[geeks] Article: Sun's not so cheap trick doesn't work

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Sun, 12 Oct 2008, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

> It's funny that you mention Apple. IMHO Apple has a big problem. The
> computer divison used to be it's big profit division, now it's small
> compared to the iPhone/iPod/iTunes business.

This fact has not escaped me.  In fact, Apple's focus on toys instead of
tools is something of a continuing frustration to me.

> So if Apple is going to invest a $1 in R&D it is likely to see more
> return on investment (ROI) for a $1 spent on the iPhone, etc divison
> than the computer division.

Yep.  I've been waiting to upgrade my notebook for over a year now.  I
didn't want to ditch my Powerbook until Apple released a Macbook Pro that
could match it in battery life and have a couple specific features that
I've picked out as making the upgrade worthwhile.  We'll see what Tuesday
brings.

> Eventually the stockholders will realize that force managment to
> concentrate on those products and their Windows support.

Maybe, maybe not.  The Macintosh platform is not a loss-leader.

> Expectation that people buying iPods, iTunes and iPhones would convince
> them to buy a Mac, and either convert some or all of their functions to
> MacOS has not been realized.

Not yet.  If Apple continues to hit home runs[0] with their OS, and they
continue to price their systems within some margin of Dell (complicated by
the fact that Apple's product line and Dell's are not congruent), they'll
continue to win people over.  I know more people going Mac than going
back.

> If Apple wants to be continue being a computer company it will have to
> split off of the iPhone, etc company.

I don't think that would hurt either side of the company, really.  The
iPhone and iPod family are great products capable of standing on their
own; so is the Macintosh.

> Wall Street is too busy panicing about the free fall in stock prices,
> mostly caused by the panic about the free fall of stock prices, to
> think.

I can't help but laugh.  Wall Street is what happens when the marketing
phenomenon of "breathing your own exhaust" is taken to its most illogical
extreme.  And companies actually base their future efforts on what these
traders and analysts want to happen?  It's amazing America is in business
at all, anymore.

Me?  I'm glad I invested in land.  I'm not going to be ploughing my field
and find out I have junk mortgages instead of rich black Texas soil out
there.

> Personally, I think this will be good for startups.

Financial cataclysm always is.  The best time for hard-working folks is
when times are tough.


[0] for most folks.  Every time I launch into a screaming rant about how
     Leopard is a steaming pile, I say that knowing full-well that I am
     likely not the target market.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke | "There is more to life than increasing its speed."
Elgin, TX         |                                   --Mahatma Gandhi
USA               |