because customers leave their stores to find it in stock elsewhere, or Apple loses because the person picks an alternative. Also messes up revenues, and leaves the sales in peaks and valleys (See ipods, powermac g5s and xserve g5s)
3. Pricing. Apple's pricing hasn't kept pace with the industry sweet spot. (See declining sales of imacs and emacs)
4. Quality control. Overall apples quality is good, but of course with all of the bad press steming from the white spots and logic boards there is definitely work needed.
5. Declining marketshare and developer support. Of course all of this goes back to sales and attractig new customers. Apple is making inroads in unexpected markets, but really needs to come up with a compelling enterprise-class solution, and quit stopping at selling to the artists. How about the rest of the office, or university?

Maybe we will see some of this improve soon.

Well, this is apple's problem. They are very big headed. They think they have the best product on the planet and want to keep everything under their control. I understand the reasons or wanting to not become a "software company", but apple is slowing becoming a software company. Final Cut Pro, Logic, Shake, iLife, OSX, etc. They should come to terms with IBM and make an OEM deal to release OSX for IBM's PowerPC line of computers. The Power4 big daddies... Imagine running OSX on these machines:
http://www-132.ibm.com/content/home...erver/pSeries/mid_range/pSeries_midrange.html

Now we're talking. No PC will compare with an 8way Power4 PPC box. Screw the Dual G5 .... Apple wouldn't lose money doing an OEM with IBM on their larger machines because if you think about it, people in the market to buy an upper $40,000 machine aren't going to think about buying a Dual G5 or even a bunch of XServes clustered together. They want a BIG BAD MACHINE. Apple does not have a BIG BAD MACHINE. Sorry, No DUAL 3GHz G5 compares to a 16 processor Power4 with 256GB of memory. Some shops can afford $50,000 for a BIG BAD machine to run Photoshop, Logic, Final Cut Pro, etc.. its cheaper than some of the $1.5million dollar hardware solutions out there, apple is not capitolizing on this.

 

[Stoffel]

I have received a spam mail by a local apple dealer here in Germany with special offers for displays with powermacs g5 which is valid until the end of march with a remark to possible new powermacs, quote: "No, there will be no new g5s in april.".

So, dunno..... I just hope for new pbs g4.

 

[klaus]

I have received a spam mail by a local apple dealer here in Germany with special offers for displays with powermacs g5 which is valid until the end of march with a remark to possible new powermacs, quote: "No, there will be no new g5s in april.".

So, dunno..... I just hope for new pbs g4.

Obviously he just wants to sell his machines in stock, that's the only reason for that mail. A few days ago, I spoke to an Apple Europe guy at an Apple seminar (drivenbydesign) and he told me Apple Europe (or Belgium for that matter) has the same info on new G5's as we have. NONE.

So this local reseller in Germany would have certainty that there won't be new machines in april? Comeon, if he knows this, it would have leaked on the numerous rumour sites as well, and if several unlinked sources claim the same,then you could consider it..

but now..i don't buy it.

Powermacs will come in april, otherwise they'll have to wait till july (wwdc) to announce updates, and 1 year is too long for a pro-line!

 

[365]

When will Apple realise that while they may be arguably World leaders in industrial design, they are a massive failure as an hardware company. Their recent track record of product roll outs with problems is well documented and must have cost the company a small fortune. The fact is that if it wasn't for interest on all that money in the bank Apple would be losing money at an alarming rate.

The time has come to split the company in two, a hardware and software company. The software company can start licensing OSX for x86 and I think will go from strength to strength the hardware division will then realise that they make no money at building computers and start producing more consumer devices.

This is a purple patch for Apple, the G5 is the best machine they have produced for the last four years, yet they are still losing a small fortune every quarter, they are also losing market share at an alarming rate.. It's time someone acted before it's too late.

Apple will never go away but they could become ripe for a takeover if they're not careful.

 

[klaus]

When will Apple realise that while they may be arguably World leaders in industrial design, they are a massive failure as an hardware company. Their recent track record of product roll outs with problems is well documented and must have cost the company a small fortune. The fact is that if it wasn't for interest on all that money in the bank Apple would be losing money at an alarming rate.

