Apple on track come Dell or high water

Three business initiatives and a new enemy - but Jobs' announcementlacked the expected crunch.

The event billed as revolutionising the way Apple does business came and went with precious few surprises - new desktop and laptop machines, an online store, a build-to-order manufacturing strategy and the naming of Dell chairman, Michael Dell, as public enemy number one.

Expectations were high when interim Apple CEO Steve Jobs stepped onto the stage in Cupertino. He received a rapturous reception from Apple employees, invited to attend what, in retrospect, seemed more like a rallying of the troops than the earth-shattering event the overactive Jobs PR machine had led the market to expect.

Nevertheless, Jobs, ever the charismatic marketeer, set out to convince his audience that they were participating in a little bit of IT history. 'We are fundamentally changing the way we do business without losing sight of why we do business,' he said. 'That is to make the best tools in the world for people who think creatively.'

The event was based around three icons, posted without explanation on Apple's Web site last week - a cookie, a supermarket shopping trolley and a screwdriver. These represented the three main thrusts of Jobs' presentation.

First up was the cookie, a chocolate chip one, representing 'a very different chip'. The third generation PowerPC 750, the G3, is the first processor said to be optimised for the Mac OS. Jobs explained that it incorporated a new approach to cache memory, and gave double the performance of computers based on the PowerPC 603e.

The shopping trolley was to represent the online Apple Store, which Jobs claimed was the world's most sophisticated electronic commerce site. The store, which went live last week, can be found on the Apple home page, but for the time being will be of interest to European customers as a taste of things to come. Until spring next year, it will only be available to US customers.

The site is based on the same Next Software technology, once owned by Jobs, that Dell used to build its Web sales site. Users can access most Apple products, including the G3 computers, and orders can be placed either via the internet or by telephone. Orders will be shipped out free of charge within three days, via UPS. Next-day Fedex delivery is on offer for an additional fee.

For potential buyers of the G3 machines, there is a link to a build-to-order feature.

'Not only can you order stuff, more importantly you can go on the Web site and configure stuff to your heart's delight,' said Jobs, adding that this configuration strategy enables customers to choose from 300 possible G3 configurations.

Mitch Mandich, Apple vice president of worldwide sales and marketing, dismissed the idea that the existence of a direct online sales model would lead to channel conflict with the company's resellers. He said there would be buttons and links to direct users to their nearest resellers, although they would not be available until early next year.

He also promised that an even spread of inventory would be made available to the various channels to market. 'We will not bias customer choice in any direction,' he pledged. 'A lot of resellers will sell cheaper than we do.'

The build-to-order thinking is the key to solving the inventory shortage problems which have plagued the vendor. Customers will be able to specify their own product kit - hence the screwdriver icon. Jobs confirmed: 'Every single product we build from here on will be built to order.'

With the icons explained, the stage was set for Jobs to make the big announcement. A very different CEO? Nope, no progress on that front. A very different merger with Oracle?

Not a chance.

Later it was rumoured that the mega announcement of the day had been delayed at the last minute and it did, in fact, involve Oracle, although not as a potential buyer. Instead, it was claimed, the database supplier is negotiating a hefty investment in Apple - a la Microsoft - to beef up its introduction of a range of network computers.

So, the big event ended with a mischievous attack on Dell, the firm which pioneered online PC sales. Now that Microsoft has taken its stake in Apple and Bill Gates, Microsoft CEO, has come in from the cold, Dell has taken over as Apple's main nemesis.

Jobs feigned outrage at comments made by Michael Dell last month when he said his solution to Apple's problems would be to shut up shop and give the shareholders their money back. 'I didn't think that was very nice,' said Jobs, placing a bullseye over a massive blow-up image of Dell.

'We're coming to get you!'