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Apple Businesses

A Look Back at Apple's 2003 404

Posted by CmdrTaco from the year-end-traditions dept.
Samvit writes "The end of the year is upon us, so it's naturally time for those retrospectives to start coming in. Ars Technica has a fantastic look back at Apple in 2003. 2003 was one of the biggest years for Apple, arguably the biggest in a very long time. Still, Ars is typically fair, so the author lays down not only the good in 2003, but also the bad and the ugly. There's a bit of prognostication going on too--a little something for everyone."
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A Look Back at Apple's 2003 More

A Look Back at Apple's 2003

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  • Huh? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Shky ( 703024 ) <shkyoleary&gmail,com> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:14PM (#7835481) Homepage Journal
    Didn't Apple die? Wait, that was BSD...

    I kid, of course..

  • Right Track (Score:2, Insightful)

    by qw(name) ( 718245 )
    Apple appears to be on the right track. Their problem is still expensive hardware but going to a Unix-based OS was insight indeed.

    If I had the money, I'd purchase a new G-5 dual cpu system.

    • Re:Right Track (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:31PM (#7835648)
      I have to admit, as a former apple hater, I spent an hour with a friend who has a new G5 and iPod. The G5 is slick, fast, has an OS I felt at home with in minutes, and just looks stunning. Price be damned, I'm buying one.

      I also criticized the iPod many times, for its battery life, my distrust of HD based players, and preferance for an iRiver over the iPod, based on cost alone. This one seduced me even quicker than the G5. Hunting through a music library that wasn't even my own was... wow!. I don't know if I can say the build quality is any higher than anything else out there, I didn't spend that much time around it, but if it was revealed that an iPod owner pays a pittance for hardware and hundreds of dollars for a wonderful interface, I would believe it.

      And I'd find it worth it. I've already ordered mine.

      • Re:Right Track (Score:5, Interesting)

        by qw(name) ( 718245 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:39PM (#7835720) Journal

        Money's money and if I don't have it then I don't get it. :-)

        But seriously, if the price were much lower then I probably would splurge for one.

        At a Perl conference last year, I'd say the vast majority of laptops were Macs running OS X. That is saying a lot!

        • Re:Right Track (Score:3, Informative)

          by Frymaster ( 171343 )
          But seriously, if the price were much lower...

          well, you can at least pick up the new "mini-ipod". only 65 pounds sterling... (source is here [thisislondon.co.uk])

      • Re:Right Track (Score:3, Insightful)

        by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 )
        I have to admit, as a former apple hater, I spent an hour with a friend who has a new G5 and iPod. The G5 is slick, fast, has an OS I felt at home with in minutes, and just looks stunning. Price be damned, I'm buying one.

        I'm torn between wanting the speed of a G5 and the portability of a Powerbook G4. Both would probably end up costing about $2500-$3000 configured at the midrange with decent specs. Still, that's a far cry from the $700 I could pick up an Athlon64 system for.

        • Re:Right Track (Score:2, Informative)

          by dcocos ( 128532 )
          I also used to think that Apples were overpriced until I stopped comparing apples to oranges (pun intendend).

          For example spec out a dual AMD system from penguin computing and a dual G5 system from Apple and you'll realize that the Apple is cheaper.
          On the notebook side I recently bought a Powerbook G4 (12 inch) when compared to a similar Dell (don't forget to throw in the cost of a DVD-Burner and Bluetooth) The Powerbook is also less expensive.

          I'm not sure about the low end pricing (you are probably able t

      • Re:Right Track (Score:2, Offtopic)

        by Simonetta ( 207550 )
        Hello,

        I dropped into an Apple store at the local mall for the first exposure to Apple products in five years. Very impressive: the monitors, the computers, and the store itself. All white and frosted glass and tons of recessed florescent white light. It was like a museum. I was very respectful.

        I haven't been trusting or interested in Apple since the RAM expansion debacle of 1984. [If your bought a 512K RAM expansion from Apple, it cost you $400+. If you bought the RAM chips yourself for $80 an

      • RE: Apple "haters" are quickly changing course... (Score:5, Interesting)

        by King_TJ ( 85913 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @03:35PM (#7837806) Journal
        I've been in the category of "Apple hater" for quite some time. (Yes, I did briefly go the Apple route, back in '96 or '97, when I started feeling like I really needed to give one a chance instead of bashing something I never even owned. After 3 months with that Performa 6400 tower, I was back to Apple bashing, and unloaded the system A.S.A.P.!)

        Well, 2003 has been the year that turned me around! Money has been pretty tight for me throughout this year, but I somehow managed to borrow and scrape up enough money to get a dual 2.0Ghz G5 tower, a Powerbook 15" laptop, 40GB iPod *and* iSight camera. So as you can see, I've VERY MUCH bought into the new Apple product line!

        Here's the thing. I've been working in computers and I.T. for almost 14 years now. I can't remember the last time a new computer and/or OS offering really excited me since my first Timex/Sinclair 1000, and my Tandy Color Computer 2 and 3 I owned after that.

