In response to a series of bad (biased)
articles from PCWEEK, including:
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/pcmo/0120/272453.html
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/content/pcmo/0120/jd980112.htm
JC Dvorak has a habit of baiting Mac users, writing inane
columns designed to anger and shock. His recent MacWorld
diatribes, designed to fill contractual editorial
obligations (and boost short-term ratings of ZDNET), are no
exception. To understand such a psyche, one shouldn't
address its puerile points head-on, but should engage in a
study of the environment that produced such a boxed-in mind
set.
Welcome to the World of Wintel.
Wintel has a dirty little secret. A secret that, when
discovered, it's usually too late to address.
The secret? The entire Wintel industry is built on lies.
Not just minor misdeeds, mind you -- but massive
omissions, misstatements, and just plain bare-faced lies.
And that's why they've become so shrilly anti-Macintosh.
Take, for example, the recent "NT assault" at the recent
MacWorld San Francisco. Lies were told about the companies,
their products, and the competition.
At the Intergraph booth, a PowerMac 9600/300 was dubbed
"the fastest Mac Apple sells." The company than showed how a
dual-Pentium 300 box beat it by 30 to 40% in selected tests.
Last time I checked, the G3 Minitower/266 was the fastest
Mac on the planet (at least 15% faster than the 9600). And
wasn't it convenient that Intergraph didn't showcase their
multiprocessor box against the 9600 Multiprocessor series,
running Adobe's MP apps? (The 9600MP likely would have
smashed the Intergraph box -- and costs about $2000 less).
This is typical of the Wintel sales pitch. It's high
pressure, high stakes, and high deception.
Based upon the press' coverage of the "invasion," you'd
figure that "major vendors" Digital Equipment Corp. and
Intergraph, the "armies" invading MacWorld, would be flush
with cash, and super-successful corporations, unlike
"cash-strapped, beleaguered, dying" Apple.
And you'd be wrong.
Intergraph, based in Alabama, sells nothing but high-end
Wintel workstations, boxes that easily sell for over $8,000
each. The margins involved in such sales are tremendous, far
higher than the average 22% gross that Apple gets, even on
the highest priced Macintosh. So they should be enormously
successful, right? Nope.
Intergraph's cash flow plunged from $59.8 million in 1995
to a dismal $26 million in 1996 (the "year of NT"), due to
high investment losses and a net loss of $69 million on
revenues of $1.1 billion, or a loss of $1.46 per share. And
these losses were reduced through shenanigans including
$0.34/share gains over the four 1996 quarters in sales of
subsidiaries and restructuring charge reversals. And this
losing streak didn't start in 1996. . . Intergraph lost $45
million and $70 million in 1995 and 1994, respectively.
And in 1997, it hasn't gotten any better for Intergraph
-- losses have accelerated. In the first quarter, the firm
lost $0.55 per share on $253 million in sales, as opposed to
$0.14 on $257 million in the year-ago quarter. In the second
quarter, yet another loss. . . $0.33 per share on sales of
$289 million, beating its losses from the year-ago quarter
AGAIN. And in the third quarter? Yet another loss. That's
$1.02/share in losses already -- I wonder if Intergraph can
set a new record in the fourth quarter.
And that's not all -- the company is suing Intel, which
may jeopardize its supply of chips.
If this company was Apple, it would be dubbed
"beleaguered" by the press. But instead, it's dubbed "a
leader in NT workstations." Would you buy from a supplier
with dwindling cash and an at-least four-year-long losing
streak, that cannot eke out a profit on high-margin
workstations? One that may have its supply of chips cut off?
This is a LEADING vendor in the "thriving" Windows NT
world, folks.
And let's not forget Digital, who is shrinking daily and
providing for cash flow through steady sell-offs of
subsidiaries.
NOTE: The day this article ran, the big story
was that DEC (Digital Equipement) was just bought out by
Compaq Computers. I think this supports the point quite
well.
