Warning that its second quarter loss would be even worse than expected at some $700m, Apple Computer Inc chairman and chief executive Gilbert Amelio tried to rally the company’s disheartened fans, saying that he understands what the company’s problems are and is hard at work on a plan to fix them. He expects to begin to give details of the turnaround plan in May. It is not too hard to catch Wall Street analysts on the hop and they were dismayed that such a large loss should hit the company just the whole personal computer industry hits the buffers. Apple said that half the $700m loss will consist of inventory writedowns because of slowing computer sales, a quarter will be restructuring charges, and some $175m will be the trading loss. Apple’s shares were trading down at $23.875 ahead of the news.