        (Well, ok - I was pretty thrilled when OS/2 Warp and eventually 4.0 came out - but IBM quickly put a damper on that enthusiasm, with their horrible marketing of the OS.)

        This year, Apple has brought out what I consider the near perfect OS, the near-perfect laptop to run it on, and an amazing desktop system to run it on. The iPod speaks for itself, and the iSight.... well, frankly, it's just an "impulse buy" because at $149, you may as well own a well-made camera that matches your multi-thousand dollar Mac systems.

        If there's one thing I can justify sinking my money in, it's computer technology. I use the stuff all day long and most evenings too. I make all my money from it. Why wouldn't I want to own hardware and software that impresses me and makes me proud, rather than the same old beige boxes everyone else uses?

        It appears it's not just me, either. Two of my ex co-workers from a previous I.T. job both made the switch to Macs and OS X this year - and both would have NEVER considered an Apple system before. (I had no say in their decisions either. I was shocked to hear they both had Macs now!)

        • I've been in the category of "Apple hater" for quite some time.

          I can't remember the last time a new computer and/or OS offering really excited me...(Well, ok - I was pretty thrilled when OS/2 Warp and eventually 4.0 came out...)

          Ha! You just described me! I could have easily been classified as an "Apple hater" as well, and still can't stand anything pre OS X for various reasons. I came across a good deal on a 600 mhz iBook about six months ago, and I figured "hey, I'm getting a good deal on a 12"

    • You're right on with the "expensive" comment. I used to use Macs in college and really liked them, but they're pretty dang expensive for what you actually get. If the price could push down into the PC category OR (like we used to) I could build my own on the cheap, I'd definitely get back into them especially for music production.
    • With hardware, you get what you pay for. As aqn example, the eMac may be $800, but it's also the sturdiest all-in-one out there and I'll frankly be disappointed if there aren't any in service in eight years.

    • Re:Right Track (Score:3, Interesting)

      by rixstep ( 611236 )
      I think Apple are close to being on the right track, but otherwise I have to disagree. Apple are not expensive. Others are too cheap. They attract the price-conscious and cut corners on production. Economics 101. Then your Gateway falls apart, and what does that tell you? Worse: I've seen useless Gateway laptops that cost a lot more than almost anything Apple had to offer at the time, laptops that couldn't even work as advertised - and in the showroom. No, I will take quality any day, and if quality costs a

  • Stock price (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:15PM (#7835500)
    is up over 20% from may's @ $15 to $25

    so iam sure they are pleased, lets hope they keep it going
  • but don't look back on SCO's year, or you'll turn into a pillar of salt.

    • Re:looking back on Apple is fine (Score:4, Funny)

      by mhore ( 582354 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:24PM (#7835594)
      but don't look back on SCO's year, or you'll turn into a pillar of salt.

      I don't think we're allowed to look back on SCO's year. That is their IP, I believe. They may be offering licenses to do that, though, at US$1599.00 per eyeball.

      Mike.

    • YOu CAN'T look back on SCO's year without in some way incorporating their IP in the article. Doing so means that SCO owns the article and thus the website it's published on, the servers that run the website, and so forth.

      Nobody in their right mind would risk doing a look back at SCO's year article.

  • Very interesting (Score:5, Funny)

    by downix ( 84795 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:18PM (#7835529) Homepage
    This is also the first year that Apple has had some real competition in the PowerPC market since the 90's. Genesi's Pegasos I and II along with Eyetechs AmigaONE motherboards shipped in volume this past year, giving Apple something to directly threaten their position, even in a very remote manner.

  • Applause (Score:5, Interesting)

    by blackmonday ( 607916 ) * on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:21PM (#7835560) Homepage
    Apple has not been completely succesful this year, but who can deny that it is the most ambitious computer maker? Apple constantly pushes the envelope forward with newer features (FW 800, bluetooth, 17 inch laptop), and the rest of the pack try to clone their offerings in a Windows world. When's the last time Apple had to copy a Dell or Gateway design to stay current?

    I actually think next year will be even more interesting, as Apple pursues their music / video strategy. There's rumors of a Pro Tools killer on the way. Go Apple!

    • Re:Applause (Score:5, Informative)

      by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:30PM (#7835640) Homepage Journal
      Apple constantly pushes the envelope forward with newer features (FW 800, bluetooth, 17 inch laptop), and the rest of the pack try to clone their offerings in a Windows world.

      Not only these products, but we have Apple to thank for Firewire, being the first to install built in networking in their computers, the first to include CD-ROM drives in computers, the first to include GUI in consumer computers, the first to include plug and play hardware configuration (remember setting all those damn switches when installing hardware cards?), the first to include color support in their computers, their first to......well, you get the idea. One could go on and on here, but I agree. If any company has been responsible for driving growth in the personal computing market, it has certainly been Apple.

