Apple Computer Inc is looking for outside investors to become part-owners of its embryonic on-line service, has very restricted plans to license others to make Macintoshes – but only outside the US, and is cutting back at its Personal Interactive Electronics division, home to the Newton. These items emerged from a briefing for analysts staged by chief executive Michael Spindler; the San Jose Mercury News and MacWeek persuaded one or two of the assembly to spill the beans anonymously. Spindler said that Apple will permit other companies to manufacture and sell their own versions of Macintoshes within six months to a year, but under strict guidelines and only outside the US. The first licensees will be in Europe and the Far East, starting with the Power Macintosh line. The first will likely be in Asia and will be a very large company. Clones of the 68000-based Macintosh line will probably appear first in Europe. Apple will insist on the machines meeting particular technical specifications – and will not allow their makers to sell them outside a particular region. Spindler also pledged to pull the company out of any market where it could not hold either first or second place, but he denied that Apple would sell the PIE division outright, or that the e-World on-line service is to be scrapped. Temporary division head Joseph Graziano, Apple’s chief financial officer, intends to cut the number of people assigned to it, and cut back funding to the division sharply – and will discontinue projects not directly related to either of the unit’s main products. As a result, Apple won’t introduce more Newtons for about a year, Spindler said – first it must break even, by the end of the year. He acknowledged approaching potential investor companies in e-World, which is set to go on-line later this year, but declined to name them. A long-distance carrier is thought the most likely partner, and Sprint Corp is the name most often mentioned.
