"Appleis basic problem is that its market is restricted mainly to a group of devoted home users, many of whom bought iMacs 18 months ago and who now have no reason to replace them," or so claims Meta Group. But there is no reason for Mac business users to worry, "Apple will be around for some time to come," they add. Although, Steve Jobs is a problem and Apple needs to license the Mac OS to Chinese clone-makers
Meta Group, a business consultation firm with an important sounding name, opines:
"Jobs did increase Appleis market share slightly with the iMac. He apparently based his financial projections for this fiscal year on the expectation that Apple could continue to expand that market, but it has not. One reason why that has not happened is Appleis refusal to license the Macintosh operating system to clone makers, who could produce low-end Mac clones that would sell to first-time home users, expanding the overall market. Currently, the Macintosh is the high-cost system on computer retailer shelves crowded with $700 Windows PCs."
By refusing to license the Mac OS to clone makers, Meta Group believes Apple wonit be able to expand into the nascent and possibly huge Chinese PC market because China will demand to manufacture its own PCs.
The article also blames Steve Jobis obsessive behavior for some of Appleis problems. "Mr. Jobs forgets about the things that need to be done to keep a business going in the long term," they claimed. "In this case, he seems to have become so focused on the Cube that he may have neglected other things that could have helped Apple maintain its business."
The Meta Group is published weekly by C-Net. You can read more of their thoughts on Apple in this weekis piece.