"They have real winners in the iPod and Tiger.", you say.
To which I reply "Not so, not by a long shot".
To all of us on the Windows side who bought an iPod (or even only used iTunes, which does present the Apple way of doing things, which is "correctly and easily" for a change), Apple needs to address our needs (if their plan is to increase their userbase even further, that is). iPod is a nice portable music player, iTunes is a nice program. But Tiger and OS X are completely unknown. Which is a shame, because it's what's worth getting a Mac for.
Another iPod (the "iPod micro", the flash one, lowest price, etc) would be nice for the on-line music marketshare and all, that's for sure. They need it to grow their userbase who can "experience" Apple, but at a much lower price.
As for Tiger, this alone won't make us buy an expensive computer (Joe Street doesn't really compare features and value, he compares sticker prices). After all, without a Mac, we can't experience Tiger. Without experiencing Tiger, we're more than happy with iTunes(+iPod) on Windows. But we don't "crave" for better, since people are comfortable with "good enough". We do see a hint of what the Apple "experience" can be with iTunes, but aside from that, life's "ok" on Windows. Apple needs to open the doors a little (and no, I'm not talking about porting iLife to Windows, that would be suicide - IMO anyway).
The iMac G5 is nice, but until it has a better GPU, a lot of PC users won't even look at it. The eMac, Apple's entry-level computer (which is what a lot of switchers are looking at, since it's Apple's lowest-priced computer) is currently a big joke (the features it has are pathetic for 2004). PowerMac is a no-go, being the most expensive Macs you can buy. I think Apple will address both these problems with the eMac G5, and Radeon 9600/64MB in both of these.
Well, the iBook got an update a few months ago without any fanfare. But it was only an update to an already existing model. So no big deal there. Especially since it further closed the gap between iBook and PowerBook (at least for the 12" model). As for the eMac, according to the usual delay between updates, it's way overdue. Something's got to be done, and soon.
We did see an internal Apple memo about the next eMac "having minor external/big internal changes", so we can assume they're not dropping it from their lines, and "big internal changes" points to the G5. Now that the iMac has it, nothing's stopping it from getting a G5 too. I really wonder if it'll be running at 1.6GHz though, since the lowest iMac G5 is 1.6GHz. Perhaps 1.4 or 1.5Ghz for the eMac? Unless Apple does release eMac G5/1.6GHz and updates the iMac at the same time? (isn't it too early for an iMac update?)
If the eMac goes G5, it
is a big deal. It also means their entry-model desktop now uses the same CPU as their top-of-the-line, professional computers (yeah I know, different bus speeds, GPU, etc. But you get the basic idea about "eMac = PowerMac from only 2 years ago since it now has a G5 too").
Either the PowerMacs will get a
noticable speed bump or jump to the next level (G6). Of course, the PowerMac G6 will only be available later (2005-Q4?), with Steve demo'ing one of the few prototypes (and no, we won't see what it'll look like, only the computing power is has).
Consumer desktops will be G5, Pro will be G6.
Consumers laptops will be G4, Pro will be dual-core G4 (or low-speed G6?).
The rumor does list the eMac as "G5/1.6GHz with Radeon 9600", which could hint an iMac update after all (why on earth would the eMac sports a Radeon 9600/64MB if the iMac has a GeForce FX 5200 Ultra/64MB?). And while we're at it, even the eMac would now have a better GPU than the lowest PowerMac model (with the current default configuration)... I smell updates across the board for the desktops! Major ones for eMac and PowerMac, and a speedbump/features bump for iMac.
And lastly (again), for those who will complain that "the eMac cannot go G5 before the PowerBook":
1. as far as we know, it
cannot be done for the PowerBook at the moment, get over it.
2. the iMac already has a G5 and it isn't in the "Pro" line. So your argument about the "classes" of computers doesn't hold since Apple already broke it.
Edit: I moved a lot of paragraphs around, trying to make my post easier to read. But I may have failed and complicated things instead.
