It isn't too late to turn Apple around, but the company needs to be run by people who know and understand the PC business, said Frank Huang, chairman and CEO of the Taiwan-based company today. "To make Apple strong and really bring them back in business, you need to hire a guy who really knows the PC industry," Huang said. "But this is their last chance on this earth."

Apple CEO Gil Amelio's lack of experience in the PC business made him depend on the opinions of advisers such as Steve Jobs, Huang said. Apple needs to realize that it is difficult to be both a hardware and a software company in the increasingly complex PC business, he added. "It's about time to talk about Apple becoming two companies, one built around the Mac OS and other software, and one around the hardware business," Huang said. "I'm a strong proponent of this direction."

One Macintosh user agreed with Huang's assessment. "As long as clone makers are making Mac machines, we don't really care if Apple survives or not. We're waiting for Rhapsody, but we don't care if it's on an Apple box or a clone box," said Martin Gittins, a World Wide Web designer at Interface New Media in London.

And one analyst said that Apple may find it hard to turn around its hardware business. It is "unlikely it [Apple] ever can succeed as a box vendor again," said Terry Ernest-Jones, an analyst at International Data Corp. in London. And to reinvent itself around Rhapsody, its next-generation operating system, Apple will have to cut even more jobs, he added.

Amelio's resignation suggests that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company may have had a worse second quarter than expected, Huang said. "Frankly, I thought this would happen at the end of this year," he said. "But I guess something terrible happened in the second quarter."

Apple is expected to announce losses of around $70 million for the quarter ended in June, according to analysts, but some have warned that the figure may be as high as $400 million.