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MW: Apple's Reach Exceeds its Grasp

by , 5:00 PM EDT, August 13th, 2008

Apple has gone from a company that makes an offbeat, non-Windows computer to one that makes all kinds of cool products. Apple has steamrolled over much of the competition, but in the last year signs of strain are showing, and Apple's reach has exceeded its grasp, according to Jason Snell at Macworld on Wednesday.

Apple is still small in many ways compared to Microsoft. Microsoft's revenues are twice Apple's and Microsoft employs 91,000 people worldwide compared to Apple's 21,000.

As a result, Apple's limited resources and ambitions plans are often mismatched. Last year's delay of Leopard is one example, according to Mr. Snell. MobileMe is the latest.

Apple's strain and Mr. Jobs' recent apology for MobileMe's launch are well known. The question now is, what does Apple do next? Does Apple need to hire more people, scale back its ambitions or both? The editor of Macworld doesn't have any specific suggestions, but it's his hope that for the sake of the customers and the company, Apple figures it before another "July 11" happens.

Observer Comments

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Close Name:dlstarr7 Posts: 119 Joined: 12 Jul 2001
Subject: MW can bite me

This in MacWorld making up news. Delay of Leopard? Last year? And wasn't that delay partly due to the iPhone?

MacWorld can bite my shiny pink butt.

Close Name:yoyo52 Posts: 1174 Joined: 02 Feb 2002
Subject:

To finish the quote, from Rbt. Browning: "A man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for." So Apple is reaching for heaven, will no doubt fail to reach it, but a heck of a ride on the way.

Close Name:ipaqrat Posts: 44 Joined: 14 Jan 2005
Subject: Glib, but unhelpful...

What Apple has in spades that Microsoft doesn't is singular vision. Steve Job's vision, to be exact, flawed as it might be argued. Once Steve gets too sick to steady the tiller, Apple is doomed back to be run by bureaucrats and consensus-seeking, unhip piss-ants, focused on stock P/E ratios instead of products. Anyone remember the John Scully era? It SUCKED.

Apple recovered from those dark days because Steve Jobs asserted HIS vision and standards. Is MobileMe is a disaster because Steve is sick and wasn't on the job enough? Say what you want about his personality. Say what you want about my pointing it out. But you can't argue with the results. Apple simply scares the CRAP out of anyone who want's to compete in the same market spaces. Not because of market capitalization. It's because of PRODUCT. Something America's auto makers are relearning the hard way.

But vision has limits. Just because we are all dewey eyed over our iphones doesn't mean we should use them for work. Just because UNIX is comparatively safe from petty hacking, doesn't mean that MacOS X is up to DoD standards. Cool gear might be great for morale, but coolness doesn't return much investment.

I'm not suggesting that Apple not make a big reach. I'd prefer that Apple reach in the right direction.

Hey, Apple! FIX WEB PAGE CACHING AND COPY/PASTE IN THE IPHONE. Then, MAYBE, I'll consider Macs for DoD.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

I think that Steve has been around long enough to inject a few disciples with his unique tonic. How many of us out in the nether-regions of Apple-dome have a clear feel for the Big Fruit Co.?

Apple without Steve will simply need one strong roll-out to stay in the game. Just one. There's a reason we have teachers. They don't live forever, except in the minds of their students.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Vision...and the Future

We all think of PC's, phones, media players. Who's going to be around when we have holograms to replace HD TV (www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k5nt541SE0)? Or the future of robotics? Or skycars (www.moller.com)? (Do you want a PC to integrate the elevation, speed and distance you're travelling from the transport truck below you?!) These could be some areas where Apple is going to leave the competition in the dust again.

Close Name:iJack Posts: 313 Joined: 13 Jun 2001
Subject: Shiny Pink Butthead

Quote
dlstarr7 wrote:
This in MacWorld making up news. Delay of Leopard? Last year? And wasn't that delay partly due to the iPhone?

MacWorld can bite my shiny pink butt.

Dear shiny pink butthead,
That's exactly what the article stated, if you had bothered to read it. But it goes on to say that Apple didn't have the resources to do both, which was true. Hence, Apple's reach exceeded it's grasp.

I can understand why you might not want to read an article, but I cannot understand why you would comment on an article you haven't read.

Close Name:dlstarr7 Posts: 119 Joined: 12 Jul 2001
Subject:

Quote
iJack wrote:
Quote
dlstarr7 wrote:
MacWorld can bite my shiny pink butt.

Dear shiny pink butthead,
That's exactly what the article stated, if you had bothered to read it. But it goes on to say that Apple didn't have the resources to do both, which was true. Hence, Apple's reach exceeded it's grasp.

I can understand why you might not want to read an article, but I cannot understand why you would comment on an article you haven't read.


This is 'news' without being 'news'. In the news biz, this is called "Filler" and is used when MacWorld has already done their "best of" reviews where they can't tank anything because those products pay the ads.

MacWorld sucks.

And, thanks for the personal attack... You're a winner, iJack.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: ipaqrat finishes glibly

ipaqrat - I was standing up and cheering in agreement with you but when you got to the coolness part I sat down.

Apple has built a kingdom on 'coolness'. The iphone is better and more reliable than anything else I'd use for work. And yes, os X is safe but not DoD safe. I'd certainly hope DoD doesn't use the exact same thing millions of other people are using. Yikes.

And copy/paste on a phone is your tipping point for what computer you use??? Please.

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