Related Web Works

By Victoria Shannon Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, October 21 1996; Page F21 The Washington Post

Last week, Apple Computer Inc. reported its first profit in more than a year, but its chairman, in a restrained tone, acknowledged there's still tough sledding ahead: "The question before us is not `Will Apple survive?' but rather, `How will Apple establish leadership in the emerging digital era of the Internet and multimedia?' "

The comments of Apple boss Gilbert Amelio made me wonder if Mac-heads the world over realize how much the stampede to the Internet has helped save Apple from oblivion.

Think about it. What if the Internet were a Windows-only world?

But the Internet is nearly blind to the logo on your machine. And the makers of browsers, which translate the cryptic behind-the-scenes programming of the Internet onto our screens, are keen on the Macintosh, issuing versions and features equally for the operating systems of both Microsoft Corp. and Apple.

Java applets, chat, virtual modeling and 3-D imaging -- none is "gender"-specific. As long as there's a single shareware developer out there willing to do the translation of the Internet language into a piece of Mac software, virtually nothing is off limits.

Apple itself is in large part responsible for this. In what turned out to be a brilliant if accidental move, Apple first developed software to link the Mac OS to the Net in 1988, four years before the Windows operating systems did the same.

Today, with only about a 9 percent share of the overall personal computer market, the Mac actually has a disproportionately strong alliance with the Internet.

More Web authoring is done on Macs than any other type of computer, according to a study by the Chicago-based consulting firm Mirai. Forty-one percent of those surveyed did their Web site graphics on a Mac.

And, according to a Georgia Institute of Technology survey, more than 20 percent of Web servers, the computers that hold the pages that you access from your desktops, are Macs. That makes the Mac OS the most popular server type behind Unix. Apple's share of Internet client and server stations is twice as high as its general market share, the company says.

Probably a lot of this relates as well to Apple's traditional edge in multimedia. The advantage translates into nearly a 20 percent market share of complete multimedia PC desktop systems worldwide, according to 1995 figures from the research firm Dataquest Inc. Simba Information Inc. reports that 33 percent of existing multimedia PCs are Macs.

But survey numbers -- especially these, used by Apple to sell itself -- can be cast to tell a lot of different tales. The stories told by many Mac us\ers, on the Internet and off, is still marked by crowing about a graceful technology, one-button connections and ease of use -- and, of course, the coolness factor.

Internet developers have been kinder to Apple fanatics than the commercial on-line services. The Mac versions of the spiffy new America Online and the equally fresh new CompuServe are far behind the Windows equivalents -- but at least we'll see them eventually. Despite hopes and promises, Prodigy never came out with a Mac version of its software that included a Web browser.

But lo and behold, now that Prodigy is migrating to the Internet, the "universal translator" of the 20th century, any brand can play. The same will be true, yes, even of the Microsoft Network in the coming months.

The true fairy-tale ending here is not just the survival of Apple. It is the freedom that gives In\ternetizens the ability to use whatever mode of transport they choose. Like electricity, the Internet is a standard that lots of appliances can plug into, be it a Web TV, a "network PC," a Net telephone -- or a Mac.

So how will Apple "establish leadership in the emerging digital era of the Internet and multimedia?" It seems it already has.

Victoria Shannon can be reached via e-mail at 75030,1167 on CompuServe, VShannon on America Online and MSN, BKAS27A on Prodigy and shannonv@twp.com on the Internet.

PLACES TO GO

One breakthrough technology Apple Computer has introduced on the World Wide Web is a new way of representing and navigating content on your desktop. You can try the Project X -- now called HotSauce -- plug-in for Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer (for Macintosh or Windows 95) at http://www.atg.apple.com/go/ projectx/default.html.

© Copyright 1996 The Washington Post Company

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