RSSYear In Review: Full Speed Ahead for Apple
By Ed Oswald | Published December 29, 2006, 1:53 PM
For Apple, 2006 marked yet another year in the company's dramatic resurgence. This included the transition of the Macintosh platform to Intel processors, the continued dominance of the iPod music player, and the company's continued evolution into an entertainment provider.
It wasn't all roses however: the company had to deal with accusations of improper stock option granting, and had to deal with legal issues surrounding iTunes and the iPod from its competitors.
YEAR IN REVIEW January began with Apple suing patent holder Burst.com, attempting to have claims of apparent patent infringement against it invalidated. Burst would fail to respond, and in February Apple extended the deadline for it to do so, but again for naught.
Instead, Burst decided to countersue Apple in April, formalizing the claims of patent infringement.
Apple conference Macworld also occurred during the month, with two important announcements: the appearance of Intel iMacs as well as MacBook Pros, the successor to the PowerBook.
February brought cuts in the price of the entry-level iPod Shuffle, as well as the introduction of the 1GB nano during the first part of the month. Rumors of the first Mac OS X virus also surfaced, although the Cupertino company disputed those claims.
At an event on February 28, Apple introduced two new products, an Intel-based Mac Mini and the iPod Hi-Fi Boombox.
The first moves towards offering subscription-based content came in March, as Apple began offering a "Multi-Pass" for Comedy Central's Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report for $9.99. 16 shows automatically downloaded for that price, compared to $31.84 if downloaded separately.
France was a thorn in Apple's side during the month, with legislation proposed that opened up the closed format. Apple shot back, calling it "state sponsored piracy," and Francesoftened the bill in May, but it did not prevent it from eventually passing in June.
Music group The Beatles' label Apple Corps took Apple to court late in the month, accusing the company of breaking a 1991 agreement by selling music online. However, the Fab Four was unsuccessful, with Apple scoring a victory in May.
April brought what many would likely consider to be one of Apple's biggest announcements in its 30-year history. The company quietly joined Windows benchmarking consortium BAPco late in March, much to the surprise of many industry watchers.
Those who speculated that Macs may soon run Windows were right, as in April the company announced Boot Camp, a program that allowed the running of Windows - however unsupported - with drivers produced by the Cupertino company.
A 17-inch Intel MacBook Pro appeared late in the month, about a week after the company announced continued strength in iPod sales, and increasing sales of its Macintosh computers in its quarterly earnings report.
The record labels reached an agreement with Apple early in May, keeping songs at 99 cents. This ended an almost year-long back and forth between CEO Steve Jobs and the record labels, with both exchanging verbal barbs through the media.
Creativetook Apple to court by mid-month, accusing it of patent infringement, which Apple countersued, and sue again in June. The spat would be short-lived, and Apple victorious: Creative in August settled with the Cupertino company in August for $100 million USD, and join the "Made for iPod" program.
Among the legal wrangling, May brought several other developments: the unveiling of the Intel MacBook, the opening of Apple Store Fifth Avenue, and the debut of iPod-ready shoes through Nike.
U2 again joined forces with Apple in June to reintroduce the U2 iPod, this time based on the 5G design.
Bloggers and journalists covering Apple breathed a sigh of relief in July, after the company dropped its trade secret case against Apple enthusiast sites AppleInsider and ThinkSecret. The company had lost an earlier appeal of the case in May.
July also brought news of continued financial strength of the company, as well as a wireless version of the Mighty Mouse, first introduced last year. Additionally, it scored a victory in France, as portions of the law were ruled unconstitutional.
The transition to Intel processors were completed in early August, with the introduction of the Mac Pro. The company also began to defend the use of the word "Pod" in some product names.
This month also brought the first inklings of trouble regarding its granting of stock options to employees, with the company receiving a stock delisting threat from the NASDAQ.
Attempting to keep its image as a progressive company, Apple made good on its promises to investigate worker abuse, taking steps to remedy issues at one of its major manufacturers of the iPod music player. While it found some problems, it said the supplier had met most of the terms of its code of conduct.
The company, Hongfujin Precision Industry, later sued two Chinese journalists accusing them of defamation for uncovering the story.
Apple also became the second manufacturer to recall its laptop batteries during the month produced by Sony Electronics. 1.8 million units were targeted, which shipped in 12-inch iBook G4, and 12-inch and 15-inch PowerBook G4 notebook computers between October 2003 and August 2006.
September began with a surprise announcement of a decrease in prices on iMacs along with an upgrade to Core 2 Duo processors. The move put the signature Mac line below $1,000 for the first time in its history.
Mid-month saw a host of announcements, including a much needed refresh of the entire iPod lineup, the addition of movies to iTunes, and a preview of the iTV device, due out in Spring 2007.
Evidence of Apple's increasing popularity came in October, as a zero-day exploit surfaced in early October. The company also joined the PRODUCT(RED) movement, offering a red iPod nano by mid-month.
The iPod stayed in the news during the month, but not in the manner Apple may have liked. The company disclosed that about 1 percent of iPods shipped between September 12 and October 16 were infected with the RavMonE.exe virus.
Apple's Mac line also made headlines, with the company announcing it had shipped a record number of Macs during the summer, and the Macbook Pro was upgraded to a Core 2 Duo processor.
November brought a second (RED) nano due to "outstanding customer demand," and the addition of Core 2 Duo processors to its MacBook line.
Yet another Mac OS X exploit surfaced during the month, dealing with the way the operating system handles .dmg files.
December was noticeably quiet for Apple, save for news surrounding Apple's awarding of stock option grants. A story in the Financial Times late in the month said that Steve Jobs might be implicated in the scandal, receiving 7.5 million stock options through falsified documents made to appear as if the Board of Directors approve it.
Apple quickly responded, with its audit committee, headed by former vice president Al Gore, publicly throwing its support behind its embattled CEO.
Uh oh. They used the "full speed ahead" tac again. I suppose that could mean they'll soon license the song Greed from Godsmack (a la Navy), with the slogan "Apple. Accelerate your life" (translation: get it over with quick) just kidding. no flame intended.
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Full speed ahead for Apple including the cashing out of options.
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PC USERS = CLOSE MINDED FOOLS
...you are certainly proving the PC steriotype and even furthering it... I am sure you are proud.
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ok - ignoring the insult, what exactly do you think constitutes a "real computer"?
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Perhaps a Unix based OS running on x86/x86-64 hardware? oh wait...
A mac is just another PC running another OS, it is no better or worse then any other PC running any other OS. For the love of good, the fan boys in each of the OS camps have to realize that.
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Apple is dead people, wake the hell up already!!
Amiga is dead too, and it was better than apple ever was in its day.
You mac losers are just too stupid to use a real computer. Sad.
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Wake up and join the 21st century. You PC users are too arrogant to realise your OWN stupidity.
EDIT: damn, I'm using a PC. But I WANT a Mac. :/
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What do you mean the Amiga is DEAD!? :/
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Yeah, Yeah. Keep drinking the Kool-Aide. If you've money to burn and you just love packaging, why not?
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Am I the only one who looks at Apple, Jobs, OS X, iPod, and goes: I got better things to do with my life than futz with their crap? Oy, I'm not impressed with it all. I've used Macs on and off since 1984 (yup, it was crap back then), and I'll take Linux or Windows any day. Mac people remind me of alcoholics who get god, and then run around telling everybody they gotta get it, too.
When the mac-head shows up at your door, just say no, and save yourself a crapstorm of cash.
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I agree with you 100% and then some. I work with a Mac 'addict'. When I get the chance to rip those that worship at the Mac altar, it just feels good. Overpriced, proprietary, and worthless are some words that come to mind. And by the way, if you are a gamer, Macs are a total joke when gaming comes into the picture.
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Well, it's nice that you "work" with a Mac addict.
I use Windows, Linux, and OS X every day and it's not hard to see the benefits and drawbacks of each of them. They've all got strengths and weaknesses (Linux is really a total joke if you're a gamer, for example), but the fact of the matter is that OS X does an extremely good job of combining the best of the other two without many compromises. It has the backend server strength of Linux combined with a GUI that equals (and often surpasses) the Windows UI.
By the way, as far as games are concerned, x-plane works brilliantly on OS-X - one can just hope that as Apple's marketshare continues to rise, more developers will start making the great Windows games available on the Mac.
Just a fair and balanced viewpoint
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True. The issue is not with OS X itself. It's great.
The problem is with Apple's way of cultivating a cult and its fanatical followers. Those smugs really, really, really irk me.
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I agree.
That's the same with AMD. And that's why I say that the cult of Apple + the cult of AMD = suicide. You can't mix 2 fanatics in 1 boat.
The Early Macs were just a piece of junk (just like Windows 95 & 98). But, unlike AMD, which only makes one thing (presently it's the Opteron), Apple has the OS X, Shake, Final Cut Studio, Logic Pro (widely used in Entertainment Industry). Technically, Apple is very well known for its software than hardware.
However, the new Macs definitely beats the Dull (Dell) of PCs. It's true that they are (the low end) more expensive and also made in China. But what isn't made in China nowadays? Even if a PC is assembled in US, almost every part (depending on the main CPU) is made in China or Taiwan.
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Well, I do have a full time job as a electronics tech but working hard depends on how you look at it. :)
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That's called marketing! And if you look at Apple's growth rate (and perhaps even more importantly, the rate of change of their growth rate), their marketing is really working.
Microsoft has been successful in the past with this too (remember "Start me up", arranging for Windows 95 to be available at midnight in stores, etc)
However, I think that the "cult" award really belongs to Linux - where there's really quite an attitude against people who are perceived to be unable to get up to speed by themselves --- (the RTFM approach, for example, "don't ask any questions until you've read everything" as if EVERYONE has the time to learn as opposed to just wanting to use, the whole meritocracy model "we only value you if you can contribute" approach, the 100% blind support of Open Source and unwillingess to pay for anything, almost a badge of honor".
