Apple's Focus, Digital Music and More to Come?

*crosses fingers*

apple hasn't neglected the consumer... they've been busy with LOTS of other stuff! gimme a break, man... between iTunes Music Store and G5 and iPod mini, what else does he WANT!?

steve-o is doing an excellent job

all hail steve-o

Steve Jobs better come up with the goods and soon.

=)

Re: Apple's Focus, Digital Music and More to Come?

Originally posted by Macrumors

He reminds us that "the cornerstone of Apple's music strategy is to leverage its dominant position to sell more Macs to consumers".

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This may have been the initial strategy, but the iPod, iTunes, and iTMS have turned out to be much bigger in themsleves then the Macintosh to the rest of the world. In that, I'm not sure if it'll drive a lot more sales of comptuers.

His point of the lack of updates is well taken and the length of time seems to be getting long in the tooth.

consumer products need a rehaul

iMac a G5 expandable video card slot
eMac and iBook faster G4's more VRAM more RAM HARD DRIVE space.
etc...

well you get the idea.

Note: I am impatient just like everyone else but I rather have it done right then have a bunch of rev.A lemons delivered.

what dude?

Neglecting the consumer? Really.

I bet Apple is going to really come through with something Super Freakin Cool this year and everyone will write articles about how Apple is the innovation king and blah blah blah... buncha fair weather friends.

The only innovative thing coming out of the computer world right now are viruses.

well mayb this year will be the "year of the imac"...

Originally posted by gwuMACaddict
apple hasn't neglected the consumer... they've been busy with LOTS of other stuff! between iTunes Music Store and G5 and iPod mini, what else does he WANT!?

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that's exactly what neglect is. The itunes music store was announced last april, the G5 last june. The only recent announcement was the ipod mini, which was announced almost two months before it's readily available.

I hope there's a whole lot of updates soon.

Originally posted by gwuMACaddict
apple hasn't neglected the consumer... they've been busy with LOTS of other stuff! gimme a break, man... between iTunes Music Store and G5 and iPod mini, what else does he WANT!?

steve-o is doing an excellent job

all hail steve-o

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We all would like a little update to the iMac and the G5's, but Steve-o is basically doing a good job. He is trying to dominate the digital music (and eventually video?) market like MS does for the OS. Can't blame a guy for tryin'. Of course, we Mac-ers are spoiled - we already have iTunes and iPods, so we're ready to move to the 2.6 Gual G5s and the new displays. I guess we'll just have to be a little more patient.

How often is enough?

It's interesting that some people think that new models should come out weekly.........but then people complain after having just bought an existing model that is is now an 'obsolete' one and still others, that Apple is ripping them off by requiring new purchases, or the OS is being made better: another 'rip-off' and on and on.

It's good that we have diverse opinions but surely why don't the idiots with the silly ones remain silent -- and perhaps read some factual material?

IT WAS THE BLOODY ANNIVERSARY OF THE COMPUTER AS WE KNOW IT AND APPLE LET IT PASS. YOU ARE RIGHT, THEY BETTER DELIVER THE GOODS!

It is time to aggressively start taking back market share. It will be a big failure if Apple does not grow market share 20-30% with all the buzz they have.

If you really look at the last quarter, it was the iPod that really made it stand out. PM units were flat and laptops were up only a bit.

Apple's priorities should be:

1. eMac replacement - a Dell killer for schools. Lots of schools are starting a hardware/software buy cycle.
2. iMac replacement - this thing has to be 20% of Apple's sales. Consumers don't like the current generations price:feature.
3. Even faster PowerMacs. The dual G5 is only as fast (in real terms) as a single P4 but costs three tiems as much as a white box PC.

The computer side of the Apple's business needs shorter cycles. We should get a fsater rev every three months - no splashy announcements - just faster machine every few months. Just like in the Windoze world.

Re: How often is enough?

Originally posted by rjwill246
It's interesting that some people think that new models should come out weekly.........but then people complain after having just bought an existing model that is is now an 'obsolete' one and still others, that Apple is ripping them off by requiring new purchases, or the OS is being made better: another 'rip-off' and on and on.

