Apple is Doomed . . .

. . . and other hilarious prognostications.

Well look at the years on some of those comments...10 years ago(pre iPod times), apple was a slowly dying company that kicked and screamed cuz it didnt want to die.

Gee it looks like they slightly missed a couple..........;D

As we can see from that article, predictions are so much fun... Which makes me think of speculation threads... Like When do you think the new Mac Pro will be unleashed? or What will the next OS X version be called? (examples out of the blue). ;D

Funny all those predictions are wrong.

Apple's time is coming, it is a matter of time before they overtake Microsoft.

They have done it to Dell.

MBNick said:

Funny all those predictions are wrong.

Apple's time is coming, it is a matter of time before they overtake Microsoft.

Click to expand...

Unlikely, but I'm sure they will take quite a bit of market share back. Honestly, while Mac OS is excellent, it's appeal limited by virtue of the fact that it will only run (legally) on Apple hardware.

They have done it to Dell.

Click to expand...

Really? I'm pretty sure Dell still sells many more computers than Apple does, albeit at a smaller profit margin.

See this article.

MacHeadCase said:

As we can see from that article, predictions are so much fun... Which makes me think of speculation threads... Like When do you think the new Mac Pro will be unleashed? or What will the next OS X version be called? (examples out of the blue). ;D

Click to expand...

Perhaps we could get these astute individuals in the article to contribute their predictions??!!!

Many of these were pre-iPod when Apple was on its knees. Most people then would have bet against Apple if they had money riding on it. Where do you think the company would be, honestly, if there was no iPod? Maybe not dead, maybe so, but certainly not where it is now. It's just a classic example of how you can't predict the future of any company.

Wasn't that about the same time Gateway was riding on cloud 9 with great sales, a great outlook and just opening it's own retail outlets? You just never know. If I had to pick one of the two to make it, I'm glad it was Apple.

MacHeadCase said:

What will the next OS X version be called? (examples out of the blue). ;D

Click to expand...

It will be OS X Rusty-Spotted Cat. Instead of actually going through the trouble of making a new OS they will just put retail copies of Vista Basic in the box with a note that say "GOTCHA!" I have forseen it, it will happen because Apple is doomed!;D

MBNick said:

Funny all those predictions are wrong.

Apple's time is coming, it is a matter of time before they overtake Microsoft.

They have done it to Dell.

Click to expand...

Regarding the first line: "Hello pot? Yeah, hi, this is kettle. You're black."

Anyhow, my prediction is that Apple will continue to be a small, almost insignificant company-as far as computers are concerned-for the foreseeable future (say, through 2009 or 2010). Check out their market share:
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=5

According to those figures, it's grown less than 1.2% in almost a year. That's a statistically insignificant amount, I think. As long as Apple continues to build computers that appeal to a very narrow user base (due to things like relatively long product cycles with few if any intermediate updates, products that place form over function to the point where form interferes with good engineering practice in some systems, the perception-accurate or not-that the machines are overpriced, and the perception-again, accurate or not-that there is no software out there for them and the perception that they're difficult to integrate with networks/multiple computer households where other machines are Windows-based), they will remain-as I've said-a small, basically unimportant company, at least as far as computers are concerned.

That being said, I will grant you that there is always the possibility that they can expand their peripherals (iPhone, iPod, iTV, etc.) business and grow in that area. But the computer division isn't growing rapidly at all, according to all the numbers I've seen.

//EDIT: And they have NOT overtaken Dell in sales (and I'm not sure they have in other objectively quantifiable standard that you care to name, either). Post some numbers to back that up, please. I'd love to see them.