Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘This year will be more difficult for Apple Computer’ and iMacs in earthquakes

“I’m not a fan of the current iMac, the PC in a monitor has been done before and the new offering has relatively poor ergonomics (when compared to the old iMac), is less distinctive, and is far less stable.  I live in California, earthquake country, and the old iMac was one of the most stable products in its class, the new one places the weight too high and relies on a base that is too narrow making it likely that it would fall.  Falling glass can be a huge hazard in a home late at night when you are trying to get the kids and family to safety during an earthquake,” Rob Enderle writes for DesignTechnica.

MacDailyNews Note: There is no breakable glass in the iMac G5. It’s an LCD.*

Enderle writes, “It amazes me the halo that Apple seems to have over its operations.  Yes it has returned to popularity and profitability, and yes it has one stunningly successful product in the iPod, a product largely based on a third party offering called Portal Player.   Apple’s PCs, which at one time were largely based on Apple intellectual property are now largely based on IP from IBM and the FreeBSD community, and the firm survives on what many feel is the best marketing effort of any of the vendors in its class.”

With the iPod shuffle, “Apple now enters with a high cost player without a display which would seem, well, kind of stupid except for the capacity of the thing.  It does have more capacity than most at the same price point today (but that will change before the end of this quarter).  This seems to me to be a value play (we are the least expensive) and typically that play is not made by a premium vendor like Apple for fear of damaging the brand.   $100 is a very popular price point and when you realize that products with more capability will be selling very soon for less you have to really wonder if Apple is watching the market.  Perhaps it is time for Apple to go to CES so that they too can see what is coming.   Running a company, like driving, is incredibly dangerous with your eyes closed,” Endlere writes.

Apple’s new Mac mini “is simply another me-too offering from a company which hasn’t done particularly well with me-to offerings over time.   Yes they will likely sell more of these than they will iMacs.  However, that will largely be because iMac sales will have declined as a result of shifting demand to the more popular, and more flexible, lower cost offering… iWork “is a simple product for the casual user, arguably what Microsoft Works should be but isn’t.  Of the products presented this is arguably the best.   The only risk is that it might upset Microsoft and the core group that has been incredibly supportive of Apple over the years… it would have been better had Apple looped Microsoft into this decision and worked on better interoperability between the two products rather than what was likely a blind side release embarrassing the Apple supporters in Microsoft. Sometimes it isn’t what you do, but how you do it that defines a company.”

Enderle concludes, “Apple exists largely because Xerox didn’t want to take a risk with a graphical user interface and a mouse.   But revenue at any cost has its price and, even with stunning marketing covering up critical mistakes, eventually the chickens come home to roost.   They didn’t come home to roost last quarter.  Apple did very well and actually grew in line with or ahead of Dell, HP and Gateway suggesting they held market share for once.  But this year will be more difficult.  The competition is becoming much more fierce and Apple’s offerings aren’t as interesting.”

Full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We believe that the innovation exuded by Gateway and the vision of the future embodied by Michael Dell could lead Apple Computer in the right direction, but only if chickens are appointed to the company’s Board of Directors and Steve Jobs is replaced with a bowling ball, or Steve Ballmer, whichever comes cheaper. Sometimes it gets very windy in Tornado Alley, so it’s good to have a monitor that is really wide at the bottom and tapers to a point like a pyramid. We like pudding, mice, and foam. Wintel box assemblers’ foresight and quest for excellence are good examples for Apple to emulate as long as they look to ant colonies’ construction methods while eating as many pancakes as possible. Once, we crossed our eyes for so long that we got headaches and had to go to bed. Our dogs can speak English and a little broken Spanish, but you can’t hear them unless you’re breathing air. Yesterday we walked along a telephone pole and sent email messages via smoke signals and later swam through a huge piece of granite. Giant eggs are good, but cellophane wrap is better.

Mr. Enderle and MacDailyNews now conclude this test of the Illogical Nonsense Writing Out of our Asses system.

*LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display. Apple’s iMac G5 features such a display. Of course it contains glass. The “MacDailyNews Note” above was meant to be humorous, as it was part of the “nonsense section” of the article. Sorry for the confusion. And the LCD is, of course, a HUGE hazard during an earthquake, especially when one is trying to get the kids and family to safety. It’s another great reason to steer clear of Apple’s iMac G5. LCDs and earthquakes just do not mix. [Added disclaimer at 10:37pm ET after reading some of the reader feedback comments.]

Related MacDailyNews articles:
Kiss of death III averted: Analyst Enderle calls Apple’s Mac mini a ‘crippled product’ – January 13, 2005
Mary Enderle: Apple iMac G5 ‘isn’t a good desktop design, seems poorly thought out’ – September 10, 2004