Architosh Staff ([email protected])

30 Aug 00

Apple and Science: New Barometers

This article, along with its sister article Apple and Architecture: Downstream Upstream, delves into where Apple is at the moment and where it can be with these markets. Further, it also looks at some indicators—while seemingly small at times—that may tell us a little bit about what Apple may be seeing in its crystal ball these days.

Software as Barometers

There are a number of items that have historically served as good barometers for Apple's future. For instance, when Apple brought out the original iMac the Macintosh software market for consumers was really drying up—the byproduct of a two year death spiral.

Two meet the objectives of the iMac, a machine clearly designed for the newbie consumer user, it was imperative that Apple reverse the dearth of software and peripherals available for the consumer Macintosh market. To do this Steve Jobs made sure that certain key home software products were not only still available but given full attentive upgrades.

This meant the iMac needed Quicken Deluxe, by Intuit, for home financial needs, with full feature parity with its Windows-sibling. Without the number one home financial software app, how could Apple truly tout the iMac as best-of-class? To a certain extent, the various choices of Web browsers, AOL included, and key games validate the iMac's market worthiness in the same way.

Just as the Mac needed Office 98 to be validated in the business and design markets, it needed Quicken Deluxe for the home market. Hence, the emergence, or reemergence of key software products can serve as good barometers for Apple's plans.

Barometers in Hindsight

Other key types of barometers are new I/O technologies. When Apple shipped the iMac with only USB ports for peripherals and no floppy drive many analysts criticized Jobs' decision. Now, in hindsight, many of those same analysts are embarrassed to say they have had to eat their words. Apple was right! And the rest were just plain wrong.

FireWire too has indicated the direction Apple was headed. Have you seen iMovie 2? It really is cool stuff...and totally integrated into the iMac product line. When the iMac first appeared in 1998 who would have thunk it? Now it is clear to us that digital video is where Apple wants to clearly lead.

As simple as it sounds now those first FireWire ports foreshadowed not only things like iMovie, Final Cut Pro, but also Apple's iTools direction. Sometimes I/O is all we need to get a glimpse of where Apple is going.

Apple and Science: New Barometers

While Apple's early moves ushered in the necessary software and peripherals needed for Apple's success with the iMac, some matters are more complicated and require the guidance of industry leaders. In short, individuals and their companies can serve as indicators of change.

Millard Drexler, President and CEO, of the Gap Inc., may have been Apple's best recruit (to its Board of Directors) in terms of providing critical guidance with marketing the iMac.

Likewise, the recent appointment of Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson to Apple's board may just indicate a renewed commitment to push the Macintosh in the science market. Genentech is one of the biotech industry's leading companies worldwide and the presence of Levinson on the board will give Apple the critical guidance they need to succeed with any push plans.

Having full time scientists on staff who understand the needs of the scientific community is even better, especially if they are charged with helping to promote the platform. So it is particularly welcoming to learn that John Martellaro, a former Macintosh Web journalist, has joined Apple full time as Senior Marketing Manager for Science and Technology. His elegant farewell article explains his life's work, his background, and his dream to work for Apple. John, who has a MS degree in Physics, has worked, along with his PhD. wife, as a Cold War physicist, in top scientific labs, including Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Martin Marietta's Astronautics Lab in Colorado and others. As John states:

"The job is Senior Marketing Manager for Science and Technology. It'll be my job, along with the rest of a formidable team (supporting health and biological science), to communicate to physical scientists, engineers, and computer scientists the compelling "message" why Apple products, like a dual processor G4 with a vector processor running a Unix-based, Posix compliant, Symmetric Multi Processing system like Mac OS X is what they should be using to get their work done." -- John Martellaro