The return of Steve Jobs to the helm has boosted Apple's fortunes but it still must convince the business market that its machines are well worth a try, writes Karlin Lillington
When Apple Computer gets things right - as with its original Macintosh in the mid-1980s, the ground-breaking colourful, transparent iMac in the 1990s, or the new, white and clear Perspex iMac of the new millennium - it gets things very, very right.
And when it gets things wrong - as with a succession of visionless chief executives, a bloated confusing product line in the 1990s, and an arrogant attitude to its crucial ground troops, the independent software developers - it can very nearly bring itself down and disillusion even its most fanatical devotees.
But a few glitches aside - such as the cool but unpopular iCube computer, and some rocky quarters in the current economic slump - Apple just seems to have kept doing amazingly well, ever since the return of its founder, Steve Jobs, to the company helm. Understand that "amazingly well" for Apple means winning the right to be treated once again as a company rather than an ongoing soap opera and near-disaster story. Given the frequent rumours of its demise, Apple's turnaround in recent years is nothing short of phenomenal.
But the company has now spectacularly raised the bar for the computing industry. It has not only designed some breathtaking machines (the white and blue G4 computers, both the iMacs, the iCube - all computers that actually make life easier, not harder, for users) but with the release at long, long last of its madeover Mac operating system, OS X, it has given users an extraordinarily robust OS based on the industrial-strength Unix operating system, which some reviewers feel far outpaces Windows XP.
However, only about 5 per cent of computer-owners choose Macs, and the company just has not made - or really, attempted to make - inroads into the business market. Some analysts see this as Apple's biggest hurdle. Its future may depend on finding a way into the enterprise - and thus, a bigger-ticket, more lucrative computing market - rather than relying on the fickle home market.
Meanwhile, one well-known columnist, Robert X. Cringely, has suggested Apple release OS X for Intel machines. Another, David Coursey of ZDNet.com, has vowed to use only Macs for a month, and wonders this week why so many say they admire Macs but still decline to buy them.
I'll confess right now to being a lapsed Macaholic. The first computer I ever owned was a Mac SE, purchased for $2,000 in 1989. It still works, smiling its trademark Mac operating system smile when it boots up. It sits up in the attic, unused, but throwing it out would be like abandoning a family pet. That's how Mac people get about their computers - few products in the world have as loyal a following.
In the past few years I've been a reasonably contented PC user, and I particularly like Windows XP, even with all the little niggling bugs and the fact that Microsoft makes it extremely difficult to use anyone else's Web applications easily with it. But, when the chance came to give the new iMac a test drive, I jumped. It had been a while since I'd gone Mac, and I was especially interested in both OS X and the widely-praised multimedia software for handling music, photos and film that comes bundled with the computer.
This iMac is the round - yes, round - all white and clear Perspex machine that has a flat screen monitor attached on an adjustable arm, like an anglepoise lamp. Once you get over the fact that you will look very strange, and feel a bit silly, carrying this bowl-like thing with its monitor on a silver stalk across the room to your desk, the rest is a breeze. The iMac is so easy to piece together, the ports for all the cables so simply arranged and easily reachable on the circular base, that it took five minutes. When I looked at the instructions afterwards, I laughed out loud. They consisted, in their entirety, of six pictures. No words. A child could do it. What a great machine for new computer-users.
Actually, this is a great machine for just about anybody. The circular base - which has also given it its nickname among the wags, the iBreast - takes up a space less than 11 inches in diameter, making it a tidy machine.
It may be small but the iMac still has about all the capability for adding on devices you could want - five USB ports and two high-speed FireWire ports, which transfer data at very high speeds. It also has a combination CD and DVD drive - both rewritable so you can burn your own disks - hidden behind a semi-circular drawer in the base.
The screen, though, is a true innovation. It swings and pivots at the touch of a finger - no more wrestling with the monitor to get it at a comfortable level. Believe me, everyone will want to come fiddle with this irresistibly tactile machine.
OS X zips right along and has quite a different look and feel from Windows. I'm not won over completely by the aqua blue theme and pale application icons (I like XP's bright colours) or the fact that an icon bounces up and down on the toolbar when you open it (Jobs' other company, the film studio Pixar, seems to have had an influence), but you can customise the desktop, of course. And the multimedia software - iTunes, iDVD, iPhoto, iMovie - is a revelation.
Even a klutz like me had whipped together a snazzy DVD of film clips, background music and photos within about 20 minutes. Does it sound like I like this computer? I sure do. If you are thinking of a new computer, this is one you really should try before making a final decision.
Compustore is opening a new Apple-only store on Kildare Street, Dublin tomorrow.
