Looking At Apple's Secrecy: Steve Jobs Reiterates Summer Target For 3 GHz G5

by , 8:00 AM EDT, September 17th, 2003

When Steve Jobs announced the Power Mac G5 on June 23rd, during the WWDC, he made the surprise comment that the company would hit the 3 GHz mark in a year, and iterated that promise at July's Macworld CreativePro keynote. According to our friends at Macworld UK, Steve Jobs reiterated that goal during the Apple Expo keynote held Tuesday morning in Paris, France. The very short mention from the equally short Macworld UK story:

Apple CEO Steve Jobs repeated his promise that Power Mac G5 speeds would reach 3GHz "by next summer" at Apple Expo today.

Macworld UK also has some other information from the keynote, including the lack of a Panther release date, and the lack of some iPhoto features and an iTunes Music Store for the European market. Check out full story at Macworld UK for details.

The Mac Observer Spin:

It's so unusual for Steve Jobs to talk about what his company will be doing a year out, that we were quite surprised to see this story from Macworld UK. It will be interesting to see what happens to G5 sales in 7-8 months, as Mac users with long memories begin sitting tight on new orders. That is, after all, why Apple is so tight with its product plans in the first place.

The company faces a unique set of circumstances being the producer of its own hardware and operating system. Wintel companies basically release toaster versions of whatever Intel, Microsoft, and to a lesser extent AMD, tell them to release. The motherboards are usually designed by Intel, the features are largely static, and of course they are all at the mercy of monopolist Microsoft. In the end, Intel and Microsoft basically say "This is what you get. Go!" It's a game of how to make things cheaper, not a matter of someone asking "What we should make?" in that market. Please note that this is a gross simplification of the process, but for the sake of argument, it's not too far off.

In any event, the roadmap is in the hands of other people, and everyone competing in the Wintel market is playing on roughly the same field, though one on which Dell designed and implemented the goal posts. We ask your pardon for the extended, but brilliant metaphor.

Apple, on the other hand, has to design its own motherboards and related technologies that match the form factors Steve Jobs OKs, and its largely Apple from start to finish that is making the decision and doing the work. Once a product makes it to manufacturing, it's mostly in the hands of the same Asian assembly shops making the PCs, but in the meanwhile, Apple's position as the sole supplier of Macs means that its product cycles actually matter in the market place. Many of the company's customers wait for the Next Big Thing, simply because there is only one source, Apple. Hence, Apple's traditional secrecy.

There's little danger of people waiting for the 3 GHz G5 at this time, but after February or March, demand for the current crop of G5s will definitely slacken. Of course, the very smart people at Apple know this, so there is likely a plan in place, but that still leaves us where we began this Spin, and that is marvelling that Steve Jobs would be so forthcoming about what the company would be doing a year out.