The time has come to split the company in two, a hardware and software company. The software company can start licensing OSX for x86 and I think will go from strength to strength the hardware division will then realise that they make no money at building computers and start producing more consumer devices.

This is a purple patch for Apple, the G5 is the best machine they have produced for the last four years, yet they are still losing a small fortune every quarter, they are also losing market share at an alarming rate.. It's time someone acted before it's too late.

Apple will never go away but they could become ripe for a takeover if they're not careful.

One might think how it's possible that Apple does STILL make such huge profits! So it's not going as bad as everyone (the few people on the board) think it is.. otherwise it would be known by the rest of the industry as well.

 

[365]

One might think how it's possible that Apple does STILL make such huge profits! So it's not going as bad as everyone (the few people on the board) think it is.. otherwise it would be known by the rest of the industry as well.

Klaus, Apple make a profit for one reason only, they have over $4 Billion cash in the bank and that makes them a lot of interest. If you discount that interest last quarter, then Apple made a loss of $1 Million. When that money in the bank starts to fall the analysts will quickly pick up on it, the share price will start falling and Apple will be ripe for the picking. It's not going to happen tommorow but 18-24 months down the line could be a very different picture. Like I say, Apple aren't ever going bust but what a pity if someone like Sony got they're hands on Apple.

Trendy hardware is very nice to pose with but I use a computer as a tool not a fashion statement. OSX is the real jewel in the Apple crown yet Apple are doing their usual stunt of saying, if you want to use this software you must first buy our computer, the thing is we can't really come up with the goods on a regular basis because we have no real buying clout due to our dwindling market share. They've done this from the very beginning and have paid the price while watching Microsoft who concentrated on being "good" hmm.. well ok, who concentrated on one thing, grow into the massive force that they are today, albeit with an arguably far inferior product. They're doing it with the iPod now.. it's a sign of weak leadership.. Oodles of passion and charisma doesn't make you a great businessman it just gets you lots of column inches.

 

[klaus]

365, I understand many of your arguments and issues, and am glad we can have a normal discussion on this board (this is not always the case).

It is quite fair to state that they need to get their production and shipping up to speed, the technology is present, no doubt about it, cause the technology mainly comes from respected companies like IBM, ATI, Samsung, etc. They have made mistakes before, and will make mistakes in the future as well, but they have to learn from it, and I doubt it if that's not the case, They are probably working on it, and need to do this harder, until they have a solid, running production system, with good shipping periods, and good service.

I'm just trying to point out that I do not think apple isn't doing anything about it, but they need to improve on this a lot. It's no dramatic scenario for the moment, and they can only improve. I'll keep supporting them, and I think you will too.

They'll recover and be stronger than before, at least, if they want to stay in the IT business that is..

 

[Mac-Xpert]

Trendy hardware is very nice to pose with but I use a computer as a tool not a fashion statement. OSX is the real jewel in the Apple crown yet Apple are doing their usual stunt of saying, if you want to use this software you must first buy our computer, the thing is we can't really come up with the goods on a regular basis because we have no real buying clout due to our dwindling market share.

But I think you're missing one of the important reasons why Mac Os-X is as good as it is. And that's that it runs on Apple controlled hardware. If Mac Os-X could run on just any hardware, they would have the same type of problems (with missing/ non-functional drivers, and viruses if they have a big market-share) that Microsoft or Linux has. Although it would be nice if prices on Apple stuff could come down a bit and if we would see updates more regularly, I do think that Apple keeping control over the entire platform (hardware and software) is a good thing.

 

[365]

But I think you're missing one of the important reasons why Mac Os-X is as good as it is. And that's that it runs on Apple controlled hardware.

This is the argument that everyone uses but the thing is Apple can very easily come up with a reference specification and if you licensed the OS to companies like HP then they have more than enough resources to write the few drivers that would be required.

