It finally happened. Most Macintosh users knew it all along. The U.S. Government has officially labeled the Macintosh as a "weapon" which could be dangerous if it fell into the wrong hands!
I'm talking, of course, of the new Power Mac G4 introduced recently by iCEO Steve Jobs at the Seybold publishing conference.
While you might say it's more marketing hype by a company re-discovering its advertising roots, the G4 has power that's definitely in a league all by itself. The Apple web site says it best: "The Pentagon regards supercomputers as 'strategic technology'-in effect, making the Power Mac G4 a weapon that shouldn't fall into the wrong hands."
It's ironic, you might say, that a computer used to save in the world in Independence Day now has the potential to destroy the world!
And not only is Apple building wonderful computers, they're telling the world about them. A new "tank" TV commercial produced by the TBWA/Chiat/Day ad agency has been airing regularly since the introduction of the new machine. For air times and to download a copy of the commercial check out http://www.apple.com/powermac/tanks.html.
The introduction of the G4 is significant in a number of ways. Since August 1998 we've watched as Apple has aggressively shored up its consumer products space in the marketplace. It wasn't long ago the computers Apple offered to consumers were a confusing mess of too many models that just weren't up to snuff with the PC competition. Remember the Performa 6100 models?
That all changed with the iMac. With the iMac, Apple not only brought to market an eye-appealing personal computer that set new standards for industrial design, but a computer with a powerful processor that actually could take on demanding tasks.
It appears now with the introduction of the G4 that Apple will be aggressively attacking graphics and business professionals on the high end. And let's face it, PCs running Windows 98 may be the standard, but now they're neither cool nor faster ... and by a long shot!
That's a sobering wake-up call for the PC industry that still enjoys a huge lead in market share over Apple products, and will for the foreseeable future. However, in some ways, Apple has never been in a better position to capitalize on its niche markets than today.
I suspect that creative professionals that switched to Windows NT during Apple's darker days are regretting that move big time. It was bad enough when Apple introduced the G3, but the G4 will make these guys (and gals) envious beyond belief ... that's saying nothing about the fact their computers just aren't cool looking!
Apple's definitely on a roll. I'm writing this column on Sept. 15, the day the new iBook was to be available at retail outlets and through mail order across the U.S. By the time the iBook became available, Apple already had more than 160,000 pre-orders for it. Let's see ... that's $1,599 apiece ... not a bad initial sell for Apple.
I announced a few columns ago that I was falling way behind in computer technology with Apple's latest hardware and software revolution. With the introduction of the new G4s and iBook, I've fallen even farther behind.
Looks like it's time to upgrade!