- Lucent Technologies: 14,000
- Daimler Chrysler: 26,000
- Xerox: 4,000
- Textron: 3,600
- Gateway: 3,000
- AOL Time-Warner: 2,400
- Hewlett Packard: 1,700
- Amazon.com: 1,300.
What are these numbers? They are job layoffs that the above
companies have announced since the beginning of the year (a total of
142,200). Up until a few days ago, I read about these layoffs and
dismissed them as an unfortunate forecast of the future of our economy.
It was only when I read that Motorola has plans to let go of 4,000 of
its workers that I realized the true impact these job cuts have on our
daily lives, and, in this case, the future of Macintosh.
As MacCentral reported
earlier this week, the layoffs at Motorola may have an impact on G4
production. This couldn't have come at a worse time. Only a month ago,
Steve Jobs introduced new Power Mac G4 towers with a
733 MHz processor, a processor that is likely to encounter many
manufacturing obstacles. If Motorola is not able to manufacture the
quantity of chips needed to meet the demand of this new machine, the
future of the G4 may be in question.
To top things off, Adobe has recently announced some layoffs. Again,
this couldn't have come at a worse time. Mac OS X will hit store
shelves on March 24th, and Apple needs Adobe's products to be
carbonized shortly after its release - or many Mac professionals will
not make the upgrade.
On a different note, it may make some Mac users happy to know that
the PC market isn't doing so well. Both Hewlett Packard and Gateway
have recently announced thousands of job cuts. HP is cutting back 1.9%
of its workforce as part of a "company reorganization." The cuts will
primarily take place in its sales and marketing divisions. Gateway's
job cuts come after the company missed lowered fourth quarter earnings
on January 11th due to less demand for PCs (consumers may finally be
seeing the light).
Many companies in the same industry as Apple are announcing job cuts
- will we see any from our favorite fruit flavored company?
My guess is no. Apple has survived in the past by being the company
that doesn't follow the herd. And because Apple doesn't use the same
marketing and sales techniques as other computer manufacturers, I think
it would be unfair to predict Apple's future based on the performance
of Gateway, Hewlett Packard, and Compaq. Furthermore, Apple's problem
isn't with a lack of demand like these other companies - it's meeting
demand. If Apple is able to manufacture a good number of PowerBook G4s and G4 Towers,
I predict that it will have a good quarter.
What is causing all of these layoffs? Is the slowdown in the
Internet economy hurting Adobe's software sales ? Are the slowing
demands in the automotive and communication industries causing Motorola
to reduce its work force? And is this just the beginning, will we be
seeing job cuts from similar companies shortly? All of these are
questions that are yet to be answered.
The number of job cuts in both the Mac market and the outside world
will surely have an impact on the kinds of products and performance we
see from these companies in the coming months. We can only hope for a
more lively economy next quarter. My fingers are crossed that Motorola
will continue to develop the G4 and that Adobe will continue to support
the Mac for many years to come.
