Peter Henderson
CUPERTINO: Spotlights will sweep the skies over this San Jose suburb at
midnight on Friday as Apple Computer Inc. reveals the OS X operating system,
which it calls the biggest change to the Macintosh computer in 17 years.
"At the stroke of midnight, Mac OS X goes on sale," trumpeted Elite
Computers & Software, a dealer across the street from Apple headquarters, in
an invitation to a "must attend" event kicking off the weekend launch
of OS X, pronounced "O.S. Ten."
"It could change everything," gushed Elite president and chief
executive Thomas Armes in an interview.
Whether such hysteria will die out or build like the flurry that greeted the
Mac's friendly graphical interface in 1984 - when an Orwellian commercial showed
a woman throwing a hammer at a Big Brother screen - is an open question.
Apple, which has always been an underdog to computers running Microsoft's
Windows applications, has much riding on the completely redesigned operating
system and is still shaking out bugs and tweaking it.
Founded in a bedroom in Silicon Valley in 1976, Apple had a money-losing
quarter and some product missteps at the end of last year. The company had
recently returned to profitability under co-founder Steve Jobs, who came back to
the company as chief executive officer three-and-a-half years ago.
Wants to build a MAC OS for next 15 years
Typically, Jobs says Apple has done good.
"Doing something that is both at the same time easier and more powerful
is really, really hard. And that's what I think our team has accomplished. That
is what has taken us the labor of months and years," he said at a
pre-launch event.
"We want to build a Mac OS for the next 15 years."
Apple, with about 4 per cent of the personal computer market, has a chance to
keep pace with market growth with the new system, Gartner analyst Martin
Reynolds said.
"This is a very necessary step for Apple," agreed his colleague at
Gartner, Chris Le Tocq.
The platform is rock solid, using "protected memory" to contain
program disasters that otherwise could ripple out and freeze a computer, Apple
said. Another improvement keeps videos and other software running
simultaneously, a holy grail that, if really achieved, meets an old industry
pledge.
It firmly faces the Internet, with features and services that complement the
company's philosophy that the personal computer will survive as the hub of a
digital universe.
The improvement is apparent immediately. When one opens an OS X-loaded
Titanium notebook, for instance, it springs into action from sleep, playing a
video before the lid is up.
It then searches out the best network connection, wireless or hard-wired,
office or home, and away you go. "This is instant on. This is it. It really
works," crowed designer Avie Tivanian in a demonstration.
There are also screen changes, and Apple offers during installation to sign
up users for free e-mail and Internet storage, evidence of its focus on the
Internet.
Many of the nifty add-ons are thanks to Apple's decision to modify the
venerable, industrial standard UNIX operating system for home use. UNIX, in one
form or another, runs most of the Internet and is the most corporate operating
system.
Lame start
OS X also runs Java, a programming language widely used on the Internet, which
will help to bring in programmers, and produces files in the popular PDF
web-publishing format.
"Unsolicited developers are coming to the Mac platform in droves,"
said Clent Richardson, Apple's vice president for world wide developer
relations.
Microsoft Corp. will have an OS X version of its Office suite by fall,
although the OS X also supports programs designed for earlier versions.
However, Apple is getting off to a lame start. Though its "Rip. Mix.
Burn." advertising campaign invites users to make their own digital music
play lists and write them onto compact discs, Apple's OS X will not support CD
writing until a patch appears around the end of April and DVD movies will not
play before a fix due after that.
Analysts have also asked why Apple is waiting until summer to preload OS X on
new machines, forcing buyers in the interim to purchase both a new machine and
the $129 operating system upgrade - or to wait to buy, costing Apple sales.
Jobs shrugged off the issue of sales and when asked about the economy pointed
at Apple's $4 billion stockpile of cash.
That cash, nearly $12 per share, is worth more than half Apple's current
stock price, about $20.
"Apple is very strong right now. And it is wonderful, because we can
afford these new initiatives without worrying about the short-term effects of
the economy," Jobs said.
(C) Reuters Limited 2001.