That of course is the whole point of this blog. I still own a significant amount of Apple stock, and I would like nothing more than to see the company continue to be successful. Unfortunately, I, like many of the others who have left Apple before me, believe that Apple could be a much greater company with a few changes. Hopefully this blog might help create an atmosphere where at least the problems are discussed instead of being hidden.

My belief is that the time for Apple to really go after the US Government was three years ago. Organizations such the US Air Force and others were openly skeptical of Microsoft's ability to deliver a secure operating system.

I keep seeing the Linux freight train headed towards the enterprise desktop and the combination of Intel hardware and the customer driven OS modifications in Linux may doom Apple to a small piece of the enterprise space.

Today Apple's products look great but there are some real differences in enterprise computing that might make it much harder than the first time Apple stormed the enterprise.

Both Apple and enterprise computing have evolved. Both are more centrally controlled. Very little goes on at Apple that isn't blessed from the top.

In general, you can sum up Apple's business practices as "Do it Apple's way or hit the highway."

What I have seen in the limited cases where Apple could muster the resources is tremendous success when Apple field people with exceptional technical knowledge can work over time with customers to prove the capability of Apple products. This has opened many doors for Apple products.

Unfortunately to get to the next level requires skills that are foreign to Apple corporate. Those skills are listening to the customer, following up with the customer, and ensuring that the customer is successful. Partnering with customers is how you get your product made part of solutions that you could never dream of by yourself.

The choice is Apple's, invest in the enterprise, build real relationships at high levels or keep hoping that a phone call might turn up a customer that will change the dynamics of the enterprise market.

Not only that, but there is no bad news in the world of Apple. There is plenty of covering your rear and very little decision making outside of a handful of people. It's hard to be a star at Apple since all the star power is focused on one person.

Apple is all about Apple and never about the employee. anyone who has every worked for Apple below the executive level has likely given more than they gotten back because it is all about Apple. That doesn't mean that working at Apple wasn't a great trip for almost all of them. They will tell you it was an amazing journey. The unfortunate thing is that the journey almost always ends with disillusionment and sadness instead of pride of accomplishment.

In order to have a fair goal, you need a couple of things. One is you need some good historical numbers. Two you have to have an ethical application of resources along with a fair consideration of trends which are relevant to what you are selling.

Even if you get a fair goal, you still need a compensation system that allows you to see, understand, and verify your numbers. Of course you also need a way for the company to collect numbers.

Collecting numbers is easy if all your business is direct, it is much more challenging if resellers are mixed in with direct especially if the resellers are competing with the direct business.

Unfortunately all of this really does not matter very much if the company has embarked on a program of commission control which is likely high on the agenda at Apple.

Now they are going after people who did not sign Apple non-disclosures. In essence Apple can't control their own people so they want the courts to help them. I like many others think this is wrong and has the potential to harm the blogging movement.

It is hard to tell if I am still too close to the Apple situation to be objective, but I know that Apple can be more successful with their computer products. The current gating factor is the company culture and the management. The interest at looking a little closer at Apple that this recent trade secrets story has created is certainly positive in my mind.

I want to have a choice beyond the Windows and Linux world. I am not certain that Apple under its current management is going to sustain that choice. I also want my remaining share of Apple stock to grow in value.

The consumer public is certainly fickle. Apple is riding something of a bubble in consumer enthusiasm. Apple is really good at deflating its own bubbles. Attacking web sites because Apple has created an employee culture that wants to leak information is something that Apple should be ashamed of, especially if it ends up destroying the very valuable contribution that blogging and websites are making to our society. We need citizen journalism more than we need Apple to fire a few leaky employees. Perhaps if some of those employees were treated a little better they might be a little more loyal to Apple.

That's when the well known arrogance comes out. The arrogance begets some really self-destructive behavoir, but this is Apple and humility is far from a core value.

Is an attack on the Constitution of the United States enough to change people's minds.

My heart absolutely bleeds for these executives. I worked at Apple for nearly twenty years. Consistently the people doing the real work at Apple have been shortchanged while the executives have been swimming in cash, mostly from options. The scary thing is that these same executives have been unable to get able Apple beyond 2% market share in computers. In April 2004 six Apple executives cashed in $46M in options according to a story in tech-edge. At the time Apple according to tech-edge had the following comment.

"A major part of Apple's senior management compensation is based on stock appreciation," Apple said in a statement. "It's great to see some members of our management team get rewarded for their incredibly hard work by selling some of their stock."

According to tech-edge, Tim Cook had a net gain of $14.75 million and Jonathan Rubinstein's gains were $12.67 million. Other executives gained between $10.11 million and $2.67 million. Then according to another story an additional $65 million in executive options were sold in January. In most worlds this would be a lot money. Apparently not at Apple, since we have learned from CNET that the board thinks the executives are underpaid.

"At current levels, the company's executive compensation program is not competitive," Apple said in the Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

The article went on to say the following.

Apple will ask shareholders at its April 21 annual meeting to approve the cash bonus plan.

Jobs' success in harnessing the iPod's appeal to sell other products helped first-quarter Mac shipments rise to the highest level in four years.

Apple's 16% growth in U.S. PC shipments in 2004 was faster than the market's 11%.

A little closer look at the numbers might lead someone to question whether the Apple executives are doing such a great job in their core business, computers.

The tactics used within Apple will one day be a business case study of how not to run a company. It's the truth, if you're an employee at Apple and don't recognize this, you're either new or unconsciously not paying attention to what is happening around you. Apple is not a company built on fairness, employee development, or employee loyalty. Apple is a feudal society built on inequality and is run for the pleasure of Steve and a few close associates.

I just hope the stocks stays up until I get rid of my stock. My next hope is that Linux gets good enough so I will never have to buy another Apple OS or hardware product. It still amazes me that a company with the world's best OS and some of the greatest hardware ever built has managed to not even place in the race.

I hope Apple prospers, but the reality is that Apple would have been long gone already without the great base of loyal users out there who have stayed with Apple products in spite of Apple the company.

One of the first things that ex-Apple employees figure out is that outside the Apple world, Apple isn't really a very big deal. That doesn't mean that there isn't some iPod buzz around Apple currently, it just means that most people don't follow the Apple news like those of us who have at one time or another been addicted to Apple products. So while many Apple fans follow wind changes in Cupertino, the rest of the world doesn't even know what MacWorld is.

I don't want anyone to think that Apple wasn't a great journey for many years for me and many others. As one recent graduate who chose to work for Microsoft instead of Apple relayed to a friend of mine, Apple is now all about Apple. Now it is never about the employees or employee development. Employees are supposed to sacrifice all for Apple, often for compensation that is below what they could get in other jobs. They stay because they are just as addicted to the tecnology as many of us are. Apple realizes they usually won't leave for better jobs so they don't have to pay as much.

I, along with many others who have come and gone at Apple, believe that Apple could have a place in the enterprise market with just a little more effort. It is very challenging to change a consumer company into one that pays even a little attention to the enterprise market. I think it would be worth the effort and would eventually have a major impact on Apple's market share.

Perhaps I'm worrying about nothing and this next release of OS X will be such an outstanding enterprise OS that we'll see that jump in market share that the world's best hardware and software really deserves. That would prove me wrong which would not make me unhappy. Then I could stop writing about Apple and focus on the beach.