January 27, 1996: Memo to Apple Fans: Things Aren’t Going So Great…

When the CEO of Apple Computers starts sending out open letters to reassure the faithful, you know times aren't going that smoothly corporately speaking. Show of weakness or not, Apple CEO Michael Spindler did send an open letter to reassure Apple customers, which stated in part:

"Looking forward, Apple is positioning itself to take advantage of information industry trends with the delivery of Copland, the code name of our next-generation operating system, and products based on the PowerPC microprocessor, the Newton platform and Pippin technology the television-based, affordable multimedia platform and Internet browser."

Coming on the heels of the failed attempts to sell Apple to anyone who would buy the mightily struggling company, the letter failed to alleviate anyone’s fears and likely hastened Spindler’s end at Apple. Apple users read Spindler’s letter and had a taste of just how bad things had gotten at Apple on January 27, 1996.