I've finished reading up on all the products introduced today and "Let's Rock" was everything I expected it to be. But one difference between this and other keynotes is that there really isn't anything new here at all on the hardware front.
What we're left with is in my opinion a plateauing effect - Apple has revised its iPod line so much that there really is not much more they can do. They're now making changes just for the sake of making changes and that may end up being a bad thing (it's certainly a less exciting thing for us).
This didn't just start today though. It's been going on since the day the Aluminium iMac was introduced. That product was in my opinion a huge step back for the design and didn't really add anything - it does all the same things as its predecessor but just looks uglier as it goes about its business.
My favourite MP3 player was the second generation iPod nano. It was just about perfect and when they decided to replace it with the 'fatty' I literally did a giant facepalm. Today's introduction goes a little way to restoring that iconic design and the genius that was the iPod mini but they've killed it by giving it the "punched in the face" look of the aluminium iMac.
For the first time in as long as I can remember Apple left two iPods completely unchanged. No upgrades whatsoever to them, apart from the removal of a model no one really wanted anyway. They literally didn't have anything more to add to these.
The touch update was mediocre. I'm not sure why the Nike+ thing got such a good reception because I've never seen or heard of anyone using it. They gave it the same ugly round feeling as the iPhone (does anyone REALLY miss the metal on the back of the original iPhone?!) and now it's gonna wobble on the table.
I'm not saying this because I was in any way "disappointed" with today's event - I have an iPhone 3G and had no plans to buy any new iPod or anything like that today.
So what do you guys think, are Apple's designers going a little dry in their old age?
What we're left with is in my opinion a plateauing effect - Apple has revised its iPod line so much that there really is not much more they can do. They're now making changes just for the sake of making changes and that may end up being a bad thing (it's certainly a less exciting thing for us).
This didn't just start today though. It's been going on since the day the Aluminium iMac was introduced. That product was in my opinion a huge step back for the design and didn't really add anything - it does all the same things as its predecessor but just looks uglier as it goes about its business.
My favourite MP3 player was the second generation iPod nano. It was just about perfect and when they decided to replace it with the 'fatty' I literally did a giant facepalm. Today's introduction goes a little way to restoring that iconic design and the genius that was the iPod mini but they've killed it by giving it the "punched in the face" look of the aluminium iMac.
For the first time in as long as I can remember Apple left two iPods completely unchanged. No upgrades whatsoever to them, apart from the removal of a model no one really wanted anyway. They literally didn't have anything more to add to these.
The touch update was mediocre. I'm not sure why the Nike+ thing got such a good reception because I've never seen or heard of anyone using it. They gave it the same ugly round feeling as the iPhone (does anyone REALLY miss the metal on the back of the original iPhone?!) and now it's gonna wobble on the table.
I'm not saying this because I was in any way "disappointed" with today's event - I have an iPhone 3G and had no plans to buy any new iPod or anything like that today.
So what do you guys think, are Apple's designers going a little dry in their old age?