[Leica] Re: OT - Apple comments

[Godfrey DiGiorgi <ramarren@bayarea.net>]

I won't belabor the question of Mr. Gates' "marketing genius" with long 
elaboration of the Justice Department findings on how Microsoft 
Corporation has achieved much of their wealth. Suffice it to say that Mr. 
Gates is more a skilled business player, learned in Tsung Tzu's "Art of 
War" than a marketing genius.

>A little objectivity here, please? I, too, plan on getting a G4 one
>of these days for my PhotoShop work. But 5 percent of the market is not
>"back from the dead." Apple could have been where Microsoft is today - had
>they had Gates marketing genius. Instead, they are "back from the dead" as a
>boutique manufacturer.

To correct the misstatement quoted above: 
Apple Computer's market penetration is more like 12-15% of the 
marketplace (we have over 60% of new computer sales in the consumer 
market space in Japan right now with the iMac and iBook; the iBook is 
currently the best selling laptop in the US and possibly the world 
according to the independent sales reports in the financial papers this 
past Wednesday). Apple's stock price, long undervalued, closed Thursday 
at about 110 (10 points higher than Microsoft at present), and is rated a 
buy by most of the stock market analysts and brokerages. The Power 
Macintosh G4 computers are the fastest, most powerful computers in the 
price class in the world, rated by PC Magazine and other independent 
testers on Intel's benchmarks. The PowerBook G3/400 is also the most 
powerful laptop computer in the world presently, rated by the same 
standards. 

These are not the signs of a "boutique manufacturer".

Godfrey