Apple’s Announcements at MacWorld 2007
As expected, the howls of disappointment I hear after yesterday’s SteveNote are coming from people not disappointed by what Apple is offering, but rather by how Apple isn’t giving them their imaginary dream machines and products. The disappointment is fueled not by poor products, but by the the failure to live up to impossible standards.
Look, the MacBook Air is a nice concept computer. (I may be the only one who likes the name.) Only the real die-hards are going to spend $1800 on a laptop they can fit into a manilla envelope. It’s just way too expensive for too little computer. The form factor is beautiful and the machine is a marvel of engineering. But is it necessary? Does it really fill a gap in the marketplace?
I know it’s been rehashed before, but the true gap in Apple’s product line is in a more entry-level computer for under $1000 that would plug into someone’s existing keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Picture a Mac Mini, but in a tower form or a pizza box form. Picture the kind of box that businesses would buy, or that home users familiar with a specific PC format would feel more comfortable with. If you want growth, that’s where you want to go.
Tangent: I’m not saying that growth is the be-all and end-all of business. It drives me nuts that companies on the stock market need to grow, grow, grow to keep investors happy and their stock price rising. Note that Apple’s stock price dropped dramatically during the SteveNote today. Of course, I believe it did during the iPhone announcement last year, which has been a money-printing factory.
The real star here is the Apple TV 2.0, which is just a software upgrade and a price drop. This is the set-top box we’ve all been waiting for. This is Apple TV done right. HIGH DEFINITION delivered from the cloud over the air to your TV directly. No intermediate computer way station. You order it up from your TV and it gets delivered to your TV. True, it’s only 720p instead of 1080p, but for a $5 rental of a chick flick, who’s going to mind?
My favorite conspiracy angle on the Next Gen DVD wars is the one that Don Reisinger repeated on TWiT this past weekend — that Microsoft threw hundreds of millions of dollars into HD-DVD to create a war that nobody would win, because Gates and Company knew that the real money would be in digital downloads, not more DVDs.
The funny thing is, if he’s right then Apple just won the first battle on Microsoft’s dime. I do think digital downloads are the future. And the Apple TV 2.0 is the first winning salvo in that war. Yes, the XBox 360 has offered something like this for a year, but it’s been hidden under a gaming box and a cheap HD-DVD player and — well, it’s too much for the average consumer. And it’s too expensive.
$229 for the Apple TV? That’s pure gold. That should just about put the Vudu player out of business, because it does something just as well for a much smaller price. $229 is a great price for this thing. It can replace Netflix and Blockbuster in one fell swoop, creating a product that’s easier to use and more fun, honestly, than anything the rest offer. Add onto that the free HD video podcast potential — we’ve been talking about that for a YEAR now — and the home network possibilities — showing off your pics, playing iTunes music, etc. — and you’ve got a winning product in an affordable form factor without another monthly fee.
Apple TV is the big winner here today. (I’ll be pushing future Amazon Associates points towards its purchase.)
I also really like the Time Capsule for its simplicity. Sure, you can do NAS yourself, and quite possibly for less. But the simplicity and the form factor and the ease of use of Time Capsule should make it a winning add-on for Leopard, too.
On the other hand, this might all be the Reality Distortion Field at work. Give it a week and we’ll see.
For now, I’m thinking that the Apple TV is within my reach. It has a small enough price point and a big enough upside that I think I might be able to get it past the Finance Committee in the relatively near future. And the longer the Writers Strike continues in Hollywood, the better the Apple TV and more movie rentals looks.
Related Links:
- Last Year’s SteveNote Note (09 Jan 2007) (HDTV is no longer a problem for me. Yay)
- Follow-Ups, Updates, and Corrections (11 Jan 2007)
- Other Apple Rumors That Haven’t Panned Out (22 June 2007) (Two of them have come true since)
January 16th, 2008 at 10:31 am
As part of an IT department for a company that is primarily PC/Microsoft based, I don’t get much of a chance to play around with Macs. We have 3 here at work if I remember correctly, but we hardly ever have to deal with them. So, my experience with them is somewhat limited. My dad used to be in graphic design, so he has always been a Mac supporter. I have been wanting to buy a Mac for a while as a second computer just to learn the system better and become a more well rounded IT professional. I honestly have to say I am VERY impressed with the MacBook Air. If I had the money to spend, I would probably order one right now, as I need to buy a new laptop sometime.
But, as you mentioned Augie, that is the problem. Apple needs a lower cost computer on the market. I don’t need anything fancy, I just want something to tinker around with. And I just can’t see myself spending $1000 or more for a secondary computer that I’ll just be tinkering with. I really liked the idea of the Mac Mini, but I would love to have something in a more traditional form factor that could be more easily upgraded. Maybe one of these days!
January 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am
Now here’s my question, which I haven’t quite worked out yet; can Time Capsule be used as a regular external drive as well as an automated backup?
January 16th, 2008 at 11:40 am
so does this mean the air is or is not going to be made availabe? I art confused. :)
January 16th, 2008 at 11:53 am
@Joseph J. Finn: I don’t think it can, but I may be wrong.
The Apple TV is at a good price point, but I’m still not sure how well it will sell. The Xbox 360 has nearly identical features (although probably not as easy to use) on top of being able to play games, although it’s a good $150 more expensive for one that can do it.
I’m also really liking the new iPhone firmware, although the Location feature has proven worthless for me thus far. A 1 mile diameter circle wouldn’t really help me were I lost.
January 16th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I’m really upset about having to pay $20 for the iPod Touch application update. I just bought that thing back in October and now the new ones are shipping out with the extra apps that buyers don’t have to pay extra for. It’s just a simple firmware update isn’t it? $20 for a notepad, stocks, weather isn’t really worth it to me.
January 16th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
As the father of two young kids, I think Time Capsule is a great idea, given that all our family photos are now digital. (It’s also helpful for my music collection in iTunes, but losing those files is less of an end-of-the-world type thing.) Even though I do backup our files via an iOmega external drive, I don’t do it as often as I should, so having it happen automatically (and wirelessly) is just perfect.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Well, I just read (thanks to Augie’s Google Reader) that the iTunes rental won’t work for 5.5G iPods, which is what I have. Guess I won’t rush to upgrade iTunes, then.