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 The squirm in the apple
Apple caused a few heart palpitations in Mac-Land by shipping the latest beta version of its forthcoming Leopard OS—but not shipping a Gold Master version even as it drew ever nearer to its October launch. Without a Gold Master, some developers mused last week that the company might have to actually push back its planned Leopard launch for a second time. That led Apple to send out a missive to the effect of, “Psst. We’re in the release candidate cycle. Quit belly-achin’ about more delays and relax.” Which leads to this question: Will Apple ever stop being cryptic about its beta cycle and release dates, or does it just like watching its channel and the market squirm? Perhaps with a 33 percent growth clip in its Mac business, compared with 12-13 percent for the rest of the market, some squirming should be expected.
Diwali time: Offer’s OFF??
The festival season may be around the corner, but from what Shadow Ram observes, vendors appearing to be having a snooze. Well, at least they aren’t jumping about with offers for resellers. VARs are meanwhile just, err, waiting…
But a few of the resellers are already losing patience. “Last year, LG, Samsung and other consumer durable goods vendors had announced offers in the month of September itself, but this year we are yet to hear from any major vendor,” said one Delhi-based dealer on conditions of anonymity. On the other hand, customers have already begun asking dealers as to what the discount is going to be like. Diwali Dhamaka, anyone? So far, it sounds more like resellers hissing and fuming at vendors!
 Musical chairs
We keep hearing about storm clouds hanging over Lexmark’s Lexington, Kentucky-based headquarters, even though officials deny that any big changes are in store for its channel organization. The company remains under pressure after failing to meet Wall Street expectations last quarter, and it quietly shuffled top executives and placed Marty Canning as president of its printer and services group. Paul Rooke, who had headed the printing and services division, is now running Lexmark’s flagging consumer business. Paul Curlander remains company CEO. In the industry that is known as a ‘shakeup,’ and we hear that the ramifications from the musical chairs of the executive management may only be in the early phases. Speaking of pressure, Lexmark stock recently dropped to a low of about $35 per share after starting the year at close to $75 per share. A further drop might not be viewed too favorably by institutional
investors.
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