Hard Cider Index

by William Tell

What a difference a year makes - stock up 200%, the most innovative computer of the year, the iMac selling like hotcakes (40% to individuals new to the Macintosh platform) and dozens of reporters who gleefully predicted the imminent demise of Apple, forced to eat humble pie. There is nothing new in the perverse pleasure journalists take in tragic events (the glee referred to above) but Apple's relatively quick recovery has been quite stunning and has silenced the cynics. How did Apple get from where it was to where it is now?

Though I have followed the company for many years my first real experience with an actual Macintosh computer came with the purchase, several years ago, of a Performa 6300 for my son. This machine epitomized what was wrong with Apple at the time. Although the 6300 was Apple's top consumer model it was a lackluster computer. It sported no real innovation and it's performance was mediocre. However it was a stolid enough machine, came with a tremendous amount of bundled software and ran the Mac OS . The average consumer starting out on the "Macintosh Adventure" would have been happy enough with this machine, if it worked well - it didn't! We got the Performa out of the box, fired it up for the first time, watched the little icons dance across the bottom of the screen and then ....... CRASH!! That's right the first time the 6300 was booted it crashed. We were not alone. Apparently there was a flaw in one of the chips on the motherboard of all these computers which would cause them to freeze about 50% of the time during the startup process. This was not the only problem with this machine. The 6300 along with many other 603 chip based machines lacked a special chip found in other Macintoshs for processing the signals coming in over the modem. This would free up the central processors to perform other tasks. The lack of this chip hobbled the Internet experience for owners of these machines at a time when the Internet was just starting to take off. A machine with these problems and limitations would never have gotten out the door of a company that was " minding the store" - Apple wasn't. Apple eventually fixed the problem and replaced the motherboards on the machines that had already been bought, but the experience soured many owners on the "Macintosh experience" and gave rise to a popular website where owners of 603 chip based machines could vent their feelings.

These problems with the Performa line were only symbolic of the deep disfunction at Apple that was about to come into full fruition. These problems included:

A somnolent, hands off board of directors that basically rubber stamped whatever management proposed and that took no steps to help guide Apple into a better position.

Management that lacked both insight and imagination. They could not even get the technical aspects of running a business, such as assessing supply and demand, right.

A poorly developed and focused product line. Apple had it's fingers into too many things. Too much time and expense was spent on esoteric research and projects, not enough on actual products they could bring to market.

Poorly motivated and undisciplined workforce. Give creative people (which are in abundance at Apple) too much space and they become artists which is great if you are running a gallery but not so good if you want to keep a Fortune 500 company afloat.

An OS development strategy that was falling apart. The next version of the Mac OS under development at the time (Copland) was mired in inertia due to conflicting goals. Updates of the current OS had the appearance of something a beginning shareware author might throw together.

Lack of advertising. Apple at the time was not putting much of it's resources into advertising and the advertising it did direct to a general audience was extremely ineffective. The only advertising I saw of this sort was a half hour infomercial that ran primarily late at night on obscure channels and that had as one of it's selling points that buying a Performa would help grandpa find a girlfriend.

How Apple got back to where it is today:

Focused agressive management team. The team at Apple is now acutely focused on Apple's return to profitability while at the same time keeping the companies creative juices flowing. While the old management team was characterized by lack of imagination and drift, the new team has brought discipline to bear on the creativity that exists at Apple with very good results. It is quite clear that the people now running Apple care about the success of the company, the quality of it's products and Apple's relationships with the rest of the computing industry. Gil Amelio and Ellen Hancock set the groundwork for this change in attitude and direction and the current team has continued on and pushed further. It's been hard work with more to come but it is a very good beginning. Apple is now behaving like a company that cares about itself and it's survival.

Steve Jobs. Lets face it this guy is a creative dynamic fellow. He has inspired renewed energy at Apple and about Apple. He has helped reawaken the creative potential of the company in a focused disciplined way. It is a trick for a company like Apple to be productive and disciplined while not losing it's creative, artistic edge. Jobs has the ability to blend these sometimes incompatible forces - something he has in common with many Mac users. I think it is this ability to blend productivity with quality, cleverness, creativity and an artistic touch all at the same time that attracts many people to the Mac and why there is such a "Macintosh community". Ellen Hancock said she spent as much time talking about fonts and color at Apple as she did on the technical aspects of the OS - a big change from her previous company. Of course this kind of thing can get out of hand and the challenge is to keep things in balance but it's the kind of approach that makes the Mac OS look and feel the way it does. It's absence is what makes Windows look and feel like something that was cobbled together in a pre-glasnost Soviet Union. Can anyone imagine a Compaq or Dell community?

Killing the Clones. There was a lot of gnashing and wailing in the Mac community when this occurred but it was the right move at the right time. The existence of Mac clones was adding nothing innovative to the overall Mac marketplace. No real technological advancements and there was no reaching out to new markets by the cloners. Power Computing which was the "darling" of many (mainly because Apple had left such a void due to it's marketing and technical passivity) was alway more hype than substance. That's not to say that the Mac cloners might not have been more innovative in the future or expanded the overall Mac market share, but they weren't doing so at the time and a company in as much trouble as Apple was cannot afford to have competitors syphon off sales and the spotlight to the extent the clone makers were. Killing off the clones was a sign that Apple was forcefully taking care of itself - like a scab forming over a bleeding wound.

Streamlined, focused product line. Apple junked a lot of it's more esoteric and extraneous projects and focused on core issues. This is the way a mature company behaves - not as a "think tank" but as an industry that has to get real products out the door that will find a place in the market.

High motivation at Apple. As the creative potential of the workers at Apple got refocused onto projects that had some hope of going somewhere and real results were seen, of course the motivation goes up. It is hard to live under a cloud and work for a company that is slowly fading away. Apple is fighting hard and going somewhere and talented people like to work for such a company.

OS updates. OS updates are now logical, offer something of value, are attractive (have a wow factor) and cost real money to purchase.

Advertising. One of the biggest changes has been the extent and quality of Apple's advertising - it's everywhere ( I have seen whole public transit buses repainted with the "Think Different" campaign) and it's aimed at enticing new users to the platform. The campaign has been clever and strategic in it's approach. First it sought, through the use of well known creative characters, to build up a positive image of the company and then went on to push specific products and their advantages. It's important to build up this "good feeling" about a company before you hit them over the head with the hard info - any carnival barker knows this much. Get them interested and then let them know how they can act on this interest and why doing so would be an advantage to them. Advertising is extremely important. The cleverest companies with the best products can fail if no one knows about them and Apple had the added disadvanage of being pounded by the press at the time. Apple's advertising efforts have paid off well.

Apple is well on it's way to a comeback from it's near death experience. What the character of the comeback will be and how Steve Jobs will continue to be involved has yet to be determined. The people at Apple have worked hard and their efforts show in both the quality and character of the company's products and the positive balance sheet. Apple has come out of the woods and is at the edge of the clearing, it will be interesting to see in the next few years where it goes from here. The people at Apple will have to continue to work hard, to come up with innovative, attractive, powerful products and not lose focus. In the future Apple may eventually fail (companies do) or reinvent itself. Too early to tell, but the company at the moment is no longer in danger of fading away.

Willam works for a large Internet company and divides his time between Silicon Valley and Bern Switzerland. He feels qualified to comment on all things Macintosh because he often takes potshots at his son's Apple.