Apple Lang Syne

[Swad]

A new year prompts reflection, careful thought, and the annoying necessity of learning to write a "7" instead of the habitual "6."

 

2006 brought a host of changes for Apple, so as we ring in the new year, it's natural to ask what 2007 holds. Cult of Mac, asking 2007 questions in a very 2006-ish world a few days ago, did a little reflection of their own. Some of their questions include:

10. Is Apple ready to compete in two new fields (Home Theatre and Mobile Telephony)?

8. Has the switch to Intel been successful from a third party software perspective?

7. What should Apple credit for soaring Mac sales?

0.5 Did Sean Connery really make a better James Bond than Pierce Brosnan?

 

Ok. So I made that last one up. It's a good question nonetheless...

 

What are your thoughts about Apple's upcoming year? Expecting something big?

[Orea]

I'm expecting this not to be as big, due to the fact of it releasing quite a few major products including intel.

 

The iTV will probally be quite a big hit as a media centre item, i know i'll be buying it

 

I am expecting the 6th Gen iPod to come this year, and of course Leopard, but none of the release's are as mad as windows. People crawl through fire to get copy's from their local pc store.

 

I will be hoping for a new keyboard, as the space bar has just snapped on mine, and now its stuck together with tape.

 

I expect apple's marketshare will not increase in PC market due to the release of V. But i think it will increase in the mp3 player market.

 

BaYlisS

Edited January 1, 2007 by Bayliss

[jglavin]

Connery was better, hands down. Brosnan was just the modern Roger Moore. As far as the "new guy," I haven't been to Casino Royale so I dunno.

 

Apple needs to keep their momentum going. Lately, it seems like the hype is dying down. Linksys beat them to the iPhone, and Vista is getting loads more press than Leopard ever did. That said, I'm sure Jobs et al are well aware of these things and are working on it...

 

We should be in for some treats this year. I hope 10.5 gets the hackintosh treatment in the near future... I'm still not ready to drop cash on a real mac. Maybe in the next major hardware revision.

[sHARD>>]

Connery was better, hands down.

[jana]

hmmmmm.....

Im expecting big things from apple next year mainly iTV and hopefully Apple Cinema Displays in larger sizes with HDMI.

 

10) I personnaly dont think apple should attempt to compete in mobile telephony cause their Motorola/iTunes merge gave really bad results and didnt sell well, as for Home theatre im sure the would be able to do somthing with the Mini hopefully.

 

8) as for the intel changeover i dont think its been greatly succesful when thinking aboput third party software because most of the companies(adobe) didnt optimize fast enough.

 

7) Credit insanelymac (especially in my case - ive installed OS X on my pc and it was great so im in for a changeover this year)

 

0.5) Sean Connery was better if u ask me dunno why

[cringemaster]

10) I think apple will do especially well in both home theatre and mobile telephony because they have been pretty good about getting the FORM FACTOR right from teh start

 

8)For small third party companies, they have been able to adapt relatively well, for larger ones, its been slow. (but adobe, youre geting warmer..)

 

7)Lower prices, Being able to run windoze natively, the iPod, and OSx86/InsanelyMac

 

0.5) Sean Connery did a better job, but Brosnan wasnt that bad. All the Bond movies he was in were all somewhat succesfull. Roger Moore was pretty sucky. I watched the first five minutes of his bond debut and lost interest.

 

Apple needs to keep their momentum going. Lately, it seems like the hype is dying down. Linksys beat them to the iPhone, and Vista is getting loads more press than Leopard ever did. That said, I'm sure Jobs et al are well aware of these things and are working on it...

 

I think they are saving up their hype for the release of Panthera Paerdus/Leopard and the 6G iPod (which i think will be more than a music player. ?newton returns?

[munky]

I'm Scottish, so i'm probably biased, but Sean Connery was miles better than any other bond.

 

After him, i'd say Pierce Brosnan. Roger Moore was {censored}. Also havent seen the new one, so dunno bout him.

[Takuro]

10) I don't think we're any more confident in Apple's mark on home theater and mobile communications than we were last year. Up until 2006, people were wondering if Apple would compete with TiVo and there were already tons of Apple cell phone rumors for years. It's no longer a question of if they'll enter these two new fields, but how they will do once their products are released. In classic Apple fashion, not enough information on either product lines has been released to come to any solid conclusions yet. I know a lot of avid Mac fanboys would argue otherwise, but I'm trying to give an unbiased, neutral, "I don't know yet" as an answer. Once the products are out, then we can start to make some real observations.

 

8) I think the Intel switch was a huge success. Not only have 3rd party developers been given the possibility to harness the power of a new architecture, but it's also opened a whole new world of opportunities for companies like Parallels. Based on the first year of new and improved software, I really can't wait to see what rolls out next.

