IP: Changes at Apple -- from Dave Winer

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

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Amusing Rants from Dave Winer's Desktop
Released on 3/14/97; 1:33:26 PM PST
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  I just got off the phone with Guerrino De Luca, deluca () apple com,
  vice-president of marketing at Apple Computer. At 1:30PM Pacific,
  forty-five minutes from now as I write this, after the stock market
  closes, Apple will announce changes in their product strategy and
  changes in the Apple organization.


  I was not given the number of people who would be laid off, or the
  financial charge that the company would take for the restructuring.
  Details will be on the website, address at the bottom of this email. I
  agreed to a one hour embargo, so that's how much time I have to get this
  piece together. More real-time web writing. OK.


  First I'll transcribe the notes from my conversation, and raise a few
  questions about the future, some of which De Luca answered and some
  which need to be answered next week as the dust settles from the
  announcement.


  Apple will focus in the following areas, according to De Luca: great
  PCs, great OSes, plug and play, ease of use, multimedia, and the
  Internet. The goal is to reduce costs and be more effective in
  communicating what Apple stands for.


  Previously Apple had 22 marketing organizations, after the reorg
  they will have a single marketing organization. Before the reorg,
  Apple had six business units for the Macintosh, after the reorg they
  will have one.


  The result will be a streamlined product line, across all price
  points. The Performa line will disappear. This brand-name,
  according to De Luca, resulted from the need of a separate
  profit-center/marketing organization to have a separate
  identity. After the reorg, there will be a single product --
  Macintosh.


  In April, Apple will introduce a new entry-level Macintosh. That's
  what they'll call it. No more Performa name.


  Mac OS 8 will ship in July. They are abandoning the idea of a
  twice-yearly OS release schedule. The next release after the 8.0
  release will be called 9.0, its code name is Allegro.


  Apple is going to stop development in several OS technology areas.
  These include OpenDoc, CyberDog, Open Transport, Games Sprockets,
  Mac OS Development Tools, speech technology and
  videoconferencing. AIX, Apple's implementation of Unix, will be
  frozen at version 4.1.5.


  These technologies will continue to ship with the operating system,
  but will not be enhanced. Bug fixes and minor performance
  improvements will happen.


  De Luca said that scripting is essential to the publishing industry,
  which is a key part of their Internet publishing strategy (I agree)
  and that the plans would be coordinated with developers, including
  my company, UserLand Software and our scripting environment,
  Frontier.


  Newton and Claris, separate business units, are unaffected by the
  restructuring. No layoffs in these organizations. No changes. This
  suggested to me that they may be planning to sell them off. I asked
  about it. "We're keeping all options open," De Luca said.


  That's the substance of the announcement. Now for a brief
  discussion.


  ***WebObjects is a mainframe


  I asked De Luca to help me understand the positioning of Next's
  WebObjects platform. My concern -- will WebSTAR and other server
  products, and the communities behind those products, have any
  reason to make the transition to the Next-authored operating
  system? His response: "WebObjects is a mainframe. The price is
  $25,000 per server."


  I wonder if the $25K price will be justified when the Next people
  discover how deep and powerful an enviroment the Mac web developer
  community has created.


  Last night I spent two hours discussing the future of the Macintosh
  web server platform with Chuck Shotton, cshotton () biap com, the
  lead developer of WebSTAR, which I think of as the core product in the
  Macintosh OS server environment. We're both still confused about
  how WebSTAR and its community will go forward.


  I asked De Luca the question about WebSTAR on Rhapsody. He said "We
  desperately want WebSTAR. WebObjects is not the end-all on the
  server side." I asked if he and the Next people in Apple were in
  agreement on this, and he said yes, they were.


  ***Clones


  I forgot to ask about clones, how Apple will compete with the products
  from PowerComputing, UMAX, Motorola and IBM and others. Reports in
  the trade weeklies say that Apple is changing the license pricing
  structure. I'm concerned that the choices, which have become an
  essential part of the Mac environment, will be lessened if this
  happens. I'll look for more information on this next week.


  ***Compare Mac to Windows


  "Mac is better than Windows," he said. "You know that."


  I actually say something different. The Mac is not Windows and
  Windows is not Mac.


  Highlighting the differences is good for the platform. Going
  head-on is not.


  ***What about the Internet?


  "Mac is bigger than the Internet."


  I don't agree, but I understand why De Luca may feel this way. No doubt
  in his world Mac *is* bigger. But my view changed dramatically in mid
  1994. I see myself as a net developer. I do a lot of work on the Mac
  platform, and have no regrets about that choice.


  ***Other stories


  We're almost finished with our coverage of InternetWorld live from
  the Apple booth. There's a pointer at the bottom of this emai. Some
  great stuff.


  An interview with musician Thomas Dolby. Photos from the show floor.
  A fantastic collaboration between a lot of interesting
  technologies.


  There will be more to say when the dust settles, but the moon mission
  thing happened, lots more stuff is possible now, but comments and new
  software will necessarily wait till we get home and regain
  perspective.


  Still diggin!


  Dave Winer


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