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Well said! We're such a bunch of hypocrites.

Re: How often is enough?

Originally posted by rjwill246
It's interesting that some people think that new models should come out weekly.........but then people complain after having just bought an existing model that is is now an 'obsolete' one and still others, that Apple is ripping them off by requiring new purchases, or the OS is being made better: another 'rip-off' and on and on.

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I think this is an Apple lover phenomenon. I can't wait to upgrade my PC every 18 months. New brain, mobo, ram and video card usually.

I built up a fast P4 system last fall. Athlon64 doesn't bother me at all. In a few months I will get one of those.

If Apple users had a significant architecture upgrade available to them every 18 months, I think they would buy more machines.

But our fastest laptops are a third the speed on the fastest Wintel machines and have been for a while. Why upgrade a TiBook 800? Is an Alum book really that much faster?

more Macs

Market share would be nice... but the Mac news lately is even worse than that. Apple sold fewer Macintoshes in 2003 than they did in 2002. It's one thing to not grow as fast as the market, it's a another thing entirely to have shrinking unit sales.

They need to move the G5 throughout the product line in the first half of this year, and make sure they keep pace with the competition... and that's just to tread water. If they actually want to pick up new sales, they're going to have to be more aggressive about selling solutions into enterprise and promote home sales with everything from a "home office" pitch to a "home studio" pitch.

They're doing that piecemeal now with each release, but they need to take a more holistic view to their marketing, I think, and have web pages and pages (w/ pictures) devoted to how cool your whole home setup could be when you buy from Apple.

Originally posted by Bunzi2k4
well mayb this year will be the "year of the imac"...

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I hope so. I had a G4 iMac for a week and returned it. The G4 PM was a much better deal for the same amount of money (with monitor) and runs circles around the iMac I had.

I would like my next desktop to be an iMac that kicks the snot out of my MDD.

Re: Apple's Focus, Digital Music and More to Come?

Originally posted by Macrumors
Readers are reminded, however, that Steve Jobs hinted at more to come this year: "We're gonna make something of this year [2004]. We are working on some incredible new products for this year. It's going to be a great Mac year. We've got some wonderful things that we'll announce throughout the year that I think you will love as much as we do. It's going to be a great 20th anniversary year for the Macintosh."

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Was it me or did Steve mumble that a bit after he showed the poster to enlighten the audience, since most people were expecting something bigger.

Re: more Macs

Originally posted by Booga
Market share would be nice... but the Mac news lately is even worse than that. Apple sold fewer Macintoshes in 2003 than they did in 2002. It's one thing to not grow as fast as the market, it's a another thing entirely to have shrinking unit sales.

They need to move the G5 throughout the product line in the first half of this year, and make sure they keep pace with the competition... and that's just to tread water. If they actually want to pick up new sales, they're going to have to be more aggressive about selling solutions into enterprise and promote home sales with everything from a "home office" pitch to a "home studio" pitch.

They're doing that piecemeal now with each release, but they need to take a more holistic view to their marketing, I think, and have web pages and pages (w/ pictures) devoted to how cool your whole home setup could be when you buy from Apple.

Click to expand...

They have to roll out the G5 because they will need an answer to 64 bit Windows XP. This will drive MS's upgrade cycle until Longhorn comes. In a couple of weeks Intel will unveil CT - it's 64 bit extensions that are part of the 125 million transistor Prescott P4 (Northwood had 51 million, the extra cache and longer pipelines are not enough to explain all these extra transistors).

IMO: Apple's OS XI will be 64 bit (enough to justify more than just a point release) and they will be pushing hard to get as many Apple loyalists onto their 64 bit platform. I think Panther is the end of the road for us G4/G3 owners. Maybe they will do a 10.4 but my guess is that it will be gratis.

And if it's true I, for one, will be damn happy.

Great Analysis

This guy provided what I think is a fair and accurate portrayal of the current situation. A good snap shot of the time if you will.

The iMac does need to be taken care of, however it is important to note that any student can get a 1 Ghz eMac for $748 right now. How many kids have parents that know about the potential education discount?

