END OF AN ERA: APPLE & MACWORLD

Watching this clip from one of the first MacWorld San Francisco conferences just 90 days after the release of the Macintosh computer in 1984, one cannot help but mark a beginning and fill an evolution from that time to now and all the revolutionary steps along the way.

Next Apple Wave

What will Apple unveil next?

Obviously, the retail consumer-drive Apple has swung into the Holiday season trying to move its inventory of iPhones, iPods, MacBooks, iMacs and MacPro Towers so we will not be hearing any new products for the remainder of 2008.

Then comes MacWorld SF and the speculation has already begun about what the new year will bring.

A favorite prediction is the iPhone Nano, a $99 iPhone with 8GB of memory designed to be sold in WalMart stores. A few weeks back there was a twitter all around that Apple and WalMart had made an agreement to sell a cheap iPhone with stripped down fearures of a phone and iPod MP3 player with Apple ease-of-use interface (illustration above). This would be too easy for Apple and, although they might want to take advantage of the price point to expand their share, this solution seems to the answer market managers look for rather than product innovators.

There are a lot of questions being asked about what will happen to the Mac-Mini, the tiny box that works for many desktops and pushes the bottom price of Apple's CPU line. Will Apple announce changes to the line of mini's or discontinue them?

A Mac Netbook would be a small sized cross between a tablet, a notebook and a laptop. The talk is Apple will want to come into the line of products with this priced at $599 and replace the Mac-mini or, at least, compliment the Mini with a much more mobile and touch interface device. As you might know, here at Apple Tech Blog, we've been advocating for a keyboard-less mobile tablet for over a year now and had hoped it would be announced at MacWorld SF 2008.

What Apple discovered in 2008 was the huge potential of the online Apps Store for selling software via the air waves. this sales and marketing model might now be in place for a Netbook to reap the benefits of sales in software downloads. An army of new software developers have profitably written and produced a huge number of apps for the iPhone and it could be good business and good will for Apple to turn this army in a new direction

The critics of the Mac Netbook say that the size of the Netbook market (just a little over 5 million units have been sold) is way too small for Apple to become interested and hope to see a ROI, however, Apple is in good shape to invent the category and with the App Store and iTunes drive tens of millions of new buyers into a new product category for the computer innovator.

Then, as usual, everybody else will follow, right?

Reality Distortion Shielding Hat

Post 1/15 and we all could use a dose of reality distortion protection (RDP), especially of the heals of a disappointing Macworld San Francsico. We were all a little let down, not because Apple threw a bucket of cold water on our smothering hot expectations (they didn't) but because are field of distortion exceeded Job's willingness to meet the demand.

Take this guy for example. Suffering from a severe case of RD, he makes the case for iSight Pro and it is pretty compelling, however, slim-to-little chance the YouTube compatabe device will ever become an official Apple product. Are you listening Belkin? Newer Technology? Griffin?

Beautiful Harmony - Apple and Microsoft

The first application I ever bought for the Mac was Microsoft Word and it cost me $24 from MacWarehouse. My friends at Microsoft dispute that Word cost so little in those days but most Mac applications could be had for a 20 dollar bill. That's the truth ruth.

When I entered the world of Apple Mac consulting I quickly became a Apple/Microsoft expert. I taught courses in major accounting and law firms on how to use Microsoft enterprise software on a Mac and set up databases and networks. Together Apple and Microsoft radically invented an user interface that was graphical, used standard file formats and made computing easy for millions rather than complicated and code based command line computing for a few techno-geeks.

But it wasn't easy. First there was the ignorance of so many in the executive suits and mid-level management that really didn't even believe Microsoft applications ran on a Mac. Not only did they run on a Mac, they were invented on the Mac. Excel was written first and specifically for the Mac. Accounts can't believe this when you tell them.

Then, second, came the wholesale hostility between Apple and Microsoft. Yes, there were developers inside Microsoft who loved and emulated the Macintosh and used its interface as a foundation stone for working out there ideas, adding and subtracting, improving upon and not coming up to measure of the Mac GUI. But in particular divisions and among the leadership a Microsoft, Apple became the enemy and Steve Jobs often did and still does thumb his nose at the folks up in Redmond, Washington. Jobs main complaint is Microsoft has no taste.



For a time it was hard to be both a Microsoft and Apple lover without apology. But I do recall the days when every new product announcement, on either platform, was exciting and welcomed in the computing world as a sign of innovation. Apple would release new products and they would be insanely great. Microsoft would bring out their apps with incredible new features that further empowered the user and people thought -- go faster, bigger, and play harder. All within a tiny footprint of memory and RAM that by today's standards is almost unbelievable.