From: Julian Y. Koh <kohster@nwu.edu>
Subject: Open note to Apple Shareholders
Date: Friday, January 29, 1999 9:53 AM

As many of you know, Apple has changed its policy concerning re-election of
members of the Board of Directors.  Starting this year, each member has to
be re-approved on an annual basis.  The information about this change and
some commentary by RFI's Robert Morgan can be read at
<http://macweek.zdnet.com/1999/01/24/wedrfi.html>.  Mr. Morgan talks about
the implications in terms of how this will allow Apple to make board
changes quickly and easily.  My stance is that shareholders have been given
an opportunity to send very clear messages to Apple's board members.

Let's be realistic: the majority of shareholders just check the box to go
along with the board's recommendations on all actions every year.  When you
get your shareholder packets this year, think before you check that box.
Read the list of directors at <http://www.apple.com/pr/bios/bod.html>.  Ask
yourself, "What have these people done for Apple?  What do they promise to
do for Apple and the Macintosh in the coming year?  How have they followed
through on past promises?"  Maybe the message we want to send is this:
Support Apple, or we don't want you running the company.

Just as an example of things you might think about with respect to certain
people currently on Apple's board:

Bill Campbell, President and CEO of Intuit.  This is the man who signed
Quicken for Mac's death order, generating a huge slew of "the Mac is dying"
publicity during the darkest days of 1997.  Sure, the decision was reversed
because of the iMac, but now Quicken 99 for Macintosh is going to be
released at least 6-9 _months_ later than the Windows version, and there
are no guarantees of future revisions after that.  With more banks enabling
online banking with Quicken 99, Mac users are again getting left behind.
And that's assuming that the Mac version will have 100% compatibility with
the Windows version.  Along a similar vein, QuickBooks for the Mac has been
killed.  I don't want to slam Mr. Campbell too much here, but Intuit's
support of the Mac is going to be something I'm going to seriously consider.

Larry Ellison, Chairman and CEO of Oracle.  Larry has undeniable style and
panache, rivaling Steve Jobs himself.  But where are the Mac clients for
interfacing with Oracle databases which were promised so long ago?  Style
and panache and flashiness certainly have their place at Apple and in the
Macintosh world, but without substance to back it up, all you have is a
great-looking shell without any heart or guts.

Gareth Chang, Corporate Senior VP of Marketing at Hughes Electronics Corp.
According to Don Crabb, writing last fall at
<http://www.maccentral.com/news/9810/10.optimize.shtml>, Mac users have
been asking for Mac compatibility with the DirecPC network for months.  Are
there plans to allow Macs to connect to DirecPC?  Why has there been so
much resistance to engineering Macintosh compatibility into the DirecPC
product?

I don't mean to concentrate on the negative here, since I'm sure that the
Board has done many good, even great things for Apple.  I certainly don't
want to suggest that Board members pursue avenues at their other companies
which are completely unsound from a economic/business standpoint.  I
absolutely do not mean to threaten anyone (after all, how threatening can
my 100 votes be? :):)).  However, it seems to me that if you are serving on
the Board of Directors of a company, you should have some measure of
commitment and desire to work toward to continued success and growth of
that company.  If not, then the only purpose your seat serves is as a nice
entry on your resume.

With that in mind,   I challenge the members of the Board to publicly state
their plans and intentions to promote Apple and the Macintosh platform in
the coming year.  I challenge the Apple shareholders to think long and hard
before casting your votes this year, and to remember how those plans fared
during 1999 when casting votes in 2000.


--
Julian Y. Koh                                
Network Support Specialist                       
Telecommunications and Network Services  Northwestern University