Now THAT'S a cult
--->The problem is with Apple's way of cultivating a cult and its fanatical followers. Those smugs really, really, really irk me.
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Shame Macs aren't any dearer than their PC counter parts. And if you were using computers from 1984 then you would know that Mac was MILES ahead until Windows 95 in the usability stakes.
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Wrong, wrong, wrong. Macs are no dearer. Go spec one out on the Apple site, then spec out the same thing on the Dell site. :P
http://www.systemshootou...p/2006/0809_dt3200.html
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Funny how little things like your parents buying a PC vs. an Apple can affect the rest of their children's lives so drastically...
No offense intended, because I know you're not a zealot about OSes one way or another, but I think it is more surprising that people think which OS/platform they use really affects their lives that drastically. (Well, I suppose for tech support people it could; but outside of that...)
(Oops, meant to be a reply to bourgeoisdude's comment below.)
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I'll be blatently honest--I haven't been on a Macintosh computer for more than about 10 hours of my life, and that was about 7 hours with some OS 4.xx(???) from Elementary School (pre-Windows 3.1 era).
Basically, I use PCs because I've spent a good portion of my life on them--had my father bought an Apple instead of an off-brand 80486DX based computer for his 'word processing' needs, I would pehaps be a different person entirely. I have no clear recollection of why Mac OS 4.xx (or whatever it was) did not appeal to me nearly the same as Windows 3.1--maybe it was that old 3-button serial mouse that was more exciting--but I grew fascinated with computers since the day I first saw that "Microsoft Windows Version 3.1" graphic logo, followed by that tada.wav playing when it first opened. I digress...
Anyway, I have great repect for Apple and Steve Jobs--for one, even after the mistakes that cost Apple the PC market share crown, they still managed to make it back quite a ways towards Microsoft. Think about it--no other manufacturer has come as close as Apple has to even putting a dent in the consumer market next to Microsoft, and Apple managed to make their comeback despite having been nearly toppled by Microsoft in the mid 1990s.
Even though I do not use Macs, it is because I have dedicated myself to learning PCs all my life, and while it may be a smart move for my future career to learn MacOS, I am more satisfied with being in the elite group for a much more specific area. Being well-rounded in the IT industry, while its an important thing to do for this and any industry in case things rapidley change (and they do), it also takes time away from learning more about what I use the most. Nonetheless, had my father used MacOS, I could be saying the same thing about Apple and may be ignorant of Microsoft.
Funny how little things like your parents buying a PC vs. an Apple can affect the rest of their children's lives so drastically...
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I have to agree. Im sure OSX is great but in the early years Macs were WAY more expensive then a PC and out of my price range. So I bought PCs, and learned on PCs and now my career is very PC/Windows centric so there is no real reason to switch to a Mac even though the prices are comparable now. Maybe someday if more companies switch to a Mac centric desktop i'll do more Mono development but for now there really is no point.
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To me, the best thing about 2006 for Apple was the Intel switch, and (halfway) support for Windows on the platform. Honestly, I'd argue that move alone will help to add a significant portion of new Mac users over the next few years.
Funny thing is, in my experience.. Windows actually runs a bit better on a Mac, go figure. :)
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My parents bought me a Commodore 64:)
I think schooling, career, and games affected my track more than what my parents chose as my first real computer. Games - definitely PC, school - learned Pascal, C, C++ all on PC and Borland compilers in HS. College gave me exposure to Unix, but it's those games that kept me on the PC.
Now, ever since I made the switch from java to .NET, I can't really fathom using and working outside of the Windows arena anytime soon. And I'm not obsessed enough with platforms or who's copying whom and computer innovation to care. There are just more important things in life... like games.
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everybody is right this problem is not about the program or products they sell but yet by the type of company that APPLE is, me and my older brother always argue about WINDOWS vs. MAC and he always said that all MAC would need is a little oppurtunity to become a good company and he was right but with all this now it affects its image and steve jobs one of the so-called best CEO's did something like this its ashame but yet he has times to makes funny commercials about bill.
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"My parents bought me a Commodore 64:)"
:)
Mine bought a C-128D (built-in 1571 disk drive and detachable keyboard) for Christmas back in '87. Just recently I happened across a C-128 and an early model C-64C, with additional 1541 and 1571 drives. Ahh, memories...
I agree with you on everything else, as well. Games were the main reason I wanted a Commodore 20 years ago (when I was 15), and it's still the primary reason why I refuse to move away from Windows as my primary OS.
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Same here, Arakiel. My career in the IT industry is also very Windows-centric (as I'm sure a vast majority are)... from the server to the desktop.
One of the only reasons I'm wanting to pick up a Mac in the near future (aside from curiosity) is to be able to use Logic Pro for home recording.
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