Windows NT isn't doing "well" in the creative category,
judging by these numbers -- it's doing horribly. And its two
leading vendors are deep in the red. But from the industry,
and the press, you'd think these firms are doing "incredibly
well," vanquishing "beleaguered" (but profitable) Apple. In
fact, the only firms making any profit in NT creative fields
are Microsoft and HP's minor NT workstation division (with a
market share that's a tiny fraction of the MacOS).
But the deception doesn't stop here. I am still
recovering from a stint at a small Windows-based "accounting
integration" firm that was richly profitable -- like a
parasite.
The way to big money in the Wintel consulting field is
simple -- sell someone a Windows-based solution, promise
that it will meet their expectations, and then charge them
for dozens of hours of consulting work per week in
perpetuity. When I was at this firm, I was a virtual
employee of one client -- with only four workstations and
one server. I paid my own salary on Monday, and for the rest
of the week, was a money machine for the company.
The client, which had a simple network for accounting,
ended buying a second server ($28,000), and paid the firm
for 40 to 50 hours of my labor per week (at $150 per hour).
Constant crashes, disk failure, NT network problems, and
difficulties in use plagued the firm. An Apple Workgroup
server would have been a far better choice for them,
running, say, Great Plains Dynamics -- but it wouldn't have
been profitable for the consultants, who make all their
money on billable time the hapless client has been convinced
will never be needed.
I finally couldn't deal with the firm's ethics and what
they stood for.
So next time you encounter a John C. Dvorak or similar
person, pity him -- his reality has been distorted. If he's
making money in the Wintel world, he's likely been lying to
himself and his customers for years, and cannot grasp
reality, since when one tells big lies, and tells them often
enough, they become "truth." Help him out by politely
listening to his rhetoric about Mac to Windows migration,
laughing only occasionally (and softly).
And encourage him to sell his Intergraph stock.
- Don Crabb's response to Dvorak's Article:
- http://www.zdnet.com/macweek/mw_1204/op_crabb.html
Quick eMail note from a Friend
I thought this was just
too relevant, so I put it up (with permission) -- however,
names were removed.
Date: 01/26
4:53 PM
Received: 01/26
8:41 PM
From: Mark F.
Murphy, [email protected]
To:
[email protected]
I gave [a certain writer -- not
Dvorak] a hard time for making Rhapsody seem like the
bastard son in his report on [another well known web site].
I mentioned to him that Rhapsody was demoed on Apple's main
stage at least twice a day.
There were two shows that had
standing room only, overflowing into the aisle kind of
attendance.... QuickTime 3.0 and Rhapsody!
When I pointed this was missing
from his report, he wasn't even aware that Rhapsody was
being demoed in the main booth (indeed he wrote that
Rhapsody was missing from Apple's booth which was wrong as
well). When I pressed him about it, he then stated since he
didn't personally see it, he couldn't comment on it... even
though later on he admitted he gather his info from Apple's
press reports, product releases, and *friends* in the
industry (so much for his eye witness excuse).
He later went on to tell me that
Apple was happy with downplaying Rhapsody... so I ought to
take it up with them... that he was just reporting the way
it *was*.
What a load of B.S.
This guy constantly likes to paint
a picture of Apple and it's market. Sure... Apple is
downplaying Rhapsody, as they should since QT 3.0 was being
released! Rhapsody is not shipping and MacOS is the bread
and butter. However... the evidence is clear! The *users*
were clamoring to find out about it! It's the users damn
it... the USERS! But the press can't report about Rhapsody
being a *big* curiosity at the show.
However, ZD, and others, were
hyping NT... it's their new direction for their Mac pubs.
Each time I went by Intergraph's booth, it was basically
empty.
How can a reporting agency hype up
NT with very few people interested while downplaying the
fact that crowds surrounded the twice daily Rhapsody demos
in Apple's booth?
To me... the press has lost *all*
credibility. They are absolutely worthless!
mark
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Mark F. Murphy,
Director Software Development
<mailto:[email protected]>
Tyrell Software
Corp <http://www.tyrell.com>
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