Where was Apple in 1999?

[John Pale]

There were no Mac Pros in 1999.

Next question.

[Steven Gonzales]

There was no Mac Pro in 1999. There was Blue and White G3, cpu PowerPc family.

Mac Pro debut was 2006.

[Timothy Auld]

OK, semantics. What drove the sale of G3s and G4’s? The point is where was Apple as a company in 1999,
and how much does Apple owe to FCP to it’s current market position? They paid a lot of money to have a huge Apple logo at the end of LOTR. Who was buying Apple computers in 1999?

bigpine

[Tim Kolb]

Now that we know what products they were selling in the hardware line…

Mac workstation sales were driven by the printing/graphics industry (largely Adobe software), the video industry (Avid, Media 100, Adobe After Effects/Photoshop…etc), and the audio production industry (ProTools now part of Avid, Sample cel, Midi instrument software, etc.).

TimK,
Director, Consultant
Kolb Productions,

Adobe Certified Instructor

[Craig Seeman]

Avid was a prime mover of high end Mac desktops at the time.

Some people in Avid had lead people to believe they were going to drop Mac support during NAB 1999.
One example article.
https://www.independent-magazine.org/node/416

I think this motivated Apple’s development of FCP to sell their desktops. Apple no longer wanted to risk hardware sales primarily dependent on third party software and I think this has been on of the guiding philosophies in the development of Apple’s ecosystem business model.

[Craig Seeman]

This recounting of history at the time is worth reading.
https://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q1.07/8AA115DC-2398-456E-9319-FE5842A41BD1.html

[Timothy Auld]

By the way, Apple’s stock price in late 1999 was in between $65-70. By the beginning of 2000 it was
close to $100.

bigpine

[Steven Gonzales]

I believe the big “Avid will go to PC” scare was earlier; see this excerpt from Avid’s history:

https://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Avid-Technology-Inc-Company-History.html

Strengthening Ties with Microsoft and Intel: 1997-98

In March 1997 it was announced that Intel Corporation would invest $14.75 million in Avid by purchasing a 6.75 percent interest in the company’s common stock. Although Avid’s customers tended to be loyal Macintosh users, an Intel spokesperson noted that Intel’s next-generation Pentium processors would be well suited for high-end video editing work. It was expected that future and current Avid products would be tailored for use on both Intel-based PCs and Macintoshes.

Avid enjoyed a financial comeback in 1997, showing strong first-half revenue and overall revenue of $471.3 million for fiscal 1997, an increase of 9.9 percent. After trimming operating costs, the company returned to profitability with net income of $26.4 million.

In mid-1998 Avid acquired Softimage Inc. from Microsoft Corporation for $285 million in stock and cash to strengthen its television finishing and 3-D product lines. Based in Montreal, Softimage developed high-end software for all areas of professional visual content production, including tools for 3-D and 2-D animation and for creating, editing, and finishing graphics and effects-centric video programs. Softimage had an installed base of more than 21,000 products used by more than 6,000 customers. As a result of the acquisition, Microsoft owned about 9.1 percent of Avid’s shares of common stock then outstanding and received warrants to purchase up to 12 percent of Avid’s stock over the next three years.

[Greg Burke]

[TImothy Auld] “What drove the sales of Mac Pro’s?”

The “6%” Randy thought wasnt important enough to aim at

I wear many hats.
http://www.gregburkepost.com

[Timothy Auld]

Wasn’t really talking about that. How close was Apple to being the most wealthy company in the world
in 1999? How much do they owe to what they are now to Final Cut Pro?

bigpine