“2004 will go down as the year Apple struck back big time. Not only does it have the most popular digital music player (iPod), and the most popular digital music service (iTunes), but it’s stock has been either the No. 1 or No. 2 best performer among the Standard & Poor’s 500. Pretty impressive,” Matt Krantz, stock market and IPO reporter for USA Today, writes.
“Sales of the iPod have been nothing less than amazing. And with the upcoming version with a color screen and a version tied to the release of rock bank U2’s new album, you can expect more momentum here,” Krantz writes. “But, your caution is warranted. Keep in mind the stock is already up 152% this year. And if you assume that the company will grow 15% a year (as analysts expect), the stock is in in the middle of its historical band of P-E valuations, according to the NAIC’s Stock Selection Guide. This would indicate the stock is in a rough ‘hold’ range. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy the stock, but if you do, you’re expecting the company’s growth to continue beating expectations.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Matt’s just off by one year, 2005 is the year that will go down as the year Apple struck back big time. 2004 will be remembered as just the beginning.
Struck back?
At what?
The OS wars were finished years ago.
No doubt the iPod will do well, but this article and MDNs take is hype.
good take, MDN
In the beggining Jobs created…something like that.
John,
Apple, and Jobs, have both spent their time in the wilderness, and are back in a big way.
This isn’t about the OS wars, this is about the transformation of Apple from what it was to where it’s headed. Pretty exciting, and Wallstreet seems to agree.
“….The OS wars were finished years ago..”
Hmmmm… typical WinDoze lemmings uninformed response…
All you have to do is read whats going on in the WinCrap world to see that the tide is changing…
How much longer do you expect even the dumbest WinDoze user to put up with the daily onslaught of malware problems associated with the use of their platform ?
Eventually, they will come in contact with someone who will show them the benefits of hassle-free computing that Mac OS gives them…
The WinDoze Dam is breaking…. and common sense should tell you to make sure youre not downstream when it happens !
mdn.. you’re referring to Tiger I guess.. or..
sounds like rhetoric otherwise..
to john:it’s not the point.. WIndows won in the business arena.. and thats where they dominate…
Linux is moving in, basically attacking windows favorite subject “low initial cost, high TCO”
Apple is kicking ass in the consumer arena (again..games..) because that’s where they’re focusing..
of note are some sexy server propositions by apple which are amazingly cheap and powerful..
John,
While the “OS Wars” to determine which platform is dominant in our society may have been over years ago, you can’t argue that there are other issues going on. For many years, a good portion of society would not touch an Apple product. That’s no longer the case.
Apple is making more sales to corporations and individuals. They are selling millions of units to young people that are now seeing that Apple is a quality company. They helped create a supercomputer that was, for awhile, in the top 5.
The world of computing is not so black and white as to say that Microsoft won and Apple lost. Apple is still a very solid, profitable company. They still make the best computer. The author was stating that this year, they have made huge strides in proving this to everyone else.
Or were you just looking for an argument?
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Perfect take MDN!
Failed even to mention the best PC hardware in the G5 iMac, the top OS by a mile and association with Pixar which is wiping Dreamworks’ nose in the sh1t.
04 the beginning, 05 the take-off…
Jimbo….
What you say is true about WinDoze being dominant in the corporate world… For now, that is.. but..
Even this fact is starting to change, too ! .. I was surprised to learn about .. These people !
Mac IQ: Off topic, but cool…
A friend forwarded a humorous email to me about how difficult the English language is to learn, and it included the list below.
I knew for sure that if my Mac was made to speak this text (highlight it and then select the menu item “Safari” > “Services” > “Speech” > “Start Speaking Text”), that Mac OS would totally hack it up…
…but, it DIDN’T!! Mac OS X (v10.3.6) has a 95% success rate! Listen VERY carefully how it correctly pronounces the same word differently based on its context.
VERY COOL!!
1. The bandage was wound around the wound.
2.�The farm was used to produce produce.
3.�The dump was so full, that it had to refuse more refuse.
4. We must polish the Polish furniture.
5. He could lead, if he could get the lead out.
6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert, in the desert.
7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
8. I did not object to the object.
9. There was a row among the oarsmen, about how to row.
10. They were too close to the door to close it.
11. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.
12. How can I intimate this, to my most intimate friend? �
13. I live in an Inn, that plays live music.
14. It’s time to wind down the wind farm.
Just curious, can MS Windows XP do this (speak highlighted text and do it correctly)?
When Sculley (not the one of X Files fame) forced Steve Jobs out of Apple he went and founded a little company called NeXT. After 10-12 years of “Professional” Management Apple was about ready to turn out the lights.
Apple, after squandering tons of money and years decided to buy NeXT and it’s operating system. The UNIX-based OS became OS X- arguably the best desktop OS ever made.
The Luddites in the business world think the current dominance of Windows comes from not “opening up” or licensing Mac OS in the mid-80’s. The slide of the Mac from 1985-2000 came from the fact that Apple couldn’t ship an improved OS and blew a 10-15 year lead in operating systems.
One wonders what would have happened if SJ had stayed at Apple.