The other argument as always been to point to the cloning disaster of the 90's. Well it doesn't take a clever man to realise that if you have a small market that uses minority components, you don't open up your market to all comers, that move was always doomed to failure. OSX for x86 is a totally different ball game, becuase instead of opening up your own 2.5% market, you're going after the other guys 95% market, your own is still protected to a large extent, although I still maintain that Apple are a failure at hardware production ( not hardware design )

If Apple split into two companies, there would probably be a period where things appeared to go down hill but that would be a short term problem and I am sure that eventually Apple the software company would become a dominant player. The market is ripe for the picking, corporates are tired of Microsoft but the only alternative they have is Linux which to be honest is a perfect example of chaos theory.

Apple should grasp the opportunity, as they say, fortune favours the brave.

 

[365]

365, I understand many of your arguments and issues, and am glad we can have a normal discussion on this board (this is not always the case).

Klaus, if we can agree on nothing else we can agree on this I can't believe how refreshing it is to be able to have a balanced discussion without being flamed. The macnn.com board is like the Beiruit of the internet, it's a brave man that dares to criticise Apple in there

 

[klaus]

Klaus, if we can agree on nothing else we can agree on this I can't believe how refreshing it is to be able to have a balanced discussion without being flamed. The macnn.com board is like the Beiruit of the internet, it's a brave man that dares to criticise Apple in there

True , but I wouldn't say we don't agree on nothing else, i'll be the last to say apple needs to get their act together, at least better than it is now, and we both like apple, otherwise we wouldn't be here...

now if only apple would announce major updates to their product line, maybe we also could agree on the fact they are making progress!

 

[Spagolli94]

Is it just me, or is this the slowest Apple period ever? I honestly can't remember a time when there was this long between real news. I mean, it's been years at least (since the last dry spell like this). Aside from 10.3 - what? five months ago? - there's been basically nothing. Dual 1.8's. Wow! G5 Xserve! Wow - if you're a business, maybe...

Would someone please just make something up so we could have something new to talk about?

I agree. I am in the market for a new display. I remember 6 months ago, I was holding off, thinking "gotta be any day now." All the news over the past few months has been about the iPod.MacWorld was flat out depressing. Hmmm... Let's see. Server stuff. The fixed iPhoto and decided to charge you for a version that actually works and a friggin karaoke machine. Nice.

 

[Spagolli94]

ok, here goes:

Apple Computer inc. (Cupertino, CA) announced today that it is pulling out of the computer technology sector to pursue development of a consumer electronics line. CEO, Steve Jobs broke the news this morning on an analyst call; "these iPod things are too damn sweet, I just love them and can't see myself doing any other kind of business when there is so much cool music technology to throw billions at!" When asked to comment on pending Beatles lawsuits Jobs responded "F%(S em!", raising serious doubts among stock holders as to his current state of mind. "Sure Steve did a lot of acid when he was younger, but no one saw this coming", an unnamed source told us late this afternoon ...

Hahahah. Good one. Doesn't seem that far out, does it? For us computer users, I am starting to feel forgotten about. iPod this, iPod that. Already got one. Yes, they are cool. Yes, they are selling well. Get over it and give us some new hardware to buy.

 

[choogheem]

The Real Reason Behind Delays!

Without a doubt, this is the real reason behind the delays - especially in the powerbook line. Can't wait for the thunderstorms in my computer cooling off the cpu!
Mini Thunderstorms
My personal opinion, the new screens will not be lcd, but will be oled displays.

 

[punkmac]

dry spell...

According to Appleinsider, Apple is warning resellers of an upcoming "dry spell":



In a subsequent report, Appleinsider claims the new PowerMac revisions may not ship in quantity until before May.

Also expected are price drops on Apple LCDs next week to help clear the channel.

G5's across the board!!!!!


It's nice to dream.

I.

 

[Grimace]

Without a doubt, this is the real reason behind the delays - especially in the powerbook line. Can't wait for the thunderstorms in my computer cooling off the cpu!
Mini Thunderstorms
My personal opinion, the new screens will not be lcd, but will be oled displays.

OLEDs? hmm....those are still pretty far in the future. I wouldn't count on Apple pioneering them this early on. OLEDs are expensive to manufacture right now, so Apple would be unwise to increase the price of displays that are already pretty pricey.