MR Steve Jobs, cofounder of Apple Computer, was in melodramatic mood when he addressed a gathering of 2,000 Apple employees, Apple users and journalists this week to outline plans for a recovery at the struggling company.
Speaking from the stage where he launched the original Apple Macintosh PC 13 years ago, Mr Jobs, who returned after a long absence to take over the leadership of Apple four months ago, declared "war" on Dell Computer, one of Apple's most successful competitors. "We are coming after you, buddy," Mr Jobs declared as he displayed a huge image of Michael Dell, Dell founder and chief executive, with a target superimposed on his face.
Mr Dell became the target of Apple's ire, Mr Jobs said, because he had refused to retract a statement that Apple should be dissolved. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders," Mr Dell said last month.
Mr Jobs's theatrics belie his company's uncertain future. Apple has seen its share of the personal computer market drop to less than 4 per cent; its revenues have declined sharply over the past year; and hopes of profitability in the current quarter have been abandoned.
Moreover, Apple's "counter culture" image has been tarnished by a recent pact with Microsoft - its long-time nemesis - in which Microsoft took a small equity stake in Apple and the companies settled a patent dispute. The move was unpopular with many Apple supporters.
In what appears to be an attempt to provide a new rallying cry for Apple supporters, Mr Jobs is playing up the apparent row with Dell - no matter that many other executives in the PC industry have voiced similarly pessimistic comments about Apple, or that Dell is just one of half-a-dozen PC manufacturers that are winning over Apple customers.
However, there is a business rationale behind the anti-Dell campaign. On Monday, Apple opened its first "Internet store", a Web site through which customers can order "built-to-order" Macintosh computers, software and related products. In this regard Apple is emulating Dell's highly successful "direct" sales model. Dell has amassed nearly $1 billion (£680 million) in sales via the Internet this year, about 10 per cent of its total sales. The Apple Web site offers essentially the same functions as those offered by Dell.
While praising Apple's move into Internet sales, analysts warned the company risked antagonising its established retail dealers. In particular, dealers specialising in Apple products, such as ComputerWare in the US, may be threatened by the Web site sales, said Mr Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a market research group.
Apple's shift in sales strategy comes as the company is struggling to differentiate its products from PCs based on Intel microprocessors and running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The company recently launched a huge advertising campaign with the theme "Think Different", aiming to play up its appeal to customers who want to buck the industry trend.
Yet as Mr Jobs presented new desktop and portable models of the Macintosh this week, it was the similarities to competing products that stood out.
The Apple machines, based on a new, faster version of the PowerPC chip co-developed by Apple, International Business Machines and Motorola, ran identical software faster than models from Compaq Computer in Mr Jobs's demonstrations.
Financial analysts were disappointed that Mr Jobs did not mention plans for a Macintosh "network computer" - a low-cost
Internet terminal that Apple is believed to have under development. Nor did Mr Jobs clarify his future role at Apple. In spite of taking over the leadership of the company, he has hinted he may not stay as chief executive beyond the end of the year.
But rumours to the contrary have slowed efforts by Apple to find a new chief executive to replace Mr Gil Amelio, who resigned, under pressure from Apple's board, four months ago.
Apple said it booked more than $500,000 in orders in the first 12 hours its new Web site was open.
