Is a $500 Mac in Your Future?

Apple Computer is back and back in a big way. It seems that it took a near-death experience to make the company that invented the personal computer to reinvent itself.

While Apple is now experiencing profitable quarter after profitable quarter, computer pundits point to Apple's downsizing as the only possible way it could have regained its financial health so quickly.

While this may be true, we all know how bloated Apple had become. You name it, Apple once engineered and manufactured it: digital cameras, printers, handheld devices (the Newton), and on and on. While many companies gain success by diversifying, Apple chose products that had many competitors with much more focus. Over the years Apple slowly lost its focus as an innovator of computer software and hardware by shifting resources and energies to unprofitable products.

That's all changed now, as Apple's co-founder and self-appointed Macintosh "bad boy" Steve Jobs has refined the company's business plan. Jobs' plan is working and he seems to be having the time of his life; riding high at Apple and at Pixar.

However, tough questions remain for Apple. While the iMac finally gave Apple a viable (and popular) consumer product that people really want, is there any way it can continue its stellar success in a Windows dominated world?

Perhaps. One thing is certain about Steve Jobs, he pushes people to excel and to attempt the impossible. As I write, I can't help but think that Jobs' has Apple engineers working on the "next great thing" in personal computing. There have been some rumors that Apple will be revealing soon a revoluntary handheld communications device, along with its consumer portable computer. Are they one in the same? If Jobs is smart (which he is), he will quietly move Apple away from the operating system paradigm. Operating systems from Apple, Microsoft and others will one day soon be so outdated and impractical that they will be useless to consumers for their computing needs.

While Apple has made great strides to reduce the price of owning an entry-level Macintosh (the iMac), PCs still own basement computer pricing. Recently, I saw an eMachine, a PC that can be had for $499 with a 14-inch monitor! What does a consumer get for such an outrageously low price: a 333-megahertz chip, Windows 98, 32 megs of RAM, CD-ROM, 2.1-meg hard drive, 56K modem and floppy disk drive. For many computer users, this set-up is all they need.

When Apple will attack the sub-$1,000 market? In some ways Apple has with $700 and $800 close-outs of Revision B iMacs. While Apple contends it doesn't want to get into selling us "last year's technology," for many consumers last year's technology" is all they need or want to pay for.Is a $500 Mac in your future? If Apple intends to aggressively attack the consumer marketplace, it's just a matter of time.

You're a Mac User? Consider Yourself Lucky!

Remember high school? Remember the peer pressure and the efforts we all made to fit in? How about college? The experience for most was somewhat the same, whether a chemistry or journalism major, we all ran with a crowd and tried to be one of the boys (or girls).

How about your office environment? Do you fit in or stick out like a sore thumb? Are you among the dominant species of PC users or of the endangered Mac lot? Who are your friends at work? Are they Mac or PC users, or both? Most of us have developed social skills to the extent that we have developed friends both at work and in other aspects of our lives.

The corporate battle for computer dominance was settled long ago. Though it was for the most part won by Microsoft and Intel by 1995, the introduction of Windows 95 pretty much added the last nails in the corporate coffin for Apple Computer. Unless, of course, you are a graphic designer, newspaper publisher, video specialist or other creative professional that Apple has managed to maintain a dominance in the marketplace.

As Apple worked to pull out of a nose dive during the past few years, it discovered something. While it has been for the most part shunned in mainstream corporate America, it is admired and revered by creative professionals. They never left and are helping Apple fuel an explosive comeback.

Our staff graphic designer recently received delivery of a new blue 400 Megahertz G3 Mac, what I like to call Apple's "Blue Meanie." One thing is certain, Apple Computer is making certain with its new Macs and iMacs are noticed. The 21-inch Multi-sync monitor on this baby is huge and crystal clear. Coupled with the G3 tower, the system is something for the eye to behold. In addition to turning heads, the amazing machine also delivers with smoking performance.

Apple may have been kicked out of the corporate boardroom, but there is evidence that it is winning the hearts of a large, and relatively untapped, home audience. Statistics show that more than 40 percent of people buying a new iMac are either new to computing all together, or are switching from Wintel. These are significant numbers, considering two years ago Apple Computer was left for dead prompting PC heads like Michael Dell to encourage the company to sell off and return money to shareholders.

The new blue G3s and iMacs illustrate vividly how a company like Apple can tap into a new market of consumers in an industry that was previously described as lacking significant growth potential. In some ways, Apple has created an entirely new market of computer buyers. They are people less concerned with the operating system more concerned with the overall "look and feel" of the computer experience.

As I've said before, now is the time for Apple to recreate the user experience, but until it does that, thank goodness it has at least found a way to bring the Mac back into significance. If you're a Mac outcast at your workplace, consider yourself lucky.