iMac,Hype,Meets,Analysts,What, computer I - I - iMac! Hype Meets Analysts

----------------------------------------------------------Permission is granted for the below article to forward,reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website,offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as longas no changes a Gone are those times when the companies and the organisations didn't need a hi-tech system to handle them. Owing to the considerable increase in the business sector and thus, an enormous increase in the complexity of the organisational struc

What new product gets more press attention than a new Porsche?What can generate more buzz than bear at a beehive? It's abird, it's a plane . . . it's super fruit! Apple Computer canand does get that kind of attention, and it does so regularly. Hyperbole begins well in advance of each semiannual MacWorld,and begins with the Mac publications and rumor sites. Every Macdevotee imagines a revolutionary new product which answers their every fantasy, whether it be super fast or super cool.This one turned out to be super cool, and at 800 MHz, it isfast, but not super fast. Some had predicted a new processorthat broke the 1 GHz barrier. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unvieled the latest iteration of the iMac to wild cheers from a packed house at MacWorld Expo in San Francisco Monday, then passedout several thousand copies of Time Magazine with an iMacbearing Jobs' smiling face across the new flat-screen monitoron the cover. The headline reads, "Flat-Out Cool!"In a story from Pia Sarkar of the San Francisco Chronicle,Joseph Beaulieu, an analyst for Morningstar Inc., said,"It looks kind of like a big desk lamp." http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/01/08/BU119229.DTL&type=tech"You look at the rest of the PC industry, and the last time Ichecked, they were still shipping big beige boxes with wireshanging out of the back." He is a big fan of the design, butbecause design is such a significant aspect of the new iMac,it "runs the risk of people thinking it's hideous."Mac user sites inevitably churn out stories about great newgadgets and goodies in advance of these bi-annual shows, thistime the rumor-mill was fed by a site called SpyMac.com, whichpresented video it claimed was of new PDA called "iWalk." Another Mac user site speculated that Apple might venture backinto the digital camera arena. Rounding out their "Digital Hub"with the computer as the hub of a "digital lifestyle," eitherenhancing or translating multiple devices' digital inputs.The new iMac 'barely' met the hype, said analyst Rob Enderle,but was a surprisingly fresh and catchy design. Enderle is ananalyst for the Giga technology research group. Stony-facedscrutinizers can't even avoid a grin when face-to-face withan iMac. ;-) But Gartner analyst Charles Smulders suggestsApple shy away from excess. "They'd be wise to be pragmatic,"he says. "Frankly, I think Apple has gotten behind a littlebit and it needs to update its products, but it wouldn't bewise to go to far in this economic environment." Clearly, hehadn't seen the new iMac when he uttered that profundity.Before I turned my attention to the web and small businesscomputing a few years ago, I was an automotive journalistand had the pleasure of attending new car introductions puton at glitzy resorts exclusively for the automotive press.Those of us that reported on new car introductions werewined, dined and entertained in first-class style by automanufacturers and their PR firms before being given the keysto gleaming new models as-yet-unseen by the world for firstdrive impressions and photo ops in stunning locales.It's a very different world when it comes to computers asthey lined up several hundred journalists outside the doorsof the Moscone convention center for an hour-long wait andadmittance to hard chairs packed shoulder to shoulder as loudspeakers urged everyone to "please move to the center tobe sure all seats are taken so everyone can have a seat." I'd love for Porsche to try that approach and hope for ravereviews from the automotive press.Some technology columnists routinely gripe about the lackof objectivity shown by adoring fans of any new Mac product.What is stunning is not the adoration at introductory shows,but the fact that sales figures of 6 million iMacs over thelast three years fails to impress. Inevitably comparisonsare made to Microsoft and the Windows operating system thatpowers 95% of the PC market. One grumbling post at a techsite message board said, "You won't see iMacs dominatingthe enterprise!" Darn, Dilbert! You mean the post officewon't be ordering three million units? Thank goodness!As long as Apple needs to produce stunning designs and funsoftware that makes you smile while you work to attract 5%of the PC market, we won't see mediocre beige boxes sittingin every cubicle in corporate America. Darn, I guess Macswill have to remain in movie production, music mixing,print and online publishing, design and photo studios,education (the State of Maine just ordered 36,000 iBooksfor public schools) and biotech firms (Genentech ordered1000 of these new iMacs.)Remember the Apple byline is "Think Different." If we allwanted Toyotas, there would be no Ferrari's. If everyone ateat MacDonald's we wouldn't need Chez Panisse. I may drive aVW Beetle and eat at home most nights, but Damn, I'm gonnahave an iMac on my desktop!