Why Apple Failed in the 90s

An anonymous reader writes "With news of amazing sales figures for both Mac hardware and the iPod, the future for Apple looks bright. But it wasn't always that way. The 90s were a bad time for the company, and Roughlydrafted.com has a look at Apple's failures of the previous decade." From the article: "During the development of Mac OS X, Apple polished the existing classic Mac OS, and salvaged what it could of Copland developments. Apple modernized its existing Mac APIs into Carbon, which would run software in Mac OS 9, and later allow it to run natively in Mac OS X. Despite fixing the obvious flaws in Apple's operating system offering, Mac OS X did not in itself solve Apple's problem. The company now only had an improved platform that nobody had any reason to buy. The real solution to Apple's problem was stumbled onto by a fortunate accident. "

Re:Apple didn't fail...

[bartron]

Had Apple failed (in the 90's or otherwise) they wouldn't be here now would they?

Had the title been "Why Apple Almost Failed in the 90s", then it would be a truer reflection of the events

Re:The real solution

[LordNightwalker]

Any bets on what the fortunate accident was?

Exactly what I was thinking... After reading the quote from the article, I read the actual article in its long winded and boring entirety to find out what the answer to the question is (my guess is the iPod), turns out anonymous fuckface quoted the very fucking last paragraph of the article, getting us all curious for nothing...

Thanks a bundle, asshat, I just wasted 5 minutes of my life thanks to you!

Re:I must be blind...

[ccarson]

Ok, I have to say this and I don't care how I get modded. Sometimes you just need to say what's obvious to you.

I've been reading Slashdot for years and years. No one really talks about it but this site has an obvious agenda which is anti-Micro$oft. Do I care? No. Is it a big deal? No. I'll continue to read this site like I have for years because they cover great things in the technology industry but don't even tell me that this isn't true. It's so blatant to me.

"Why Apple Failed in the 90s"
"Microsoft's new beta software reviewed as 'terrible'"
"The Ugandan government is adopting Linunx"

Let the flaming begin!

Re:I must be blind...

[WiFiBro]

Oh no! I'm shocked! Nobody every mentioned that ever in all the years Slashdot exists in any article.
Do the admins know? Somebody should tell them!

Re:The real solution

[Gregory Cox]

One day while sending an e-mail, Steve Jobs accidentally hit the "i" key before typing Mac.

Re:I must be blind...

[commodoresloat]

yes, but that's easily fixed with a few changes to the wikipedia page!

Re:The article is not complete

[Bing Tsher E]

I am thinking that the 'fortunate incident' must have been an airplane crash that killed the entire senior software development staff, taking with it all the lead programmers for 'Copeland.' But I know it probabaly wasn't that.... (that they still sell single-button mice is enough indication)

Re:The real solution

[Anne Honime]

One day while sending an e-mail, Steve Jobs accidentally hit the "i" key before typing Mac.

OMG, this demonstrates Jobs is a closet vi fanboy !

Re:Apple didn't fail.

[unitron]

"...Apple was dyeing..."

And that's what saved it, it dyed all those iMacs all those different colors.

Speaking of different, with regard to your sig...

Show your support for free speech by moding down people who believe differently then you. Hypocrite Hippies!

...That should be different than, except that it shouldn't be, because when things (including people) differ, they differ from one another.

Re:Mac OS Classic and price

[fyngyrz]

You could hook up a printer without selling your sole.

Eh? [looks at shoe... looks at fishtank...]

Oh. Soul. Never mind.