The Northern Spy — Say, Professor, Where’s the Market Going

Posted by: Rick Sutcliffe Date: December 1, 2000 0 Likes 507 Views

December 2000

Glad you asked, Nellie. With Apple’s stock down, the whole North American economy slowing, market share in the doldrums, the educational rep fiasco, and inventory a tad on the high side, the naysayers have been snapping at brand-new CEO Steve Jobs’ heels like a pack of punk piranhas. Things will get worse now the company’s announced a projected loss. But fact is, the company’s worth more than its market valuation just now, so if I had a few spare billion, I’d pick up the whole barrel. Course, when you look at the rebates being offered just now, you gotta know come January Steve’s planning to ramp up processor speed, add more bang for the buck, and offer a new line of portables. Later in the year, he’ll be romancing the customer with his new/old operating system. Then there’s the Disney rumour that just won’t go away.

Nellie: sizzle!
You mean Apple’s preoccupied with marketing style and where’s the substance? They’re already doing much better than selling mere aroma. But listen: Steve knows a pretty face’ll only get him so far before he has to produce. So expect a raft of new portables at the high end before long, and if Motorola and IBM can’t get their act together to produce 1G chips, look to the possibility of a MacOS port to a new chip.

Nellie: not the approximatium?
You’ve never forgiven that one have you, Nellie. But, no. A move like that would put them out of the hardware business.

Nellie: You’re looking too coy. Give me a hint.
All right Nellie, what’s antipodal omega?

Nellie:Hmmmm. Got any advice for Steve?
Sure, and I won’t even charge for it. He oughta make a deal with Nisus to offer their word processor, find a spreadsheet, and go head-to-head with them other guys in the application suite market while the competition’s preoccupied making the government happy. Then he oughta get together with former Apple ][ clone maker Franklin to corner the e-book reader market whilst Gemstar’s busy making independent e-book authors unhappy. Steve’s got old technology on the shelf that’s still better than any PDA out there.

Nellie:FileWriter, FileSpread, and the Newton ][?
The best defense is a good offense, Nellie, especially when the market almost appears to be saying that everyone who needs a computer has already got one.

Author: Rick Sutcliffe
Opinions expressed here are entirely the author's own, and no endorsement is implied by any community or organization to which he may be attached. Rick Sutcliffe, (a. k. a. The Northern Spy) is professor of Computing Science and Mathematics at Canada's Trinity Western University. He has been involved as a member or consultant with the boards of several community and organizations, and participated in developing industry standards at the national and international level. He is a co-author of the Modula-2 programming language R10 dialect. He is a long time technology author and has written two textbooks and nine alternate history SF novels, one named best ePublished SF novel for 2003. His columns have appeared in numerous magazines and newspapers (paper and online), and he's a regular speaker at churches, schools, academic meetings, and conferences. He and his wife Joyce have lived in the Aldergrove/Bradner area of BC since 1972.
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