The dream officially died on this day. Apple terminated all licensing (what most people incorrectly called cloning) of the Mac OS for other manufacturers. PowerComputing was the only one to receive any compensation (far as I know); stock in exchange for the database of all the customers. Those of us who worked there had a horrible feeling it was coming as early as MacWorld Boston. I was still in Las Vegas as it was going down. My brother worked at Apple and he couldn’t (or wouldn’t) tell me anything, how I remembered the anger I felt at him.
Years later, letting Apple be PowerComputing’s assailant was the better result because if not for Steve Jobs’ publicly known distaste for licensing (agreements made by his predecessors), the company would have imploded from within. Despite the IPO and the future campus in Georgetown (now occupied by a mall), I suspect the people at the top were licking their chops over the profit they’d make from pulling off a dot-com stunt; make PCC attractive to VCs and investors, go public with the stock, cash out their options and then leave everyone else holding the bag of sand. Unlike a dot com, at least PCC did have tangible assets to liquidate. After those crooks left, PCC would have to act like a publicly traded corporation and rougher times would lie ahead. Many critics thought Jobs was insane to eliminate all sources but Apple for a Mac OS-driven computer; market share was slipping from five to three percent, Windows 98 was on the horizon. I remember the book by Jim Carolton with an ending that said Apple would need a miracle. I hope he enjoyed his big heaping plate of crow.
When I returned to PCC’s HQ for work after concluding my weeks in Vegas, there was just a cloud of defeat, despair and sadness. Apple allowed PCC to continue building systems until the end of the year but that was little consolation for us in Support. New systems paid for technical support. Most carried on the best they could when they weren’t applying for new jobs. The call volume spiked as customers called wanting clarification on the fate of their lifetime support, extended repair contracts, etc.
My time back was brief courtesy of a different tragedy. Near the end of the week, I received a call from my mother saying that Grandpa’s terminal illness had reached the unpredictable stage so he could die any day. Management was aware of my situation, I quickly gained permission to take vacation time the following week. Surprisingly, I scored a job in Raleigh while I was there. I couldn’t believe my luck too but I was also extremely desperate to avoid unemployment again. The unpleasant memories caused of 1993 and underemployment in 1995 didn’t induce a gambling mood, especially with only one year of my car loan completed. It did seem like the smart move at the time though. The layoff packages my fellow tech support workers received wasn’t very impressive; two weeks pay, all the overtime they wanted and the computer on their desks for $300 a piece (my friend Kris scored two for me, Romy & Michelle).
Jobs has obviously been vindicated by now for the risk he took. Apple’s market share has improved, there’s over 100 retail stores, the iPod is the number one MP3 player, iTunes has sold three billion songs, Intel-based Macs can actually run Windows better than PCs (the elusive goal of the PowerPC chips), etc. However, everyone has practically forgotten PowerComputing’s contributions which Apple adopted when Wired said prayer was the best chance remaining: configure-to-order machines directly from Apple began with the G3, an online store which Dell had years before and some hardware support over the phone with AppleCare; PCC proved these were feasible.
My anger at Apple for destroying what appeared to be a promising career at PowerComputing was short lived. I quickly grew to hate the spot I took in North Carolina along with the place (it’s still the India-No-Place of the South) and Apple “forgave” me when I returned to Austin. I wasn’t the only ex-PCC person Apple took back. By the late Nineties there were easily a few dozen. Some are still around today besides me. I’m satisfied with the outcome too since my salary is better, the products’ quality have improved vastly and I actually work in a real office building, not a converted Wal-Mart.