Apple CEO Steve Jobs held an all-hands meeting earlier today to discuss the company’s current and near-term financial conditions and product strategy, according to a recent report at ZDNet.
Jobs reportedly spoke forcefully about Apple’s commitment to “keep fighting for customers,” citing competition from “three other big companies” that would just as soon take Apple’s customers away from them.
Jobs apparently reiterated the cautious optimism expressed by CFO Fred Anderson at last week’s conference call with analysts to discuss Apple’s Q1 2001 financial results. At the time, Anderson suggested that Apple would see small profit for the quarter ending in March. Jobs also suggested that the company’s stock value would enjoy a gradual rise this year.
Jobs also reportedly informed Apple employees that Apple is on track to deliver its newly revamped high-end Power Mac G4 systems next month — both the 667MHz and 733MHz Power Mac G4 models are expected to be released in February.
Jobs spoke optimistically about the company’s DVD strategy, which introduces new hardware — a Pioneer-manufactured “SuperDrive” that reads and writes both CDs and DVDs; and software — a new, easy-to-use DVD mastering application called iDVD. Jobs suggested that Apple’s firmware optimizations and software would give it key advantages over other SuperDrive OEM customers like Compaq Computer Corp.
Jobs also reportedly confirmed details first unveiled earlier this month about OS X’s rollout schedule — shipping on March 24th, and preloaded on new Macs this coming summer.
An Apple Spokesperson could not be reached for comment as we went to press with this article.