 

7) Apple's Mac sales should probably be attributed, again, to the use of x86 chipsets. A lot of people who once hesitated to buy a Mac now have the ability to run Windows via Bootcamp side-by-side with OS X. A lot of people have realized that even Windows performs better on Macs due to the great hardware setups. As far as public relations go, Macs now just seem friendlier and more open to all kinds of opportunities. In the process, people do wind up liking OS X even if they never tried to use it before. Advertising has definitely improved, and prices have come down. Macs no longer seem like these expensive machines reserved for a cult of snooty die-hard enthusiasts and multimedia professionals. All models are constantly and silently updated with the newest Intel CPUs as soon as they are available, creating a constant buzz.

 

.05) Both of them are better than the new James Bond. I grew up with Brosnan as Bond, so he's almost synonymous with 007 from my view. I'd have to agree though that Connery had a certain distinct "Bondish" charm that no successor has quite nailed.

Edited January 1, 2007 by Takuro

[(MoC)]

I expect Apple to do big things, thy always have and I'm not letting them down. I am a proud owner of an iBook G4 14.1 inch: 80GB HD and 1G RAM. It also has some special functions it was really custom built.

[bofors]

10. Is Apple ready to compete in two new fields (Home Theatre and Mobile Telephony)?

 

Frankly, I really doubt it.

 

"iTV" may turn into something but Apple's lack of somekind of box that can be considered a real HTPC (meaning at least a Conroe-based box and an upgradable PCIe graphics card without a built-in display) along with some slick iTunes-like software for running a video jut-box is a serious problem in my mind. I really hope that they introduce these products next week, but I am not holding my breath for them.

 

The "iPhone" may also turn into something, but Apple is already late to market when one considers what BlackBerry has to offer.

 

8. Has the switch to Intel been successful from a third party software perspective?

I am sure not what this is supposed to mean.

 

Do software developers consider the transition to be a success? Sure.

 

Have software developers been successful in making the transition? Sure, but Adobe has been a little slow.

 

7. What should Apple credit for soaring Mac sales?

 

I don't think Mac sales are "soaring". They are doing well, but we are still talking about only 3% of the market and nobody expects that double anytime soon.

 

0.5 Did Sean Connery really make a better James Bond than Pierce Brosnan?

Of course, what a silly question.

 

What are your thoughts about Apple's upcoming year? Expecting something big?

 

I think we can expect Apple to focus on completing the x86 transition this year. Until Leopard and Adobe CS3 are released it is not really over yet. I do not think the Leopard will be released until the spring and Apple really should not be in any hurry to complete it either. At this point, it is certainly better to wait until Microsoft is done rolling out Vista and the related hype dies down.

 

The really "big" thing that I see in Apple's future is the licensing of OS X to HP, Dell, Sony and perhaps Lenovo (see the Chinese angle?). This is bound to happen sooner or later, but I am not sure if that is part of Steve Jobs' short term plan or not. Even if it is, I do not expect it to happen this year for a number reasons. First of all the, x86 transition is not really complete yet in my mind (many serious Mac users are still running PPC gear and Apple does not even offer a Conroe mid-tower or HTPC yet) and second, Apple does not need to take such a risk when things are going so well in general and they are trying to expand their niche in consumer electronics. I do not think that Apple has much to fear right now from Vista or Linux either.

 

The only other thing worth mentioning is that it is not going to surprise me if Steve Jobs steps down from Apple this year. There seem to be a number of vacant executive positions at Apple which are not being filled and Jobs himself may actually be getting some heat over this "back-dating" of stock-options scandal. But more importantly, the last time I saw Jobs on stage he looked sick and we know his health is not perfect either. Sooner or later he is going to leave, and he may very well chose to quit when he is so far ahead. On the other hand, I do not think he really lives to do anything else, so we will have to wait and see.

[Takuro]

The only other thing worth mentioning is that it is not going to surprise me if Steve Jobs steps down from Apple this year...

I have a feeling that a little while after the release of Leopard, he'll probably retire a few months after. He's never needed help with a keynote ever, until recently. He does his job because he loves it, and he'll do all he can to be the CEO as long as possible. Right now, he's making a $1 annual salary. What I wonder is, if Jobs goes, does Apple go down with him? They were in a huge slump in the 90's before he came back.

 

I also agree that Mac sales aren't "soaring." They're increasing, but some companies fluctuate in marketshare in a single year by an amount that's bigger than Apple's total share.

 

I'm optimistic, but still not without some concern.

[jglavin]

What I wonder is, if Jobs goes, does Apple go down with him? They were in a huge slump in the 90's before he came back.

Ugh. And yet, my high school was still full of Macs in that era. We used to get ridiculed by the business kids because our OS 7.5/8.5 Macs crashed *more* than the Winboxes.

[bofors]

He's never needed help with a keynote ever, until recently.