      • Re:Applause (Score:2, Informative)

        by Piquan ( 49943 )

        the first to include color support in their computers,

        If you're talking about the Mac, then perhaps you've forgotten CGA and EGA. If you're talking about the Apple ][, then you're pretty much right: Apple was the first to build color capabilities into a complete, ready-to-use home computer-- but they were the first ones to build a complete, ready-to-use home computer, so I don't the the color capabilities are the significant part.

        • If you're talking about the Mac perhaps you've forgotten the Amiga and the AtariST. Both of those had color by default in their most earliest incarnations (1985). Back when PCs were mono-green and macs were B&W.

      • Re:Applause (Score:5, Informative)

        by Frymaster ( 171343 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:55PM (#7835886) Homepage Journal
        my favourite "firsts" for apple:

        1984: first to include 3.5" floppies
        1998: first to ship a machine without a 3.5" floppy

      • Yes, Apple was a pioneer in bringing innovation to the masses, but not everything on that list can be attributed to Apple.

        Macs may have been the first that could be bought with an integrated CDROM (I can't say either way) but my first encounter with a CDROM was on PC based hardware (a big external SCSI-based beast that ran at 1x speed--same RPM as audio CD players if I recall) and those 3DO boxes were early examples of non-audio CD applications in the consumer market.

        Apple was also most definitely NOT the
        • Hobbyists and engineers could much better appreciate and understand the Apple ][ and if one so wished he could engineer his own fancy graphics and sound boards as it had a proper expansion bus and internal slots

          Also, each Apple ][ came with complete schematics and diagrams showing the design. Talk about open source! I remember thinking how cool it was that I could simply build my own if I wanted or build cool light boxes driven by my computer or make a robot with my Apple ][ as the brains (the mind of a

      • Don't forget USB (Score:5, Informative)

        by BandwidthHog ( 257320 ) <inactive.slashdo ... icallyenough.com> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @02:58PM (#7837346) Homepage Journal
        It's an Intel technology, but its uptake was pathetic until the iMac brought it to the masses.

  • What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GeckoFood ( 585211 ) <geckofood@nosPAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:22PM (#7835571) Journal

    As I read through the article, I saw lots of ooh's and aah's over the cool toys and services they are offering, as well as the integration to certain systems. The iTunes service was acknowledged as their biggest gainer.

    Ok, so they have all of this cool technology and neat services. So, now what? How are they working to increase market share and compete with the Wintel market? It's one thing to shore up the market you have, but when that market is relatively small, that leaves one to wonder how to expand. What do they intend to do about a limited market share? The article does not say that. iTunes might be making money for them now, but how will they keep it on top with new competitors emerging?

    • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by GoofyBoy ( 44399 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:55PM (#7835894) Journal
      There are two ways to go about doing business.

      You can be the big, for-the-masses, beat-them-with-price company. Examples of these are Wal-Mart and McDonalds.

      You can be the small, speciality, beat-them-with-loyalty/quality company. Examples of these are Gucci and Apple.

      As long as they steadly increase profit each year, why should Apple change their ways?
      • You can be the small, speciality, beat-them-with-loyalty/quality company.

        Apple is squandering both, by screwing their own loyal customer-base with lack of support [macworld.com] (to force upgrades) and products that are grossly overpriced and simply don't last (re: the older 5 gig ipods in particular have a terminal problem with the rechargable batteries [macworld.com]).

        That's two (possible) class action lawsuits from Apple's own hardcore users!

    • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Frymaster ( 171343 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:57PM (#7835911) Homepage Journal
      How are they working to increase market share

      and market share is important because why?

      the goal of apple is to be a successful, profitable company - not to "beat" windows. bmw and mercedes-benz are successful car companies. and you don't hear the shareholders whining that they're not beating ford on the market shart front...

      • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by sbma44 ( 694130 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @01:22PM (#7836202)
        marketshare *is* essential. It puts you in control of your own destiny. You don't have to have >50%, just a competitive share.

        Interoperability is essential for computing. It's like language: english may not be the most efficient thing we could use on slashdot, but interoperability is the deciding factor.

        Given that, if you only have 5 or 10% of the market, you will always be at the big guy's anticompetitive whim as they decide on some new proprietary standard that locks you out. Then you suffer losses for 12 months until the courts tell them to stop.

        Apple doesn't have to be bigger than MS, just big enough that MS has to ensure they're products work with apple, the way apple has to be sure their products work with MS.

        • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:4, Interesting)

          by soft_guy ( 534437 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @07:56PM (#7840699)
          As Linux gains marketshare, Microsoft will be forced to lower prices on their cash cow products - Office and Windows. As they do this, they get squeezed because all of their other products such as MSN and xBox, and others are real dogs - consistently loosing money. This will quickly put Microsoft up against a wall. Apple, on the other hand, will be able compete against Linux based on quality and a better user experience (i.e. being at the cutting edge). There will always be room for Apple in the PC market if they keep doing what they are doing. But will there be room for MS? How will they compete against Linux? Sue everyone? Continue to release insane and nonsensical position papers?

    • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ScottGant ( 642590 ) <scott_gant@sbcgloba l . n etNOT> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:58PM (#7835931) Homepage
      How are they working to increase market share and compete with the Wintel market?

      Perhaps they're not even trying to compete anymore. I mean, they've shown they can co-exist with other computers in the world. I know many people that have both systems at home and work with both systems at work. It's no longer a "one or the other" problem for people. They've been going and going and going for decades. Decades! They may not have huge marketshare, but they're also not trying to take over the entire market like other companies.

      Perhaps it's Nash's Equalibrium at work? Just a thought

    • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by tbone1 ( 309237 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:59PM (#7835936) Homepage
      This is a legitimate question, and the honest answer is "I don't know". I don't think anyone outside of Apple knows. However, they have been positioning themselves for a big strike at market share; certainly they are better poised for that now than, say, five years ago. In fact, one never know about this. When the iPod was introduced, I yawned like most people. Now I own one, wish I'd gotten a bigger one, and it is proving to be a "killer app" on the hardware side, when coupled with iTunes. That combination allowed them to create and dominate a market, pay for downloadable music. (Admittedly, it's still early for that market, but still.) That may be levereged for other things; who knows?

      I will say this, from what I've seen Apple has the infrastructure and processes in place to make that strike, which I didn't see them having in years past.

    • Re:What about their bottom-line strategy? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by droleary ( 47999 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @01:05PM (#7836011) Homepage

      The iTunes service was acknowledged as their biggest gainer.

      Kinda hard for that not to be the case: they sold an infinitely larger percentage of music this year compared to last. :-)

      How are they working to increase market share and compete with the Wintel market?

      What makes you think they have to? It's like you're saying that BMW needs to compete with Toyota's numbers for "road share". Apple makes a profit and does so while innovating ahead of the curve. With that business plan, they'll be around for a long, long time.

      It's one thing to shore up the market you have, but when that market is relatively small, that leaves one to wonder how to expand. What do they intend to do about a limited market share?

      Now you're just being moronic. The reality is the exact opposite of what you suggest. Apple is a success with 5% of the market; it has 95% of its potential market untapped. Microsoft has 90% of the market; it has just 10% of a potential market left. If you need to worry about how any company can capture a larger marketshare, worry about MS.

    • I'd say the cool toys are helping with that. Prior to OS X, I hated Apple. I still hate pre-OS X apple products. Then 10.2 came out. Then they released the 17" Powebook. I had to buy one, and I did. Then I saw an iPod, and drooled, and bought one. Then the G5 came out, and I bought a dual 2GHz G5 and a 20" Cinema Display (which I'm using right now...gorgeous). So, looking back and 2003, Apple got me, a life-long Mac hater, to buy a 17" PowerBook, a 15GB iPod, and a dual 2GHz G5 with a 20" CD. Not b
    • Maybe it is my fault for reading the article but:

      The iTunes service was acknowledged as their biggest gainer.

      Is clearly false. From the article:

      In Apple's annual analyst conference call, Jobs admitted that iTMS was a loss leader [arstechnica.com] for them. Apple's goal in getting into the music business is to sell more iPods.

      Apple only offers the iTMS to sell iPods, the number 1 selling mp3 player. Apple takes a loss on the service to make up the money on the iPods. Also the iPod is Apple's venture into the consum
    • How are they working to increase market share and compete with the Wintel market? ... What do they intend to do about a limited market share?

      Ah, yes. The old "market share" argument.

      That's why Porche, Leica, Gucci, Hummer, Rolex, et. al. are all going out of business. That's why rich people buy posters at Wall-Mart instead of original art or even (gasp!) pseudo-originals like Thomas Kinkaid reproductions. That's why there are no houses on the market over about $250,000 or so. That's why fine dining has go

  • G5! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by BWJones ( 18351 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:24PM (#7835586) Homepage Journal
    I must say the biggest deal for Apple this year has been the advent of the G5 with significant help from IBM. Throughout the G4's life, I had been a supporter of Apple and in particular OS X because of the efficiencies that the OS provides. However, in raw number crunching power, the G4 simply did not scale in performance leaving me to do much of my hard core scientific computing on Intel or AMD hardware. However, now we have G5's, there is simply no comparison. I can now have the most efficient OS and the fastest CPU available in one platform. Apple needed the G5 and that I would say is the single biggest product Apple has come out with this year.

