“The latest word is that the brand new iMac will make its debut on Tuesday, August 7, just in time for production to ramp up to meet back-to-school needs, ” ThinkSecret reports via PC Magazine.
“Published reports indicate Apple will include a new keyboard with the iMac, a sensible decision given the iMac’s fresh aluminum enclosure,” ThinkSecret reports.
“Think Secret sources have also cautiously suggested that Apple’s next iLife suite may find its way onto the new iMacs, as well… Surely more by coincidence than anything else, August 7 will also mark one decade since Bill Gates, then Microsoft’s CEO, took the stage at Macworld Expo Boston to announce Microsoft’s renewed commitment to the Mac. That event, which many Apple watchers likened to a scene out of 1984 with the giant projection of Bill Gates appearing behind Apple CEO Steve Jobs onstage, had been attributed to reviving confidence in Apple at the time, which many had left for dead following several consecutive struggling quarters. Gates at the time also announced a $500 million investment in Apple; the stock has since appreciated roughly 20-fold,” ThinkSecret reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Microsoft invested $150 million in Apple, not $500 million. At the time, Apple had $1.2 billion in cash on hand and a stock market value of about $3.3 billion (Apple’s market value today is $121.4 billion); the investment amounted to about 4.5 percent of Apple and was largely symbolic. The $150 million was in non-voting shares and was reportedly divested by Microsoft in 2000-2001 (bad investment move to sell, MS). More importantly, Apple and Microsoft entered into cross-licensing agreements for patents (not for technology), Microsoft committed to Office for Mac for a period of five years (ended 2002, Office for Mac continues to be developed), Apple agreed to inflict Internet Explorer as the default Mac browser (long since expired, thankfully), and Microsoft paid an undisclosed amount to Apple to settle ongoing lawsuits. Because the stock did not confer voting rights, Apple maintained complete independence from Microsoft.
Macworld Expo Boston 1997 – Steve Jobs revs up the RDF and grins and bears it while explaining the Microsoft deal:
More on the history at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer#1994_to_1997:_Attempts_at_reinvention
Jobs was NOT wearing jeans…..will wonders never cease!
Interesting read:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/592FE887-5CA1-4F30-BD62-407362B533B9.html
Yeah, that Roughly Drafted article tells the tale of a secret $1 billion cash payout to Apple for Quicktime patents that Windows Media Player stole, and the promise by Microsoft to continue to deliver Office for mac. That’s the deal that saved Apple.
d_cooper, your friend has some serious skills. His iMac mockup is lust-inducing.
MW: Will we be seeing something that cool as soon as next month?
Wow, d_cooper that site is amazing!
“Sorry, don’t see Apple releasing any new models until Leopard comes out. Once Leopard is released, you’ll likely then see a new Mac product shipping with it installed. Doesn’t make sense to sell a product that would need an upgrade in 3 months…”
It’s called free upgrades for those buyers. Apple has done it in the past with other OS X releases.
I think they will release them in August because of the back-to-school buying season. September is too late. October is even worse.
BustingSkull says: “John, please tell me based on the facts noted above how M$ “saved Apples bacon”. You do know how to reason, right?”
Ironically, it was Gil Amelio who saved Apple’s bacon by bringing Next and Steve Jobs back on-board, and mercifully stepping aside.
Escaport: yes, you’re right, it it a stretched iPhone, but it’s not done with photoshop. it’s rendered from the ground up in a 3-D program called blender (with some final cut express thrown in,) as is the rest of his animation.
glad to hear you folks like it…
Thanks for that link Joe S.
Its mention of Claris Works got me a little nostalgic for that old PowerPC. Amazing how many companies they’ve wiped from existence over the years.
I didn’t think it was actually possible to hate MS Products anymore than I already do…
Hmm, was that humiliating for Steve Jobs or what? I felt so embarrased for Steves sake that ..well, duh!
Steve *really* had to swallow his pride there to keep the speech fluent – but its all good tho, Apple is back stronger and more focused than ever.
R.J
Maybe Apple will provide vouchers for free upgrades to Leapord with the purchase of a new iMac, taking a cue from Microsoft’s marketing genius. We all know how well it worked for them and what desperate help Steven Jobbs needs when it comes to rolling-out new products. Separately, I would expect any bundled keyboard to incorporate Multi-Touch, either via a simple trackpad or another more robust way; we’ll have to see what slick solution Jon Ives and the boys from FingerWorks came up with.
BTW, my misspellings and grammatical errors are intentional and hopefully serve to infuriate all of the spelling & grammar nazi’s that frequent these pages…you know who you are. find a bigger bone to pick, or at least be nice about it.
If I had a dollar for every time some bozo says “MS bought Apple” or “Bill Gates controls Apple now” because they heard that MS bought some Apple stock, I’d be rich.
I just hope these people aren’t investing in the stock market, for their own sakes…
Wow! d_cooper’s link looks very cool. The design is consistent with what the Ive team tends to put out and has a definite drool factor. I wouldn’t be disappointed if this was the real end product. I guess if Apple were to demand it torn down, we’d know a little more.
In reference to the $150 million that MS invested in Apple:
MS got caught with its hand in the cookie jar. They had hired the same Bay area coders that Apple had just subbed out work on QuickTime to. They ended up with some of Apple’s code in their media player. This is the patented code that was cross licensed. Apple (and the stock buying public) needed some reassurance that MS would continue to support the platform with Office. Hence the deal. The $150 million was compensation for unlimited use of the highjacked code. Win-win. MS stays out of court, Apple gets a publicly announced five year commitment from MS to keep developing Office for Mac. Unfortunately, the public perception was either that MS “bought” Apple or that Jobs made a pact with the devil. In retrospect, it was a good deal.
With that 5 year deal to develop Office for Mac coming to an end (or ended?), I am very curious to see what the future will hold in this regard and if MS will try to punish Apple by no longer developing it as a Mac native product. It would be foolish not to, but I would not put it past the folks at Redmond to make Mac users shell out for Vista Premuim if they need it. Here’s hoping products allowing the use of Windows apps without using Windows find their feet because right now Apple’s Pages just doesn’t mesh all that well and it can be a deal breaker if MSOffice is the buyer’s main concern.
steve admitting to being saved by microsoft?
right….
heres what you do.
step 1. go to your pill cabinet.
step 2. swallow pill.
step 3. watch the d5 conference again.
“step 3. watch the d5 conference again.”
I had to laugh at the begrudging words Steve Jobs gave MS for their ability to “forge partnerships” when asked by Walt Mossberg about what they see as each other’s strengths. It was a bit like asking him to put a positive spin on a band of thieves.
Love the video…reminds me of the 1984 commercial. I’m pretty sure that was what was intended by Jobs. Pure theater.
Your welcome HMMM. Plenty of interesting takes on tech on that site.
Haha, what a lamer steve jobs is, kissing the pants of the one who saves apple at that time.. microsoft… asking 150M$ dollars, what a crap move.
I think he understood the crowds reaction on the IE shit, jobs is just a low life salesman in this movie to me… what a bad actor
Video has been dugg!
http://digg.com/videos/animation/iMac_MultiTouch_Concept_Very_RAD_Fan_Made_Ad