NoPCZone, you got it, except for one thing…
NeXT actually acquired Apple (and, in typical Jobsian fashion, got Apple to pay for the privilege), and then changed its name to Apple from NeXT.
The Apple of Sculley, Spindler and Amelio is gone. And good riddance.
2004 will be remembered as the year Apple shifted into second gear. There’s at least three more gears coming.
Ary, that was cool.
Good summit NoPCZone !
Apple would have been dead and cremated …
M$ would dictate the IT-world even more than it does today.
Apple started the PC and today makes the computer democratic :
A none M$-engineer can work with Apple products and have fun. Thank you Steve…
Utopia? Nirvana? Brave, New, World?
Ary just tried that out, that is quite impressive.
Perhaps my example of Mac’s speaking abilities isn’t so off topic. There is more to Apple’s stock soaring than just the iPod. Apple is the only one left when Microsoft’s Windows OS starts taking a nose-dive. It is these small touches, such as an accurate speaking ability for the handicapped users, that will fuel and greatly accelerate the switch from XP to X.
Stock prices are more than a company’s product, it is also dependent upon the size of the competition. Apple can only get stronger as Microsoft atrophies. The iPod is a cute trendy product, but in the end, it will be Apple’s strong and secure computer system, from home user to super computer grids, that will prove the long term strength of the company.
Apple doesn’t need to advertise when Microsoft’s deterioration is almost pointing people to the Apple Store.
…by the way…
XP has nothing like OS X’s speaking ability. More info can be found at…
http://www.xvsxp.com/speech/#speechSynthesis
Aryugaetu-
Funny stuff.
I for one think that English is all jacked up.
Why do we spell the word a “a” when we have to spell the word “oh” and the word “Be”.
If U always follows Q why not save the char and just type Q? Qiet Qit Qarter Its a stupid symbiotic relation.
We need a couple more letters in the Alphabet:
“th” should have it’s own letter.
While C is not needed becasue S & K got it covered.
Damn english.
Heh heheeheh
<RANT>
The thing about Apple is that when they do stuff, they do it right. Not to say that they are perfect, but unlike the competition, they dont make a problem so they can solve it. Take the new Windows Media Edition. now that I am seeing Ads for it, I started thinking, “Why hasnt Apple done this Yet?” Then I answered my own question. MS is just using todays technology which is not yet well suited for making this whole home entertainment centered around your PC viable. advances in Video compression that will be available in Tiger will make this a much cleaner and better experience, not to mention the content is not all that accessable yet. What Video do you have on your PC to watch on your TV? I already have a DVD, VCR, TIVO and cable attached to my TV directly, why do I need to attach my PC too? Everything need to be wired (do I need more cable)? Do I have a big enough HDD on my PC to add all the video content I want? MS doesnt answer these questions, they just say “Here, we made this half assed thing avilable, i dont know what you can do with it or how you might use it, do you want it?” Apple will say (when it releases such a total system) “This is how you have been doing this, but this is how it should work, this will make things easier and cleaner and more efficient for you. this is exactly what it will do and how it will improve your experience.”
NoPCZone, you’re correct, but I think that oversimplifies things a bit. If you haven’t read it yet, John Gruber at Daring Fireball has a great article about this on his site. Here’s the link: http://daringfireball.net/2004/08/parlay
There are also a variety of different reasons on top of what you mentioned and what Gruber writes including the price hikes in the late 80’s/early 90’s that are widely attributed to Jean Louis Gassee. It was his view that the Mac was a superior machine (which it is) so it should have a premium price. To this day Apple suffers from this stigma, even though it’s been proven untrue today.
Hey Steve:
Thanks to the language advances of down under we can expect to see such a suggestion.
After all, they took the “n” out of Anustralia.
They also removed the U from Quantas.
People like to bash Sculley, but I actually liked the Sculley days of Apple.
Keep in mind what happened under Sculley:
Macs with slots (something Jobs was against)
Macs with color
System 7
Newton
Largest market share
On the other hand, Sculley was no Steve Jobs when it came to public speaking. I remember watching his speech in 1991 at WWDC and then seeing Bill Gates speak. Even Bill Gates was a better speaker than Sculley.
Of course, Sculley had Gass�e and Kawasaki for personality…
Was over at a friends’ home early last year and had to show him ‘where’ Radiohead got the voice for Fitter Happier, after he insisted that it was a sampled bit of Steven Hawking.
On his Mac, in front of him I went over to Greenplastic.com, copied and pasted the lyrics to FH into TextEdit (Try it in SimpleText too, as Thom would have had to do – given the timeframe, 1997), then had ‘Fred’ speak. He thought I DLed an mp3!
I saved the file to his desktop, then showed him the icon. Notice the icon dude? It’s an rtf!
And FWIW, at GP the lyric note now mentions Thom’s Mac and the S.Hawking reference. And at Ateaseweb.net the lyric note mentions Thom’s ‘talk program’
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” /> on his new computer. It also mentions earlier in the note how when Thom was playing with his new computer that he found out he could let the machine talk. He then ‘programmed’ the text.
My guess is that this note was ‘translated’ into PC lingo for the non-Mac Rh fans!
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Aryugaetu:
OS X’s speaking ability is even more impressive when you consider that human speakers sometimes make similar mistakes.