  • My problem with OSX (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Naomi_the_butterfly ( 707218 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:24PM (#7835589)
    My problem with OSX is it's lack of support for international application. I was recently in the US, and couldn't send email in Hebrew, because OSX didn't support it. Not only that, but it displayed hebrew webpages as gibberish. Now, I could figure out what to do to log into my webmail account from back home (Jerusalem), but I couldn't tell which form button was 'Clear' and which was 'Send' on the compose page!
    We actually paid for a call to mac tech support to get help, and after 20 mins on hold while the tech looked for a fix, nothing. In the end, after 5 hours of attempts, patch downloads etc, we just went to a library, and I had my email answered (in english, lol) within 15 mins (after a 20 min wait for a free machine, but still). There is a way to read the text in OS X, but it involves copy/pasting into a text editor, which wouldn't work for HTML forms, of course. which button was 'clear' and which was 'send'? I found out the hard way 3 times. Now that I read more of your message, I realize you said Hebrew 'might not work'. oops! This seems wierd to me, as a very high percent of israeli homes have computers, and there (used to be) a small but decent mac market here. Strangely, it died a bit after the release of OS X, as I recall. I wonder why...
    I also know for a fact that many middle eastern languages have the same problems in OS X, though certainly not all.

    That's a major fix Mac will need to make if it ever plans to get popular with businesspeople on an international scale (and on a major level, even on a domestic scale).

    • OS X claims pretty good "internationalization" (Score:5, Informative)

      by ianscot ( 591483 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:42PM (#7835751)
      I've seen people using the OS to browse and do basic office stuff in Japanese, anyway, in OS X -- they were using what (scrounging on Apple's site) Apple seems to call the "advanced predictive input method for typing, which guesses which character you want based on context." Said it was handy.

      OS X claims to support:

      "localized versions of English, Japanese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Brazilian and Portuguese

      with broad support for:

      many additional languages, including Thai, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Cherokee, Hawaiian, Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Armenian, Russian and Greek"

      That would be the default install of 10.3. One of the intall disks for Panther is basically full of the international options; lots of users turn it off when they do the install, to save space on their hard drives.

      • OS X has excellent Asian language support. More specifically, I should say that I use Japanese and Traditional and Simplified Chinese. I run my system entirely in Japanese, and can switch between Japanese and Chinese inputs on the fly in any app with ease. The only apps that have problems are poorly ported ones (*cough* MS Office *cough*).
    • This sounds like more a problem with Mac Internet Explorer than with the platform itself. Hebrew and other middle-eastern languages display fine in Mozilla with no tweaking or additional installs required. I believe the same is true for Safari, and maybe there's some setting that would make IE do it as well.

      That's a major fix Mac will need to make if it ever plans to get popular with businesspeople on an international scale (and on a major level, even on a domestic scale).

      This issue aside --yeah, there's

    • Re:My problem with OSX (Score:5, Informative)

      by imadork ( 226897 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:46PM (#7835800) Homepage
      The lack of Hebrew support is a well-known "bug" in IE (and apparently most of Microsoft's Mac products). The Register has been following it for some time, I found a good article here [theregister.co.uk].

    • My problem with OSX is it's lack of support for international application. I was recently in the US, and couldn't send email in Hebrew, because OSX didn't support it.

      I am a bit confused by parts of your post which application you were using, but OS X definitely supports Hebrew. TextEdit, which comes with OS X, provides strongly Hebrew support for writing documents, and if you want a stronger solution, Mellel [redlex.com] is a superb application developed in Tel Aviv that not only supports numerous RTL languages includ

    • Re:My problem with OSX (Score:4, Informative)

      by afantee ( 562443 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @07:27PM (#7840450)
      Actually OS X has much better international support than Windows. It works perfectly with Chinese out of the box, both for display and input. Some third party app (such as IE) may not have the correct UI for every language, but every single Apple I tried has Chinese interface, including Mail, Finder, Address Book, iMovie, iTunes, iCal, iChat AV, TextEdit, even Terminal.

  • I recall.. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Guano_Jim ( 157555 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:24PM (#7835590)
    My head of IT stating that "Apple will be out of business by Christmas."

    That was in 1997.

    As long as Apple keeps innovating and forcing everyone else to play catch-up, they'll stay in business for many Christmases to come.

    One thing Apple has done well is pushing UNIX to the next-level down user, people that might not ordinarily touch the command line.

    Since I started working with OSX, I've gotten much more used to dropping into the Terminal to do stuff. It started with ls -aR and now I'm grepping ifconfig to determine my MAC address. It's fun.

    Thank you, Apple, for bringing out the inner Unix sysadmin in me. Now all I have to do is grow my hair long again.

    • Re:I recall.. (Score:3, Interesting)

      by AKnightCowboy ( 608632 )
      My head of IT stating that "Apple will be out of business by Christmas."

      That was in 1997.

      Actually if Jobs hadn't taken over the company again and resurrected Apple with the iMac that may very well have been a true statement. Apple's management was piss-poor on 1997 if I remember correctly. I'm amazed they weathered 10 years of horrible products and a massive egress of users to the Wintel platform as well as they did.

      Still, I won't be buying anything from Apple until Macworld in January.. hopefully

  • The Panther is hungry (Score:4, Funny)

    by burgburgburg ( 574866 ) <splisken06@@@email...com> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:26PM (#7835601)
    It can't wait to go hunting after that long delayed Longhorn.

