Apple Computer Inc will report a third consecutive profitable quarter next week, the company’s interim CEO Steve Jobs was able to confirm yesterday in a surprise appearance at the first day of MacWorld Expo in New York. Speaking to a packed crowd of mostly Mac devotees, Jobs – who was originally expected to appear via satellite from the West coast – said he could not reveal exactly how much profit Apple has made for the quarter but added, Wall Street will be pleased. First Call’s estimates the company will make $0.33 per share before charges. The Cupertino, California- based company ended the quarter December 1997 $47m in profit and reported a $55m profit for the second quarter. Jobs, rebelliously clad in denim jeans and an old sweatshirt, used the keynote to explain how he had turned Apple around this past year. In a series of characteristically Apple, off-the-wall, video and product demonstrations he talked the audience through what he called the ‘Apple Hierarchy of Skepticism’ – the company’s plan to reaffirm people’s faith in Apple by focusing on six key areas: survival, making a stable (profitable) business, product strategy, software strategy, applications and growth. Jobs said Apple addressed the first two by appointing a new management team, a new board of directors and by striking the now legendary deal with Microsoft this time last year. (CI No 3,220). Turning to products he said, We went back to business school 101 and said: What do people want? They want consumer products and pro products, and in each category we need a desktop and a portable machine. Jobs said Apple decided to focus on four great products and to make sure we could turn them every nine months. The newest of those four products, what Jobs referred to as the most kick-ass computer on the market, is Apple’s new iMac consumer desktop which is taking center stage at the show (see related story). And a new, consumer portable will also be announced some time in 1999. Jobs said the company had 10 million consumer Macintosh users who were not defecting, but not upgrading either. He admitted the iMac, a decent product at the right price point, was the first time Apple had given them a reason to actually want to upgrade.
