“As Apple Computer Inc.’s eye-catching iMac G5 PC began appearing in late September, Mac lovers were buzzing about how much the machine resembles a certain portable music player. A canny move by the folks at Apple, no doubt,” Peter Burrows reports for BusinessWeek. “But the question remains: Will the new iMac duplicate the iPod’s megahit success and revive Apple’s waning fortunes in the cutthroat PC business?”
“Why the sudden bullishness about the Mac? Part of it is the iPod halo effect. Many of the iPod’s 3.7 million buyers had never before owned an Apple product. Ever attuned to tech fashions, Jobs is doing his best to turn that familiarity into PC sales. The tag line for the new iMac is ‘From the makers of iPod,’ and insiders hint that a new ad campaign may focus on the products’ similar aesthetics. ‘It may be a stretch to get the iPod generation to embrace the Mac,’ says Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst John Roy. ‘But they might consider it,'” Burrows reports.
“That might bring more shoppers into one of Apple’s 86 stores, where business is already brisk. Piper Jaffray says fourth-quarter retail sales could hit $420 million — up 54% from last year,” Burrows reports. “Apple has other advantages that could come into play in the next few years. So far, its operating system has proved relatively immune to the hacker attacks plaguing Windows. What’s more, Microsoft Corp. has delayed the debut of the next Windows upgrade until 2006 — handing Apple a golden opportunity to extend its innovation lead. Apple will roll out a new version of its OS early next year that will include point-and-click videoconferencing and a search feature called Spotlight that makes it easier to find data on a PC… Apple’s future looks surprisingly bright.”
Full article here.