 

There were some clearly expressed concerns about this back in August:

 

http://www.oreillynet.com/mac/blog/2006/08...from_steve.html

 

http://shauheen.ngareh.com/archives/000178.html

 

... and Apple (Steve Jobs) quickly acted to put a lid on them. But I think something is definitely up and we know that Jobs is personally implicated in the stock-option scandal which not gone away. In light of the HP "pretexting" scandal and such, it does sound like it is bad enough to seriously tarnish Jobs' reputation and AAPL stockholders certainly have nothing to {censored} about either.

 

What I wonder is, if Jobs goes, does Apple go down with him? They were in a huge slump in the 90's before he came back.

 

It is obvious that the contest to find Jobs' sucessor is well under way (but of course he is not exactly replaceable). These three appear to be the main candidates, as I think Apple will almost certainly promote from within:

 

 

I think all of them could do a decent job, but they are very different people too.

 

"Fat boy" Phil Schiller seems like a clown on stage with Steve, but if you look at his resume he can be taken a little more seriously and actually appears competent. Nonetheless, I think his slovenly image is inconsistent with Apple's slick product line.

 

Bertrand Serlet is my favorite and it is he who is largely responsible for OS X as we know it. I suspect he would cut OS X loose from Mac hardware, and really drive it's development with a new kernel and programming tools. But this guy is a rather eccentric computer scientist, so I really doubt he will be selected to run Apple now that it so heavily into music and video.

 

Scott Forstall is really the guy to watch, he is clearly being groomed to be Steve Jobs' successor by Steve himself. He seems like a fairly bright guy with both the technical savvy and political skills to really take Apple into the future. He is also the youngest of bunch which may be perceived as a benefit in light of Steve Jobs' health problems. However, I must say there is something about Scott Forstall that I really do not like either.

 

[Snowsation]

haha, so i read this thing earlier today, then in my boredom stopped by here jsut now and saw it again. Ya i think that the points with iLife and .mac are pretty good ones and probably one of the worst things going for apple right now.

[alloutmacstoday]

yeah

 

0.5 Did Sean Connery really make a better James Bond than Pierce Brosnan?[/b]

 

Ok. So I made that last one up. It's a good question nonetheless...

 

okay, sean connery was by far the best james bond, but pierce brosnan was definatly second best, but i don't think anyone will ever beat sean

[rparker]

10. While Apple is certainly ready to compete in those two fields and many more, I feel as if they will have a much bigger influence the home theater arena. If you've read any hdtv blogs lately, everyone is talking about the general frustration amongst consumers of achieving the perfect picture and sound they believed they purchased at the store. If Apple brings an easy to use solution to this as they did with the ipod, it will be a huge success, assuming again that they choose to support the windows platform as well.

The lack of a clear set top box for MCE will bode well for Apple who would be first to the market with an easy to use media streamer, although it would require the ability to stream hd content from computers as well as using hd content from the users cable or antenna feeds. Providing an interface to both these mediums will lead to a huge success for Apple.

 

On the iPhone, Apple will be much like Microsoft and the Zune, it'll come into the market with new and interesting features, but its lack of a market stronghold will prevent it from gaining attention. The iPhone would have to provide a revolutionary means of communicating as well as managing one's mobile life, and have a price point cheap enough to attract consumers. If the iPhone is solely an iPod with a phonebook and calling abilities, I doubt it will be successful.

 

8. While much of the pro software companies have been slow to release universal binary applications, it is complemented by many of the pro's not switching to intel as soon. For the general consumer, the performance difference with rosetta on a new intel mac is not a concern. In the new year we should see Adobe and other pro application companies transitioning to Intel which should bolster intel mac sales by pro media companies.

 

7. Apple should first credit the iPod, without this device and its trademark white earbuds, most windows users would be stuck in microsoft hell. Secondly, the transition to intel has provided consumers with means of comparing an apple computer to a dell, in an oranges to oranges comparison, instead of the apples to oranges comparison it used to be. Lastly, apple should credit Microsoft and its inability to stick to a release schedule, and the virus authors who find and abuse microsoft's bugs.

 

0.5. Thats a question for the ages, but we can all rest knowing that Daniel Craig comes no where close.

[Henke]

I must agree with Bayliss here. I think this year will be somewhat calmer for Apple.

 

What I know is that it'll be a big year for myself Apple-/Macwise, because I'm going to get my first Mac ever, and if/when the home theatre option becomes available I'll probably get my dirty little fingers on one of them as well.

 

As far as the Bond question is concerned, I have a feeling that because Sean Connery was the first ever to appear as James Bond in a picture, the first incarnation of Bond if you will, he has in many ways set the standard of what and who everyone thinks of James Bond as. Because, let's face it, how many have actually read the books by Ian Flemming? Sean Connery is my personal favourite because he's, in my opinion, more true to Ian Flemming's character in the novels than anyone of the others.