ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, February 6, 1996 TAG: 9602060056
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: CUPERTINO, CALIF.
SOURCE: Associated Press
REDUCTIONS RANGE FROM $100 to $300, or 5 percent to 12 percent. The deepest percentage cut was to the Performa 6116CD.
Apple Computer Inc., trying to reduce its swollen inventories, on Monday cut prices of its consumer-oriented Macintosh Performa machines up to 12 percent.
The company also announced rebates for customers who buy computer-monitor-printer packages.
Apple's price cuts came three days after it replaced chief executive officer Michael Spindler with National Semiconductor CEO Gil Amelio. Amelio, known for his ability to turn around troubled companies, also replaced A.C. ``Mike'' Markkula as chairman.
Price reductions, which follow deeper ones in December, range from $100 to $300, or 5 percent to 12 percent. The deepest percentage cut was to the Performa 6116CD, which has 8 megabytes of main memory, a 700-megabyte hard drive, 14-inch monitor and 14,400-speed modem. It was cut 12 percent, from $1,699 to $1,499.
Apple said it would offer $150 to $500 mail-in rebates to people who simultaneously buy computers, monitors and printers. The rebate offer, which applies to its Power Macintosh line as well as the Performa models, lasts until mid-March.
The company, the third-largest personal computer maker, last year misjudged demand, depressing revenues and leaving it with a glut of some models. Before he left, Spindler circulated a memo urging managers to take steps to decrease the inventory before the backlog loses value and hurts earnings.
Separately, Apple said it was working to make software based on an operating system called Linux work on its Macintosh products.
Linux is a version of the Unix operating software that has been modified by interested programmers who communicate and share updated versions on the Internet. It has found a market in university and research laboratories.
``This is part of Apple's overall effort to embrace more-open industry standards, particularly those popular in the Internet community,'' Ike Nassi, vice president of Apple system software technologies, said in a statement.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB