Apple Moves Design From Curves to Corners

Apple Computer Inc. has shown the shine is still on. At the Macworld Conference and Expo here last week, the company introduced its next big thing: a 7.7-inch cube that houses its most powerful computer.

Because it is so small at 19.6 centimeters, the cube is about one-quarter of the size of computers with similar power the G4 Cube drew large crowds at the show, creating a buzz similar to that of the debut of the curvy and colorful iMac consumer computer two years ago.

But most of the attendees at a Macworld Expo, which takes place twice a year in the United States, are the kind of people known as the Apple faithful.Investors, on the other hand, were more skeptical, apparently seeing the Cube as an interesting novelty or at best an incremental design advance.

The Cube, which Steve Jobs, interim chief executive of Apple, introduced as ''the coolest computer ever,'' is positioned at the high end of Apple's professional desktop line and aimed at users who need heavy-duty computing power, such as graphic artists and Web designers.In its least expensive standard configuration, the Cube will cost $1,799, comparable in price to the desktop G4s before the announcement.

The price includes a keyboard, mouse and external speakers. The computer itself has a hard drive and a DVD player and fits in a clear plastic stand that allows cables to be connected through an opening in the bottom.

Apple pointed out that the unit is far quieter than typical high-end machines because it does not have a fan, using convection to keep cool. On Wall Street, investors were concentrating on a different announcement.

The night before the Cube was introduced, Apple reported that net profit for its third quarter, which ended July 1, was $200 million, which translated to 45 cents a share on the operating basis that analysts use.

The number was slightly higher than had been expected. Sales were $1.83 billion, a 17 percent increase from a year earlier but below expectations of about $1.9 billion. Apple sold 450,000 iMacs instead of the 500,000 that it had projected.Apple's shares, which closed

Tuesday at $57.25 before the earnings news, ended at $52.6875 on Wednesday, the day of the Cube's introduction.

They closed Friday at $53.5625The analysts who follow Apple seemed more impressed. On Thursday, five of them issued ''buy'' recommendations on the company's stock. So why were investors down on the shares?''I am a little perplexed,'' said Megan Graham-Hackett, director of technology research for Standard & Poor's Corp.'s equity services, which does not rate stocks as ''buy'' or ''sell.

''Ms. Graham-Hackett, who said she found the Cube ''very compelling,'' speculated that its novelty was hard for the average investor to evaluate.''Any time you come up with an original, innovative feature or form factor, people are not entirely sure how successful it will be,'' she said.

When Apple introduced the iMac in 1998, paving the way for the company's renaissance after a decade of decline, it said it would trim its then-amorphous product line to four kinds of computers: desktop and portable models for each of the consumer and professional markets.

The consumer computers are the colorful iMac and iBook lines, while the professional models are the Power Macs and the PowerBooks.

Ms. Graham-Hackett said she thought the Cube would be attractive to home users, especially in the graphic arts, who needed something more powerful than an iMac but did not want the bulk of the current desktops, which are 17 inches high, 8.9 inches wide, and 18.4 inches deep.

In this way, the Cube would mark a shift from the four-category paradigm, and Mr. Jobs said in his speech that it comprised ''an entirely new class of computer.''

The Cube may be the smallest high-end computer in the world, but it is not the lightest. At 14 pounds (6.3 kilograms), it is 3 pounds too heavy to be considered a ''small form-factor'' computer, said Charles Smulders, who follows the industry for Dataquest Inc.

He said Dataquest ''would have liked to see a product that was about 10 pounds.''

He did, however, like the design, saying ''it adds new perspective to the Apple line-up. I do not think it is going to be a big-volume seller, but it will certainly garner a lot of attention, and I think it will allow Apple to set the agenda for computer design.''-FROM THE IMAC perspective, Mr. Smulders found the show ''a little disappointing.''

Although Apple introduced four new colors, one of which will sell for a record low $799, the products it brought out were incremental improvements to its existing line, which accounts for nearly half of Apple's unit sales.

Apple also unveiled a new keyboard and an optical mouse which does not have a moving roller to keep clean and new monitors as well as new full-sized G4 computers, including a model with two processors.The top-of-the line model, with two 500-megahertz G4 chips, will be as fast as a computer based on Intel Corp.'s 2-gigahertz Pentium III processing chip when it is released ''a year or more from now,'' Apple said.

The trade show provided some other evidence that things are going well for Apple. For one thing, attendance was higher than in past years, though final statistics were not available. For another, Apple was recruiting staff to fill about 700 positions.As well, Microsoft Corp. previewed Office 2001 Macintosh Edition, a version of its popular business products with special features for the Macintosh.

Besides such standards as the Word word-processor and Excel spreadsheet, Microsoft is including a Macintosh-only program called Entourage.

This application functions as an e-mail program and personal information manager, and it is tightly integrated with the rest of the suite, allowing users, for example, to write letters and send them to various contacts in their address books.It takes the place of Access, a database program that does not exist in Macintosh format, and Outlook, an e-mail program that is not wildly popular with Apple users.

Although users of Macintosh computers and Microsoft's operating systems often show distaste for each others' products, the two companies have had a relatively close relationship since Mr. Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997 after his ousting from the company that he co-founded in 1976.