As expected, Apple announced a massive shortfall this week, losing more than $120 million, which exceeded Wall Street expectations. Sales of Apple Macintosh products fell 32%, with the Performa line selling especially poorly. Apple's Chief Financial Officer, who would probably give up a lung to switch jobs with Microsoft's Mike Brown (see story "Microsoft announces record earnings", above) claims that Apple is still financially sound, with "$1.8 billion in cash and improved inventory management during the quarter." Apple is expecting to lose money for the next two quarters as well as it attempts to stem it's incredible marketshare decline and improve relations with its customers and development community. This means that Apple will lose money for six months longer than originally promised by Gil Armelio when he took the helm last year. Apple's debt rating was also cut. Apple CEO Gil Armelio released a letter to Apple users this week, apologizing for the disappointing quarter. He mentioned, however, that the problem was largely in the U.S. only and that foreign markets were healthy. I don't want to drag this into a long debate, but this sounds suspiciously like something Commodore would have announced during the Amiga days. Armelio believes that the acquisition of NeXT will turn the company around
