"Stick a fork in 'em -- This Apple is cooked." So Robert Thompson concludes in a remarkably silly piece about the death of Apple. Or, rather, the obviously impending death of Apple. While this piece, titled "Apple can't recall Jobs to fix company this time," is going to be added to our Apple Death Knell Counter as soon as we can do so, I thought this piece needed a special response in a standalone rebuttal.

In most ways, it's not really necessary as Mr. Thompson's reasoning is specious, at best, but I am not one to pass up on a bit of fun. Besides, I am waiting for Microsoft to get back to me on the company's new investment in Virtual PC for the Mac, so I may as well tackle this while I wait.

Mr. Thompson's problems began with an ancient PowerMac he has been saddled with at his newspaper, and ended with his new iBook. Seems a problem with his Palm m515 made everything clear for him:

But it was the upgrade to a new Apple iBook which finally convinced me that the company is finished. Apple, once a dominant force in the personal computer arena, appears to have no influence on the market and the only people still using its computers are masochists who apparently don't want access to much of the latest software.

Hold on a second, let me move this over to Word v.X so I can use that app's live spell checking while I write. There, that's better. Let's see, where were we?

Ah, right. No influence on the market: Apple single-handedly made USB, FireWire, and now Bluetooth, relevant in the market. Apple brought DV editing and DVD burning to the consumer's consciousness. In fact, Apple's Digital Hub concept is being copied by such companies as Microsoft. Apple single-handedly changed the MP3 player market, and makes the number one selling device for that space on the planet. Apple brought wireless networking to the market, and set in motion an amazing wave of wireless networks across the globe. Apple has set the bar in laptop design and price, and the rest of the industry is struggling to meet it.

That's clearly a company with no influence.

How is it that this sort of nonsense like Mr. Thompson's gets published in mainstream media outlets?

What about the software issue? Do you have access to the latest software on your Mac? There has never been as many titles being created on the Mac, or being brought over to the Mac, as there are right now. Above and beyond such mainstays as Office from Microsoft, there are more games than ever, more new Enterprise offerings than ever, more utilities than ever, more productivity applications than ever (I am particularly fond of Market Circle's DayLite), more accounting solutions than ever, and more browsers than ever.

Speaking of more browsers, one recent development that Mr. Thompson claims is obviously a sign of trouble is the release of Safari. I'll let Mr. Thompson's words do his own damning:

First of all, my iBook didn't like the software I needed to run my Palm M515. Crashes and screen seizures were regular occurrences. And the iBook doesn't play well with a lot of things that are part of the Microsoft world.

Now some would say the problem with my Palm software is an issue for Palm Inc., not Apple. In fact the buggy Palm software demonstrates an important issue that is currently facing Apple -- third party manufacturers have stopped caring about Mac users. Software developed for the Macintosh platform is often a last-minute consideration, or worse, not even considered at all.

The problem with lacklustre third party development has prompted Apple to create its own browser, which it calls Safari. Some industry watchers feel the development and release of Safari is an indication that Apple is being forced to become more actively involved in software development.

Mozilla, OmniWeb, my own favorite Chimera, Opera (though that company may soon depart), iCab, and IE are all available for the Mac. So much for lack of developer interest in the platform, and the first five of those offerings are all outstanding products. Certainly IE has fallen a bit far behind during the last two years, but the other products are all quite outstanding, each in their own way.

Apple's stated reason for making Safari is to ensure that the Mac platform has the best browser on the market. While I personally think Safari has a long way to go to achieve that, I never once thought that Apple made Safari out of some sort of desperation. Instead, it seems obvious to me, and just about every piece of commentary I have read on the subject, that Apple was developing Safari because it finally felt it had the strength to do so. Indeed, while the features of Chimera makes Safari not all that relevant to my own personal surfing, for now, Mr. Thompson sees everything in a different light. No, Apple trying to take control over its own destiny is nothing more than a sign of weakness.

Balderdash! Complete Rubbish! Poppycock! Have you ever seen such an illogical argument?

Mr. Thompson's piece goes on to say that Apple's sales are falling, which is not exactly true. He singles out PowerMac sales, which have fallen, but leaves out PowerBook sales, which have risen. Overall, Apple's sales are mostly flat, and only HP's and Dell's sales have risen of late. In a down economy, that's not anywhere near as shabby as the editorial would have you believe. He also quotes IDC for some of his information here, but fails to mention that IDC said that Apple's market share rose in December. He also ignores Apple's rising server sales, but with so much other folly in his piece, I guess I can cut him some slack on that one.

Lastly, the piece closes with:

The last time Apple was in this state, it brought back cofounder Steve Jobs to fix its issues. He fostered the development of the iMac and secured a US$150-million investment from Microsoft. But there aren't any new iMacs in Apple's future and Microsoft, bolstered by its victory over the U.S. Department of Justice, is clearly not going to help the beleaguered computer maker this time.

So what have you got left? Apple is a company that controls around 3% of the computer market, has recently undergone a restructuring and is slowly fading into nothingness. Software makers don't even have Mac users on their radar and it's not like Apple can bring Mr. Jobs back to right the ship this time -- he's already there.

Stick a fork in 'em -- this Apple is cooked.

Again, Microsoft may not be investing any money in Apple, but the company is investing in Mac development with the purchase of Virtual PC from Connectix. Since Apple has some US$4.3 billion in the bank, it can hardly be argued that Apple needs any cash infusion whatsoever. Had he bothered checking with reality, Mr. Thompson sure would not have made such a silly argument.

As for the restructure that was referenced: Apple closed down a plant in Singapore, and laid off a few tens of employees in its corporate headquarters. While technically a "restructuring" in finance terms, it is not the wholesale realignment that every other PC company has "undergone" during the last two years. In fact, Apple is the only PC company that has not undergone a major restructuring since the bottom fell out of the PC market 30 months ago. Mr. Thompson's attempts at assassination through innuendo are nothing more than that, and are utterly devoid of a factual base. That sort of thing really ticks me off.

In short, there is almost nothing in Mr. Thompson's article that is reasonable, and most of it isn't even factual. Stick a fork in your credibility, sir -- it's done.