In past years, Apple was on a downward spiral, but now the Mac is back on the
right track. The interim CEO Steve Jobs has brought them from expected quarterly
loses to now, first quarter net income of some 150 millions dollars. The
question still remains, is Apple back to stay? With the Windows driven world of
today, can Apple assert them self to claim market share? Apple’s stunning new
hardware, user-friendly operating system, and drive for incredible new
technology, will not only compare Apple to traditional PC and software maker but
will stun the rest of the computer world along the way. On July 21, 1999, PC
Data released a report stating the iMac, Apple’s entry level personal
computer, was the best selling retail and mail order computer in the month of
June. There are a number of different reasons why this computer beat out all
other PC’s on the market. One reason is the new and exciting colors the iMac
is being offered in. Instead of the traditional color, beige, being offered by
Dell or Gateway, the iMac comes in strawberry, blueberry, grape, tangerine and
lime. Another feature for the iMac is the speed of the computer compared to the
computers in its class. According to the BYTEmark integer test, the 333-MHz G3
processor in the iMac is almost twice as fast as the 500-MHz Intel Pentium III
found in professional computers found today. The iMac is not the only computer
offered by Apple. They have a line of professional personal computers called the
G3 series. These computers are the fastest personal computers on the market
today, beating other computers such as the Gateway 550-MHz Pentium III PC.
Another main reason the iMac is such a big success and Apple in general is
coming back is their operating system called the MacOS. Its number one feature
is its user-friendliness. Apple computers such as the iMac are called
plug-and-play computers. This means you plug a device into your computer, like a
zip drive, and it works. No installing drivers like the Window-based computers
are made to do. Another success for the Macintosh Operating System is the
Sherlock searching device. It is an effective way to search the Internet using
multiple search engines at the same time. The feature is very important because
this means no more going search engine to search engine looking for a particular
topic, like all other computer users have to do, but doing this in one simple
location and is easy to use. The Windows operating system has no feature to
compare to the Sherlock search engine. Finally the new MacOS is equipped with
one feature that no other operating system has, and that is speech recognition.
A person can ask the computer, “What time is it?” and will receive it. The
most popular operating system, Windows, has no comparable feature to speak of.
There are several reasons attributing to the Apple come back but no more than
the new dedication by Apple to drive technology further than anyone personal
computer company has. One of the fantastic new technologies is the Airport
networking device developed by Lucent Technologies just for the Apple iBook.
This is a wireless networking system that lets you travel up to 150 feet away
from the base station. No other computer maker such as Dell or Micron, has a
technology like this on the market as of today. One more incredible advancement
by Apple is the new Quicktime TV. What this does is brings you living, streaming
television transmission over the Internet. Its competition, Real Player, has
much lower quality of picture than the Quicktime program does. An addition to
the great new technologies being introduced and supported is the continued
excellence for the graphics in the industry. Apple has always supported
graphical software and hardware but the continued vision of where the industry
is going with software titles like Adobe PhotoShop and Apple’s new FinalCut
Pro surpasses anything the rest of the other computer and software makers have
to offer. Another push for the advancement of PC technology, by Apple, is the
newly adopted USB port. Universal Serial Bus is the technology that will
eventually over take the serial port. It is much faster and easier to use than
the serial port. Apple recognized the USB technology immediately and adopted it,
but Microsoft had to release a second edition of its operating system to fully
support this new groundbreaking tool. Finally, the new Macintosh operating
systems are showing great support for the futurist programming language of Java.
Eventually, Java programming language will control such devices as washer and
driers, stoves, and televisions. Windows is just starting to support future uses
of Java. Apple’s ad campaign is based on the two words of “Think
Different”, and I believe they are even taking these words home to Apple. With
new technologies being introduced rapidly, iMac sales at an all time high, and
this eye for new inventions, which is to say Apple, is not back? With this pulse
on the personal computer industry, Apple will continue to forge ahead with more
growth and revenues. With this Apple, is likely to become a major player, again,
in the industry of personal computing.