Pray. (101 ways to save Apple)

hirhir
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014




Who remembers this issue of Wired magazine? I still have my copy. Remember those days before Steve came back to Apple? Remember the doom and gloom in the Mac Universe? I do. So, for all of us who have stuck with Apple through the bad times, read this article from the June, 1997 issue of Wired and rejoice!! I am the Ghost of Apple past. Take my hand, close your eyes, and I will show you a world where there is no Steve Jobs at Apple.



Here's are Wired's top 5 suggestions. I especially love the first one. Read the whole 10 pages here. ENJOY!!!



1. Admit it. You're out of the hardware game. Outsource your hardware production, or scrap it entirely, to compete more directly with Microsoft without the liability of manufacturing boxes.



2. License the Apple name/technology to appliance manufacturers and build GUIs for every possible device - from washing machines to telephones to WebTV. Have them all use the same communications protocol. Result: you monopolize the market for smart devices/homes.



3. Start pampering independent software vendors. Your future depends on strong, user-friendly software. ISVs are losing confidence and crossing over to the Dark Side to take advantage of Wintel's market share. Remember what happened to OS/2 - not enough applications, updates too late, scarce industry support. And all the marketing dollars IBM threw at it couldn't help.



4. Gil Amelio should steal a page from Lee Iacocca's book - work for one year without a salary, just to inspire the troops.



5. Straighten out the naming convention. Link model numbers to processor speed. When buying a 3400 laptop computer, what, exactly, are you getting? Unless you study the brochures, you don't know how it compares with its competition. On the other hand, Wintel talks explicitly about processor speed. It's a Pentium 200-MHz box.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 3
    Hum... and here I've always been told to save fruit you should pour orange juice over it and keep it in the top of the fridge....
  • Reply 2 of 3
    stoostoo Posts: 1,490member
    Quote:

    60. Abandon the Mach operating system you just acquired and run Windows NT kernel instead. This would let Mac run existing PC programs.



    This is so stupid, and not just in hindsight.
  • Reply 3 of 3
    Not all of them are stupid.

    Quote:

    14. Do something creative with the design of the box and separate yourselves from the pack. The original Macs stood out because of their innovative look. Repeat that. Get the folks at Porsche to design a box. Or Giorgio Giugiaro. Or Philippe Starck. We'd all feel better about shelling out the bucks for a Power Mac 9600 if we could get a tower with leopard spots.



    This was a year before the iMac. Except for a couple details, they predicted the Blue Dalmation iMacs!
Sign In or Register to comment.