Apple Computer Inc, Cupertino, California, says it will reduce the 82 Macintosh configurations it currently offers to about 40 models within the next twelve months. By slashing the number of products it sells the company will reduce the number of components required and therefore hopes to prevent the kinds of shortages which have bedeviled it for the last couple of years. Apple is also reorganizing itself into four P&Ls – Mac computers; printers and monitors; information appliance products under $1,000 and alternative platforms. Previously all product development was directed by former senior vice president David Nagel, who is now with AT&T Labs. Apple CEO Gilbert Amelio says the company is at a crossroads and will pump $20m into a program to support third party Macintosh developers and cater to low-end users with a sub $1,000 Power PC-based computer. Its goal is to keep costs below $9bn this year, down from $11bn last year. In addition, Bandai Digital Entertainment, a subsidiary of Bandai Co Ltd, is launching Pippin, a multimedia machine which uses a stripped down version of Apple’s Mac OS, in the US today. The device, which uses technology licensed by Apple to Bandai, was launched in Japan earlier this year by Bandai which sold 16,000 Pippins in the first week of marketing.
