Get it?
I get where they're going with this from a marketing standpoint, and while I don't much care for the new names, I think everyone pretty much saw this one coming. The one thing I don't get is why they didn't drop the iMac monkier outright? Name regonition or not, it would seem that the lower case i's days are numbered, as far as computing products are concerned. (Incidenly, I feel a few twinges of sadness in this, as I'm acually typing this on a computer with the word "iMac" proudly emblazened on the back.) If the purpose of all this Mac(Name) business is to move away from "power" and simeltaneously achieve a sense of uniformity among products, then it makes little sense to hang onto the iMac name out of sentimantality. If Apple stays the course on this, I have a feeling that the next incarnation of the iMac may be marketed simply as the "Mac". In other words
The Mac...
In terms of a stragegic plan, that actually makes perfect sense. In so doing, Apple would be branding the beloved iMac as it's flagship product, so to speak. Seeing as how 1.) The iMac is probably the most revolutionary desktop since the original Macintosh and 2.) The iMac is definately the best personal computer on the market today, it wouldn't second-guess Apple if they decided to elect the iMac as it's poster child.
That also works from a sales point of few, as Apple likely wants to see the future iMac outsell the future MacPro. With the PowerMac, they've already got a good chunk of the professional market cornered. (I've never met a professional PowerMac user whose considered switching to anything else. In other words, Apple isn't likely to loose their share of PowerMac users anytime soon.) If sales of iMac continue to increase, however, that suggests that more consumers are being converted, and that's always a welcome stat.
-T
