jayf@islenet.UUCP (Jay Fields) (03/16/85)
RAMBLINGS By J Fields I have to stop and jot a note down about the new Macintosh Office System. Apple Came to town last week (March 14-15) to show it off and it's worth a few comments. The system's key points are its simplicity, and ease of use. We had it hooked up in less than five minutes. Within 15 minutes the laserwriter cranked out the first near-typeset-quality document. We also observed the Mac XL being used as a server to five macs, and the Mac Switch program running on a 512K Mac and allowing more than one program to be 'live' in memory at a time. I have to be honest though. While the graphics capabilities of the Laser Printer are nice, somehow Apple does not seem to have another winner of Macintosh caliber. Speed seems to be the major drawback. When using the Laserwriter as server to only two macintoshes we experienced significant difficulties and delays trying to print out documents. Trying to print out 2 one page files, and one three-page file I had to fight to keep from falling to sleep while waiting. Such problems are probably acceptable if you need to utilize the maximum capabilities of Laserwriter -- say you are currently paying $25 a page for typesetting. But if all you want is simple letter quality output for a single Macintosh then you might want to hook up via Microsoft's MacEnhancer to a Hewlet Packard Laserjet which prints 8 pages per minute. Such an arrangement offers a factor-of-sixteen speed improvement at half the price. Another observation: In recent weeks both The Wall Street Journal and Business Week have reported the concerns of market analysts about various leadership problems in Apple. I have to say that I find some cause for concern for the value of my own shares after viewing the six-hour Mac Office presentation. I've certainly changed my investment plans (to buy more while it's 'low' at $21 a share) in the aftermath. Apple brought to Hawaii, by my count, six (maybe there were more) people to make the presentation. However, only two people were present to make the presentation: a very competent trainer and a technical support person. At the close of the day several other people showed up. Among them, the trainer's boss dropped in to take our temperatures, our marketing representative came by breathlessly at the last minute to hand out a variety of packets with uncertain contents, and the marketing rep's boss showed up to make a few comments before we left (I think I have the people & positions right). My second observation is more subjective. In my position as a computer sales person (about 3 years) and an assistant sales manager (about 3 months) I've met a number of manufacture's rep's, and I've attended a number of product presentations. Taking these in reverse order.... The woman who presented The Macintosh Office System to us was very skilled, but by herself the presentation fell far short of the professional quality and impact I've seen in IBM product seminars, although she was more polished than some of the individual IBM speakers I've seen. The marketing rep puts the icing on the cake. Apple has never seemed to mind the publicity it gets for its cock-a-mamie aproach to business. The idiosyncratic behavior of people inside the company has been reported plenty elsewhere and does not need to be repeated here. However, eccentricity does not excuse bad manners or the disregard for others. I have the impression that my Apple rep could care less about relationships with important clients. Complaints about unreturned phone calls are met with a cold shoulder rather than an apology. Sales bonus's that are in the mail are in the mail for weeks. Personal conversations revolve around the representative's good fortune and not around client needs. In short, it's up to me to make him rich. The impression of Apple that I'm left with is that there are several hardworking people in the company, but that their efforts are pretty much cancelled out by leadership that fails, fails to provide good guidance, fails to make good hiring decisions, fails to retain experienced and valuable contributors, and (I suspect) fails to survive largely because it fails to appreciate the needs of others who live outside the world of the executive's hot-tub. If I have an ax to grind in saying this it's that I've been from the beginning an Apple owner, a fan, and an active promoter in my community. Somehow I sense that I've thrown pearls of time, effort, and sales revenue before swine. About the Author: J is an Associate Editor of the Honolulu Apple User's Society newsletter, SASS and an Assistant Store Manager at Computerland of Hawaii in Aiea. jf