BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 16, 2000 ISSUE
TECHNOLOGY & YOU The Cube: Looks Aren't Everything When Apple Computer (AAPL) introduced the iMac to immediate success in 1998, the company proved to a legion of critics that style matters a lot in the computer business. But the release of the new Mac G4 Cube shows that style is far from everything. There's no question that the Cube is something new in the world of computing, a desktop object of real beauty. It's a clear polycarbonate box, just 8 in. by 8 in. and 10 in. high. An off-white cube within the box hides most of the inner workings, and all cables attach through a recess in the bottom. The sides are completely smooth, and the top is marked only by two cooling vents, a slot through which you drop CDs or DVDs, and a power switch. The switch works, like some elevator buttons, by sensing the proximity of your finger. Design innovations go beyond appearance. A clever concept allows the Cube to run without a fan. (Though one way this was accomplished was by leaving out the power supply; you have to hide the 5.5-in. by 7 in. power brick somewhere.) The Cube shares a new keyboard and mouse design with the newest iMacs. The bigger, beefier keyboard is a considerable improvement over earlier versions. And Apple has ditched the much-hated ''hockey-puck'' mouse in favor of a conventionally shaped optical unit that can be used on virtually any surface. But Apple's refusal to supply a mouse with two buttons and a scroll wheel borders on the obsessional. Fortunately, Microsoft and Logitech USB mice work just fine with Macs. IDENTITY CRISIS. Quibbles aside, the Cube is a sensational design. Still, I wasn't surprised when Apple blamed a shortfall in third-quarter revenues partly on slower-than-expected sales of the Cube. All of the Cube's beauty doesn't change the fact that it is overpriced and under-featured, with no clear target audience. Apple basically serves two important markets. The larger of them consists mainly of families, students, and schools. They buy iMacs and iBook laptops. Apple has taken good care of them with a steady stream of new products. For example, it has just added features to its iBook laptops while cutting the price of the least expensive model by $100, to $1,499. The entry-level iMac is a very good value at $799. But the cheapest Cube, at $1,799, costs $300 more than the most expensive iMac. And unlike the iMac, the Cube requires a separate monitor, so add $499 for a 17-in. CRT or $999 for a 17-in. flat panel. That's a lot on a student budget. The second Apple audience is made up of creative professionals: Web page designers, graphic artists, video editors, producers of streaming media. They're used to paying in excess of $3,000 for computers, so the price tag won't bother them. But they need expandability, and the Cube doesn't provide it. For example, a pro using a Mac as a video editing station will want dual monitors, an analog video capture board, and lots of disk storage. The Cube cannot handle dual monitors and has no internal slots for plug-in boards. While you can connect external disk drives, CD-RW or DVD-RAM recorders, and other tools that pros need through a FireWire port, doing so destroys the Cube's simple aesthetics. BLIND FAITH? In general, Apple is not providing much hardware support to its high-end customers right now. Except for one underpowered $1,599 model, all of its G4 minitower desktops--the pros' choice--come with dual processors and cost $2,499 to $4,599. But the current Mac operating system is not designed for dual processors, and the new OS X, which supports multiple processors, won't be ready for at least several months. Meanwhile, customers must pay for hardware that cannot be used to its potential and hope the new OS lives up to its billing. Even judged on its own terms, the Cube could stand some improvement. Options allow you to increase the memory from the paltry 64 MB in the base model, and to substitute a bigger hard drive, a faster processor, and a speedier video display card. But you are stuck with a DVD drive, which is of relatively little use in a computer. There's no way to substitute a much more useful CD-RW unit that could write CDs. The great architect's Louis H. Sullivan's dictum that ''form ever follows function'' is a rule designers ignore at their peril. The Cube is beautiful, but function got shortchanged. Questions? Comments? E-mail tech&you@businessweek.com or fax (202) 383-2125 Want to express your own views on a tech&you column or other technology topic? Join the Technology & You online forum. BY STEPHEN H. WILDSTROM _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS The Cube: Looks Aren't Everything PHOTO: Mac G4 Cube INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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