Apple CEO Michael Spindler said he hopes the second-quarter loss will be less than the first quarter's net loss of $69 million. Company officials said they would refocus on higher-end systems for business, home, and education use and retreat from the less-profitable market for entry-level consumer systems.
Analysts predicted the company could shed as many as 4,000 employees, a 23 percent drop in the current number of workers.
Apple currently holds less than 10 percent of the worldwide personal computer market. And according to some analysts, that share is unlikely to grow. "The installed base of Macintosh users is upgrading to Intel boxes. They're selling most new systems to people buying their first PC, and that won't work," said Rob Enderle, an analyst with Giga Information Group in San Jose, California.
