I can say that I was fairly dissapointed that Apple's iPod was their big breakthrough, but once i started to look at, it is a pretty amazing a device. Anyway I dunno who watched Steve Jobs announce it, but he went over the 4 areas in his digital hub stradegy. 1 music, 2 movies, 3 dvds, and 4 photo, for each of these is a corrisponding app. 1 itunes, 2 imovie, 3 idvd, and 4 osx's photo integration (hopefully iphoto soon). But now iPod brings a layer to this circle, by filling in the 1st hardware spot for music. Now I wonder, if this is to be the 1st of the new hardware layer, and we'll be seeing devices for each of the areas. If this is the case we have alot to be excited about as Mac fans. In months we may be seeing new products like an iCam, iRom, etc .... i can only speculate. What do u guys think...?
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digital hub devices
- Thread starter rekras
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if jobs is consistent with the hub...
if jobs is consistent with the hub idea, then apple should make those products
...i couldn't see apple ditching the devices strategy if the iPod failed the first time out
if jobs is consistent with the hub idea, then apple should make those products
...i couldn't see apple ditching the devices strategy if the iPod failed the first time out
Yep... someone was quoted as saying that Apple was working on a lot of new products and the iPod is the first....
We'll see...
In the hardware front, I'm kinda surprised they're entering the digital device market...
A few years ago, during Amelio and Job's focus was simplification... down to a core strengths of Apple... they threw tons of crap out. Unfortunately, the Newton was part of it.
I agree - the iPod is an excellent product... very well balanced... seriously, I think it is the ideal MP3 player (even with the price). Small, sleek, generous storage, fast connect, excellent interface. It just goes to show what Apple's capable of when they create a product.
So...
The question is will apple really fill out with Digital devices for all these areas?
The MP3 player is nice - but it's perhaps the most abundant of the devices...
I don't see the point of them making a Digital Video camera. I don't think they can integrate it with iMovie significantly better than any other DV Cam.
Still Digital Camera? Apple was the first company to create a consumer Digital Camera - the original QuickTake. But... there are a lot of good digital cameras out there... and may of them connect to Apple. Optics/lenses etc... don't seem like a place Apple would want to go...
PDA? Ah... we here we get a little more interesting.... don't know.... everything we've heard sounds like Jobs does not want to get back into the PDA market....
DVD Player? Again - can they add much to it? It doesn't seem like they could... but I guess we'll see. They've already got the DVD Burner...
arn
Good points, arn i agree. You left one area however, photography. Another area as large, if not larger than the portable digital music area. Current cameras don't really take advantage of being digital, in terms of comunicating with a computer that much. I can think of some intresting ways in which Apple could vastly improve that, using all the technology they have acess to (particularly airport).
consumer devices...
I can't see Apple getting into making digital still or video cameras. I really don't see how much value they could add.
I really do see improvement that could be made on the software front for still cameras, though.
For example, I really should be able to plug in my digital camera and then easily get prints made via the Internet. I know that you can do that through a Web interface and with other software, but nobody's integrated it very well and it's something that lots of people would like to do.
I do think there's room for one of the much-speculated devices from the pre-ipod-announcement discussion. Apple could really make a good component for integrating the Mac into your home entertainment system.
Nobody wants to put their computer in their stereo cabinet, but a lot of people would like to have access to their movies, mp3s and streaming internet media on their television/stereo. Mix that with something like Tivo and I think you've got a winner.
HP has come out with something along these lines already, but I haven't seen any reviews yet. Being from HP, my guess is that it's half-assed.
Now it they could only make 1Gbit wireless networking...
I can't see Apple getting into making digital still or video cameras. I really don't see how much value they could add.
I really do see improvement that could be made on the software front for still cameras, though.
For example, I really should be able to plug in my digital camera and then easily get prints made via the Internet. I know that you can do that through a Web interface and with other software, but nobody's integrated it very well and it's something that lots of people would like to do.
I do think there's room for one of the much-speculated devices from the pre-ipod-announcement discussion. Apple could really make a good component for integrating the Mac into your home entertainment system.
Nobody wants to put their computer in their stereo cabinet, but a lot of people would like to have access to their movies, mp3s and streaming internet media on their television/stereo. Mix that with something like Tivo and I think you've got a winner.
HP has come out with something along these lines already, but I haven't seen any reviews yet. Being from HP, my guess is that it's half-assed.
Now it they could only make 1Gbit wireless networking...