Can One Rotten Speech Spoil Apple’s Barrel?
Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio’s keynote address at last week’s Macworld Expo in San Francisco helped me understand Apple’s challenges better. But not for the reasons you might think.
Given the company’s nightmarish free fall in 1996 and the recent tidal wave of pessimism directed at the Mac that seemed to be eclipsed only by Northern California’s flooding, I had anticipated something big. I felt sure that Amelio would give a plausible, inspiring speech. I expected authoritative details about how Apple would regain its past glory. But after 45 inexplicable minutes of being forced to swelter, sardine-like, outside an empty ballroom with thousands of others waiting for the presentation to begin, I had a sobering thought: Apple may be about to blow an event crucial for its survival.
When the doors finally opened, the hopeful masses surged inside, only to bear witness to a sad spectacle: Amelio delivered a semi-coherent, meandering set of platitudes that lasted more than two hours.
There were amusing moments: a multimedia barrage based on the PowerBook’s starring role in the blockbuster movie “Independence Day,” testimonials from celebrities and a rousing technology demo from Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder who returned to the fold in December when Apple agreed to purchase his Next Software.
But the bottom line was painfully clear: Amelio had fallen prey to Apple’s worst flaw--great expectations, terrible execution.
His bumbling was hard to watch, in part, because there really were substantive things to say. Judging by the technologies on display at the Expo, Apple is better equipped to turn itself around than at any time in recent memory.
Clone makers Umax and Power Computing showed off 240 MHz and 250 MHz Macintosh models, respectively--faster than any Pentium computer--and Power Computing demonstrated a 300 MHz prototype. In his keynote, Amelio showed a prototype running Exponential Technologies’ astonishing 533 MHz central processor.
Apple once again is setting new standards for what a computer can be with a dazzling new desktop model to honor the company’s 20th anniversary this month. Its sleek lines, liquid crystal display and surprisingly functional design somehow remind me of the original Mac--the machine that transformed personal computing, remember?--bold and different, yet somehow self-evident and logical (have a look at www.macworld.com).
And Jobs’ NextStep operating system offers realistic hope for modernizing the Mac without sacrificing compatibility for today’s Mac programs. It has technologies Apple needs for better performance and stability, and it could help keep software developers interested in the Mac as a viable competitor to Windows.
At the keynote, Amelio was introduced by Jeff Goldblum, star of “Independence Day.” Goldblum mentioned his role as an expert in chaos theory in the movie “Jurassic Park.” “I figure that qualifies me to speak at an Apple event,” he joked.
“It’s chaos, but I love it,” was Amelio’s rejoinder for the crowd, “and I think you do too.”
And they did. They didn’t care about sweating in the hallway before the speech, about vague promises or even about the fact that Apple will need at least 18 months to turn things around. They wanted to be shoulder-to-shoulder with other true believers, getting a fix of that old Mac excitement to carry them through one more discouraging moment.
Don’t get me wrong--the Mac’s millions of fans are Apple’s crown jewels. But they’re already sold. To survive and thrive, Apple should stop preaching to the choir. It must convince investors, software developers, potential clone makers and other computer buyers that it offers more than chaotic excitement. It has to execute.
There’s a spooky epilogue to this story. The day after the keynote, I was still mystified about why Amelio took so long to say so little. After all, this is a pro who has given scores of successful speeches. I bumped into someone close to the event organizers who offered this explanation: Steve Jobs refused to appear until nearly 2 p.m. for an event scheduled to end at 1:15, so Amelio was ad-libbing to fill time.
The creative genius, bad boy and prince of chaos is back. I may have to revise my earlier assessment that adult supervision had returned to Apple’s executive ranks. Yikes.
Charles Piller can be reached via e-mail at cpiller@aol.com
