Anderson: Apple a "Constant Innovator", Concedes 'Switch' not Successful


Apple came back from the brink of bankruptcy in 1996 because of innovation and a "refusal to mortgage [the] future", Apple CFO Fred Anderson said today in a speech today to US business students, MacWorld UK reports.

Anderson said when he joined Apple in 1996, he faced a $325 million loss. [the MacWorld article says 'billion', but it wasn't that catastrophic - ed.]. Anderson blamed this on Apple's poor customer relations at the time, and a decline in the PC industry.

The CFO singled out iPod and iTMS as innovative ventures which showed the way in terms of consumer demands for digital music. iPod and iTunes, Anderson said, had been successful despite the recording industry's 10-15% decline in recent years.

But Anderson did concede that Apple's ability to convince PC users to 'switch' to Mac had not been terribly successful. Uncharacteristically forthcoming, Anderson is quoted as saying that, "There has been no real marketing effort and poor distribution, and now we're making changes to address that."

Analysis: That latter statement from Anderson is revealing. Does this mean Apple will return to more mainstream stores (Sears, Best Buy etc.) in order to push its product? Or does that simply mean more Apple Retail Stores? It's the first real public concession from a senior Apple executive that the 'switchers' campaign hasn't been as successful as Cupertino had hoped. One hates to admit it, but Dvorak wasn't that far off when he predicted 'switchers' would be dead and buried by December 2002.