    Fortunately for all of us, it lives in peace with the penguins and daemons of the wild.

  • iPhoto performance? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:27PM (#7835610) Journal
    The ugly: iPhoto performance with large photo libraries

    That's their gripe on the software front? I'd say _THE_ single biggest screwup for 2003 was destructive software upgrades. The number one selling point for Apple is that things just work and you don't need to worry about them. Whatever they've been doing for QA on their upgrades, it needs to be massively revamped.

    • I thought there was only one "bad" upgrade. Was it 10.2.6? It got removed immediately and reverse-patched. It was bad, but it was only one incident, and it wasn't like it was terminal cancer or anything.

  • The good news! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:30PM (#7835641)
    Great article.. But no matter what, I am happy with... My iPod ... My preeecioussssss...

  • Beatles-Apple lawsuit (Score:2, Interesting)

    by IgD ( 232964 )
    Curious how there is no mention of the Beatles-Apple lawsuit in the piece. It has been covered on Slashdot previously: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=03/09/11/ 232230&mode=thread&tid=107&tid=141&tid=187&tid=188 . In a nutshell, the Beatles Apple Corp. and Apple Computer had an agreement where Apple Computer would never get in the music business. It seems Apple has blatantly violated this and wants to give the Beatles free money.

  • Apple has brought us to a new Era (Score:5, Funny)

    by morelife ( 213920 ) <f00fbug@post[ ]O ... t ['REM' in gap]> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:41PM (#7835737)
    Fire, The Wheel, The Industrial Age, Xanadu, The Information Age, and finally, in 2004, the Brushed Metal Age.

  • One missing adjective... (Score:5, Funny)

    by One Louder ( 595430 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:42PM (#7835742)
    This is probably the first year in decades where the press hasn't automatically prepended "beleaguered" in front of any mention of Apple. This is most likely thanks to the success of iPod and iTMS that the press simply couldn't ignore - Apple needs to totally dominate a market to be considered successful by the media, whereas other companies merely have to stay in business.

    If there's any merging catch phrase this year, it's probably the use of "embattled" and "under siege" to describe Microsoft's ongoing war with Linux and security problems. You'll probably also begin to see the use of "oft-delayed" to describe Longhorn pretty soon.

  • 12" powerbook (Score:4, Interesting)

    by OmniVector ( 569062 ) <see my homepage> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:42PM (#7835745) Homepage
    This was a huge year for apple, for us linux geeks.

    Jaguar got me hooked on the OS, but the hardware was lacking. The 12" powerbook is what has finally hooked a lot of my friends (almost 5 that i can count now) as the first affordable powerbook.
    • From the article: The largest complaint about the mini AlBook was heat. There was lots of it.

      But it was never any problem for me... however Apple recently released a battery update for it to make it run cooler. Well, it does, but now I do have a problem: the fscking noise, when fan is running most of the time, although quite slowly, but still. (It starts every time the temp will rise over 52 degrees C, and won't stop until it has fallen back below 47 - the pre-update numbers were 64 and 59.)

      Previously,
      • Yes, i have this problem. It's not the battery update that caused it, but 10.3.2. The complaints for the 12" 867 powerbook's heat were so widespread that apple lowered the temperature at which the fans activate. you can fix this, if you like, by downloading Silent Night [versiontracker.com] at version tracker. I personally don't mind, since my powerbook's never hot anymore and the battery doesn't seem to be affected by it much either (which to me is more important than noise).
    • the real test is if they are still your friends next year.

  • Can they keep it up? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mr_lithic ( 563105 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:53PM (#7835869) Homepage Journal
    Apple has been here before. The history of the Apple is one of dramatic rise and crushing fall. They seem to do this more than your average corporation. This is so common that the "Death of Apple" has been one of the most-overused bylines in the computing press.

    I would like them to continue but they need to stay on the edge and that is a very risky place to be.

    I am just glad that they are currently on the safe side of the edge. Too often in the past, it has looked like they were about to disappear forever.

    • The history of the Apple is one of dramatic rise and crushing fall. They seem to do this more than your average corporation.

      Let's count. I remember one fall: the Gil Amelio days, before the age of iMac. And the rise happened right after when Jobs took over.

      Is this your history of rise and fall? Am I forgetting some? You make Apple sound like a goddamn yo-yo dieter.

      • Re:Can they keep it up? (Score:4, Informative)

        by soft_guy ( 534437 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @08:20PM (#7840911)
        Yes, you are forgetting several.

        Rise: Apple II
        Fall: Apple III

        (Some doubted Apple could survive this flop.)

        Rise: Apple IIe
        Fall: Lisa

        (I seem to recall the press having a field day with this one.)

        Rise: Mac
        Fall: Mac (sales stagnated after about 90 days.)
        Massive bad times and predictions of Apple's demise: 1985 - 1987

        Rise: Mac II
        Good times!

        Fall: Introduction of Windows 3.1
        Massive predictions that it was the death of Apple.