In any case, the updates are to be "expected soon" as he says, and most of us here think they are also imminent.

Apple does need to and should be capatalizing on their market position right now, their media recognition has also never been higher. Something needs to be done soon before the window closes. With the current Apple leadership, I think they will get a lot out for us and everyone before that window closes.

Timing is critical

I am an avid fan of macrumors and constantly check for updates more than I care to admit. I also have not posted in the past.

Like many here, I eagerly got caught up in the rumors of a "pending" upgrade and other product announcement. Would it be 2.4 or 2.6? Would powerbooks get G5? Would the 30 inch cinema displays be announced? What day? Macworld SF, the week after, on the 20th anniversary or the Monday after, what did Railhead say? And when all else failed, maybe the Superbowl or the Monday after.

Now, it has all come and gone. And guess, what no big announcement(s). New Ipods, upgraded Xservers, software updates, and new iLife additions but no big consumer product.

In hindsight, it all makes sense to me and I hope to others. What makes sense is that Apple strengthened where they needed to and at the same time made space by not crowding other announcements. They used this space to allow emphasis on marketing. Marketing is something that mac fanatics (like those that haunt macrumors don't need - we are sold and then some). Ironically, they used this space for Pepsi to tie into Apple iTunes with their 100 million song marketing machine. We see it every time that we sign onto the Apple site. How could they do that properly and also be pushing a new apple product. So they push to the masses. They capture the press. They fight napster with a Pepsi tie-in and with garageband and with new ipods. They also upgrade what does not conflict by upgrading Xserves.

They also delay slightly and build up for a bigger consumer announcement which will eventually come and which will please the faithful fanatics and also capture the press and continue a well spaced out campaign of being in the news in a positive fashion. Brilliant and well thought out.

Re: Re: more Macs

Originally posted by lewdvig
I think Panther is the end of the road for us G4/G3 owners. Maybe they will do a 10.4 but my guess is that it will be gratis.

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I sure as hell hope not!!

The main reason I bought Apple instead of a cheaper faster Wintel book, is that I know that Apple product have a longer life. If my laptop can't run the newest OS in only one and a half years, I'll be severely pissed!!! It's illogical to complain that new hardware released shortly after you bought yours makes what you have obsolete, but that the OS would through you out in the cold is another matter entirely!! If Apple goes to 64-bit ONLY OS, even having been an Apple user since the IIc, I just might ditch them.

I think that Apple is going to have to have all 64-bit procs before we see a 64-bit OS. I don't see Apple shipping computers that CAN'T run their own latest software! Maybe 2 versions of 10.4, a 32-bit and 64-bit, but I don't think that Apple is in any hurry to alienate 90+% of it's customers. There are many schools that really use the latest Mac OS, but don't have the latest hardware. Making the Mac OS 64-bit ONLY is the worst decision Apple could POSSIBLY make.

my prediction!!

of course this is my sole and utterly ignorant opinion, however, I assume that Apple will release new products whatever they may be by March 17th 2004 (the last date an up-to-date program request for i-life can be postmarked.) so that is within roughly 5 weeks.

Let us hope it is much sooner.

I like the updates and I don't. I got a PB but a new one was released a month later.... That kind of pissed me off. Also, if I would have waited that one extra month I would have gotten Panther for $20 instead of the $79 I paid.

I would like an iTunes type of program for movies. I would definately pay $10 or so to download a full entire movie... QT movies look pretty damn good, and they should use that to tap into the movie market.

The only thing that I hate about QuickTime is that it doesn't go full screen. I have to use MPlayer to view full screen. Why didn't they put a full screen feature in Quicktime? Do they think that people like watching movies with a window bordering it? At least they didn't do it with DVD player....

I think this year is going to be the year of the downloadable movie.

-ko

im sick of the 'i need a g5 imac' rant... do you all REALLY honestly think that the everday consumer needs a g5 to surf the web and check email and word process.....??

(no)

i mean, it'd be neat and all... and i would prolly get all tingly inside and have to have one, but jeez... i'm not gonna get my panties in a bunch about it... g5 for the pro, g4 for the others