President's Address

The Presidential Stream of Consciousness

February 2007

I would like to thank Mark and Andy for all their troubleshooting help at the last meeting. Mark spent almost the entire meeting helping a member connect to a new printer. He correctly diagnosed the problem and provided a solution. I can’t express my gratitude for all your help.

At last month’s meeting I mentioned that Steve Job’s machinations (pun fully intended) had finally accomplished his final goal. The complete destruction of Apple Computer. For those of you who aren’t sure what I’m talking about, an explanation is in order. At the January 9th MacWorld Keynote speech, Jobs announced the Apple Computer was changing its name to Apple Inc. The old Apple Computer company no longer existed. In its place is a company that makes more than just computers. In order to gain a better understanding of why this occurred, we will consider Apple’s latest Quarterly Profit Statement.

For the first time in the company’s history Apple had a quarterly profit of 1 billion dollars (I hold my pinky up to the corner of my mouth, Dr. Evil style, when I say 1 billion dollars). During this quarter Apple sold 1,606,000 computers (one of which sits on my desk) which generated 2.4 billion dollars in revenue. This was the first quarter in which apple sold more computers during the Christmas season then they did during the traditional back to school quarter. According to IDC this puts Apple in 4th place in the U.S. for computer sales behind Dell, HP, and Gateway (and just 0.2 percentage points behind Gateway). So with all this good computer news, why is Apple dropping the word computer from the name. Even with selling a record number of computers this quarter, the total computer sales only accounted for 34% of Apples revenue. The elephant in the room was the iPod. Just 5 years after its introduction, Apple this quarter, sold 21 million iPods. Last year at this time Apple sold 8.1 million iPods. This shows the remarkable growth in sales of this little machine. iPod sales generated 7.1 billion dollars in sales and accounted for 48% of Apples quarterly sales. iPods are so popular that the increase in Apple computer sales is at least in part attributable to the halo effect of the iPod. People buy iPods, they like how they work, so the next time they need to buy a computer, they consider a Macintosh.

In addition to the iPod, Apple has also introduced the new iPhone and the Apple TV and with all of these different products, the name Apple Computer just wasn’t accurate anymore. I will always have that uneasy feeling in the back of my mind that Apple may not place the same emphasis on the Macintosh as they have in the past, but if the elegant transition to the Intel CPUs is any indication, then I really have nothing to worry about. Jobs midwifed the Macintosh computer in 1984, and it continues to be his enduring legacy.

Please join us for our February 6th meeting where I will present the software application Print Explosion Deluxe.

Jesse