        Rise: PowerBooks introduced - Apple, a latecomer to the world of laptop computers takes it by storm and becomes #1 in portable computers

        Fall: Lead up to and launch of Windows 95
        Although Apple had its best year ever in 1995, the press started (continued) a drumbeat of noise about the Death of Apple.

        1995 - 1997 Bad Times. After outsting Sculley, Apple's board struggles to find someone who can build Apple's marketshare - or else sell Apple to Sun or whoever. Eventually they succeed in sacrificing profits for Marketshare, bringing on a massive crisis.

        1998 Steve Jobs returns, fires Apple's board, rebuilds company, correcting the massive mistake Apple made in 1985 by firing him and going with Sculley.

  • An alternative to Longhorn...today (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Junks Jerzey ( 54586 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @12:58PM (#7835921)
    At the moment, no, there's no reason for Microsoft to be worried. Well, except that Windows virii have gotten so bad that the typical Dell purchaser will get nailed by several before Windows Update has finished running for the first time. But otherwise PCs are less expensive and generally much faster for the price.

    But lets look a few years down the road. The next update to Windows is a huge one. Microsoft is essentially switching to a .net-based OS, and changing lots of core components at the same time. And the minimum system requirements are going way up. None of the Longhorn features are battle proven yet. It will be a long time before we know how it will hold up.

    On the flipside, the Mac already based on proven UNIX technology and security. The GUI is fully hardware accelerated. The core CPU line looks to be in a much better position for moving forward in performance (Intel has been very vocal about the power issues they're running into), and PowerPC's run cooler, which is getting to be an important issue.

    All told, I can see a lot of people jumping ship to Apple in the next few years, especially if the hardware and OS X improvements continue at the rate they have been.

    • Its the Apps... (Score:2, Insightful)

      by C. Alan ( 623148 )

      On the flipside, the Mac already based on proven UNIX technology and security. The GUI is fully hardware accelerated. The core CPU line looks to be in a much better position for moving forward in performance (Intel has been very vocal about the power issues they're running into), and PowerPC's run cooler, which is getting to be an important issue

      My impression is that Apple hardware is more stable becauset they have maintained more control over the hardware. My first computer was a Mac 512, way back in the

    • Re:An alternative to Longhorn...today (Score:4, Insightful)

      by the_rev_matt ( 239420 ) <slashbot AT revmatt DOT com> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @02:55PM (#7837307) Homepage
      I've been hearing the "PCs are cheaper" argument since the early 90's at least. One problem: It's never been true. Sure, you can buy a PC for less than you can buy a Mac. But you cannot buy a PC of *comparable quality* for significantly less.

      After college I sold computers for a few months at Good Guys. The was when the pentium processor was first introduced. A decent IBM (actual IBM, not a cheap crappy clone) was about $1400. A comparable Performa was about $1600. But the Performa came with a nice monitor, which was worth about $200. Gee, same price after all. You could pick up a Packard Bell for 1100, but they were pure garbage and got returned as defective more often than not.

      These days you can buy a low-end computer for as little as $200 from Wal-Mart. By this logic, no one should ever buy a Dell or Gateway, because they cost more than the Wal-Mart PC. It's cheaper for a reason. Try it yourself. Look at the specs for an iMac or eMac and then spec out a Dell or Gateway of comparable power and quality parts. I doubt you'll find a difference of more than a few tens of dollars.

  • I predict (Score:3, Insightful)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportlandNO@SPAMyahoo.com> on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @01:00PM (#7835949) Homepage Journal
    a lot of bussiness advice from unemployeed hacks.
    example:
    1) They've got to go after wintel!
    2) They should only focus on software!
    3) Sure there good now, but what about the FUUTUUURE!

    blah blah blah.

    Don't give business advice to a company that has 8% of the computer market.

    I'm sick of this, and I don't even use a MAC.
  • What does apple do best? Design. It specializes in excellent, intuitive software and superb design on its hardware. What doesn't it do well? Produce PC hardware that is a good value for the money. Okay, I know they subcontract this stuff out, and I anticipate plenty of flames about how fast apple's processors are. I admit this. The G5 is very nice.

    I am willing to admit that apple's top offering is generally neck-and-neck with the fastest x86 of the world. This may or may not be technically accurate,

    • Re:apple should get out of the PC business (Score:5, Insightful)

      by presearch ( 214913 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @01:37PM (#7836394)
      Although this has been beaten to death, let me take a quick whack once again.

      x86 OS X makes little sense. PC people just want cheap compatibility with other
      cheap Windows compatible people and workplaces.

      Apple would sell less boxes if all they could compete on was design.
      They would eat up any profit by attempting compatibility with the umpteen
      billion PCI cards out there. Any profit that would be left would be eaten up by
      dummies asking why the Windows game they bought doesn't work.

      Slashdot would be full of comments on how you should just run Windows
      instead of the emulation layer.

      Current users of Mac stuff would have no end of fat binary grief.
      All Mac developers would have to ship fat binaries and double
      the support load in addition to the size of the distribution.

