FRUITFUL PLAN : APPLE CHIEF SAYS COMEBACK WILL BE STEADY.

Byline: John Markoff The New York Times

Anyone hoping to hear a grand rescue plan for Apple Computer Inc. probably came away disappointed.

But 100 days after being given the job of leading Apple out of the financial desert, Gilbert F. Amelio, in his first public strategy speech, said Monday that the company's comeback path would consist of many small steps - rather than the single bold move he said the news media might be expecting.

``Can you believe the press?'' Amelio told an audience of 4,000 Apple software developers, customers and analysts assembled at the San Jose Convention Center. ``They think I'm going to part the Red Sea; maybe instead I'll just part the Guadalupe River over there,'' he said, referring to the modest river that flows near the center.

If there was a theme to the many changes envisioned by Amelio, it involved refocusing the company on a smaller, less diverse and more clearly defined group of products. And he said that there would be a greater emphasis on what he called ``megatrends,'' like the Internet and multimedia products and services.

Amelio, who is given credit for turning around National Semiconductor Corp. before becoming Apple's chairman and chief executive in February, said that Apple would be reorganized around four product groups: the Macintosh computer line; an information-appliance business for products priced at less than

$1,000; printers and monitors; and a new organization devoted to ``alternative platforms'' like the computer Apple designed with IBM, called CHRP, or common hardware reference platform, and a server computer made by Apple that runs IBM's version of the Unix operating system.

Serving all four areas would be a cluster of business groups: the operating-systems software group; a new Internet business group; a customer-support group named Apple Assist; and the company's Advanced Technology Group.

And addressing the company's escalating expenses, which exceeded $11 billion last year, Amelio said that costs would be held below $9 billion this year.

Wall Street, which has been waiting for word of Amelio's plans for reviving the company after it recently reported a second-quarter loss of $740 million, reacted indifferently Monday to word of Apple's new strategy. While technology stocks generally rallied, Apple's stock fell 18.8 cents closing at $27.063 in Nasdaq trading.

And yet some longtime Apple watchers said Amelio's strategy was appropriate. What remained to be seen, they said, was whether the company could deliver on its promises.

``I think that Amelio should get a cautious thumbs-up,'' said Richard Doherty, president of Envisioneering Inc., a Seaford, N.Y., consulting firm. ``Apple still has good technology, and if they focus on the right things they'll be fine.''

But even though the company announced that it would begin a $20 million program to support the outside developers who create software for Apple's products, it will not be easy to win back the enthusiasm of the community of programmers who once made the Macintosh the industry's most innovative personal computer.

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Photo: (Color) Apple's Gilbert F. Amelio talks about his co mpany at the San Jose Convention Center.

Associated Press