      Things are fine they way they are for now. Let x86 die the quiet death it deserves.
      And Windows with it.

    • Re:apple should get out of the PC business (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JeffTL ( 667728 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @02:05PM (#7836748)
      What you fail to understand is that well-designed, quality Apple hardware is at least half of the reason people buy Macs. I bought an iBook because all the other low-end affordable laptops look like junk in comparison, and frankly, before that day I'd never actually owned a Mac, or used one in a truly heavy manner. I heard that OS X was better than XP, and was a Unix so the command line would more or less feel like the Linux I know and love, but mainly I wanted a nice, small lightweight laptop with a good battery and a price tag fitting of its capabilities. As of today, Gateway doesn't even make 12" laptops (they made a $1600 or somesuch at the time) and neither does Dell or HP/CPQ. When you are moving around a university campus with a bunch of textbooks (that are, shall we say, lightweight in content alone if at all and plenty bulky), you don't want to also carry a 15" computer.

    • Re:apple should get out of the PC business (Score:4, Insightful)

      by tgd ( 2822 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @02:09PM (#7836786)
      This is real simple, for the 10,000th time its been stated on here.

      Apple writes an OS to put on its hardware. It makes its money on the hardware. There's no reason for it to run its OS on anything else, because its not in business to sell software.

      Its identical to Apple selling music to get people to buy iPods. Apple isn't in business to sell music, they're business to sell hardware.

      They always have, and very likely they always will.
    • What doesn't it do well? Produce PC hardware that is a good value for the money.

      I call troll. Apple's hardware is a good value for the money and it pretty much always has been at least since I've been using Macintosh (since 1993 - prior to that I was using Atari).

      The advice you are giving Apple is to commit suicide.

      Don't believe me? It right out of the BeOS playbook. Microsoft can effectively kill any non-free OS competition at will by threatening the OEMs.

      If Apple stopped designing and building h

  • Logic Board Failure (Score:4, Informative)

    by mooredav ( 101800 ) on Tuesday December 30, 2003 @01:22PM (#7836214)

    A distressingly large number of iBook owners have suffered logic board failures.

    Yes, indeed. My own iBook died 13 months after I purchased it -- just one month after the warranty expired. I brought it to my local Apple store. They told me that it would cost over $700 for a new logic board. At the time, laptops similar to mine were selling for just $900 on eBay.

    I refused to pay for it. I told the manager that I'd replace it with a PC. That was no bullshit... I was really prepared to do exactly that. However, she gave me a phone number to call. I guess it was their pissed-off-customer hotline. After some discussion with the phone rep, he agreed to cut the price down to about the cost of the AppleCare plan. So I bought the repair.

    The repair was nice and easy. Less than 72 hours after I put my iBook in the mail, I got it back. Still works great today -- over 15 months since it was fixed. With service like that, I almost forgot any bad words that I ever said about Apple.

  • Unseen pitfalls (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dynamicfigure ( 648260 )
    Granted Apple has had a great year. Many converts (including myself) and cool new products. Having recently jumped on the Apple bandwagon though I find that everyone likes to be a cheerleader for the company. Few users and fans ever point out some glaringly obvious downfalls of using Apple products.

    First and foremost in my mind is an unbelievably shoddy quality control system for new software releases. The much-touted new operating system Panther created about as many problems for its users as it has n
    • I've never had one of those problems mentioned, because I did an Archive install for Panther - and before that I always used upgrade and never had issues. Sure if you look on a support board you are going to see a lot of wierd things but that does not men it's the predominant user experience.

      I even had that "cursed" 10.2.8 upgrade installed and didn't have problems with that!! I think a poll on MacSlash revealed that not many people had issues with it.

      I have to admit the FW800/HD bug was pretty evil tho
  • So, did anyone else read through the threads [apple.com] about noise issues on the G5? I don't have one (just my blueberry iBook which refuses to die or become useless, damnit!) so I can't reproduce the issue or fiddle with it, but it was interesting to note that there were two distinct issues:
    1. Analog hissing/humming due to what is probably a ground loop [google.com] issue
    2. Firewire crackling / popping due to ???

    The analog issues can be contained with cabling and ground isolators, from the posts in the forums linked above. I'm
  • ...your competition [dell.com] is selling your products.

    Now, Dell may not be selling iPods anymore since they've debuted their metoo!Pod [dell.com]-- but Dell is, astonishingly, selling a variety of Macs to the NYC school system. [macslash.org] Talk about a bunch of whores who will do anything for a buck, huh? :-)

    ~Philly
    • Dell sells the Macs to the NYC schools because of the contract they hold. The deal is that all computers will be bought through Dell, however, if Dell cannot provide a computer the Schools want to buy(a Mac, for instance) then the contract is off. SO, Dell takes it's lumps, sells a few emacs and powermacs to the schools (+ a small % for profit) and happily sells the other 99% of the computers as Dell black box workstations like anything else...

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