3x. Better quality improves Apple's reputation, which is very important. Maybe the lower margins are (at least partially) for higher quality.
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Resellers Getting Signals for a Wide Range of Apple Updates?
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Shard, I think you are a bit premature to state that Blu-ray lost the content distribution war as this war is only just now starting.
Also I wouldn't read too much into Job's sales pitch comments. He always disses a technology until Apple comes out with their refined version of the same tech. If every word ever uttered by Jobs were considered gospel, Apple wouldn't have half the products they currently offer. IE, Video ipod, iphone, Apple TV, USB, two-button mice, computers with fans, intel processors, etc.
I would bet that Jobs himself has a large screen 1080p HD TV with a Blu-ray player. I would bet that he has a huge catalog of Blu-ray titles as well.
The world is moving onto HD. Content providers, news reporters, internet broadcasters, are all moving to HD video. The video professional needs a portable laptop that provides quick editing of HD content and Blu-ray authoring to distribute it quickly to multiple clients or employers. Disc media is still the best for storage and distribution of this type of work.
Internet distribution of True HD content to a large audience currently has too many drawbacks. Broadband infrastructure just isn't there yet and many more ISPs are running into bandwidth bottlenecks hence the move to capped limits or pay per bit provider plans.
I'm sure that we will see new technologies and improved methods of distributing data in the future but it is not here yet and Blu-ray is the latest & greatest disc media for HD video.
And yet, eventually those limits will need to be raised/rescinded otherwise people will question why they need to pay $50-100 a month for high-speed internet when they can't use it to the maximum of their benefit.
I know the ISPs want to try and shake-down the content providers for money to allow the content to be transmitted over their pipes, but in the end, what might very well happen is the ISPs and content providers agree to specific distribution methods that allows that content to be sent down the pipe in unlimited quantity while putting a crimp on the "terrabyte-level" P2P/Bittorrent crowd that at times saturates those pipes.
My TivoHD just added YouTube access this morning. And it's been able to download movies from Amazon's Unbox and music from Rhapsody for some time. I know my Tivo is just not hitting the web like a PC, since it uses a custom interface to browse and access content, so at a minimum Tivo is working with the content providers and may very well be working with the cable/satellite companies to get that content to my TV. And soon it will be able (via an external module) to access my cable company's Pay-Per-View system and they have to work with them to enable that.
So it is possible, if not probably, Apple will work with ISPs (traditional, cable and satellite) to help move content between iTunes and our
tvs and Macs/PCs.It seems like the infrastructure is there everywhere but America. Seems like a lot of countries(Japan?) have huge pipes and next to no bandwidth limitation. I think its these American ISPs are more obsessed with squeezing every penny they can out of their users.
I'm not sure you can generalize like this. There are many more countries with little or no broadband than those with virtually unlimited broadband like Japan.
America suffers because the population is spread over an enormous area.
Most of the current infrastructure is old and won't support high speed broadband over large distances. Many ISP's just use what is offered and have nothing to do with improving the infrastructure.
No matter how you cut it, it is going to take a huge cash investment, whether in taxes for government improvement of infrastructure, or in services for free market improvement in infrastructure before high speed broadband is ubiquitous in America.
The other option is that satellite technology or some new tech allows blanketing of the US in ultra-high speed service.
I realize I'm late to the discussion and this was posted early, but I've seen something similar said a few times I want to address it.
The Pros are in need of two major changes and I will not purchase one (which I'm hoping to in September if there's a refresh, even if I'm a bit leery of buying a first gen redesign) until at least one of these is met:
1. A new frame needs to accommodate easily changing out the hard drive. I used to own a 12" Aluminum PowerBook and over the course of its life I changed out a dead optical drive which was a nightmare and the antenna wire which was the single biggest nightmare repair I have ever undertaken. The hard drive would have been as complicated as the optical drive which required taking the whole bottom assembly apart. Lame. Just lame. HDs fail frequently and running out of space happens frequently. Even if it ISN'T me doing the fixing, I don't want half my machine taken apart unless it has to be. Swapping out the hard drive should be about as trivial as the RAM.
2. There's an option to upgrade the screen on the 17" book to 1920x1200, so where's the option to upgrade the screen on the 15" to 1600x1080? I'd even pay extra for it like you do for the 17" upgrade. My 15" Dell Inspiron back in 2003 had a resolution of 1600x1200.
Finally, it's time for a redesign. When you're a company that constantly drives style, you have to keep driving just for the sake of doing so.
The MacBooks ain't ever getting a GPU. They'll get a bump in the next rev in the form of improved Intel graphics, sure, but I doubt you'll ever see dedicated video on the consumer level notebooks again.
My hope is that the next event is HD centric so we see Bluray (not that I care about it except that it also means), new screen resolutions and thus new laptops. I doubt this is the case, but I really want something to push screen resolutions.
Off Topic, sorry
This is an old argument that doesn't hold up under scrutiny. If it were the primary problem, then one might very well expect to see connections in NYC, LA, Boston, etc. with comparable speed and price to those in Japan.
We don't.
The problem is, indeed, the ridiculously greedy American monopolies who cannot stand the idea of letting a single penny slip through their fingers.
Dan Aris
This is an old argument that doesn't hold up under scrutiny. If it were the primary problem, then one might very well expect to see connections in NYC, LA, Boston, etc. with comparable speed and price to those in Japan.
We don't.
The problem is, indeed, the ridiculously greedy American monopolies who cannot stand the idea of letting a single penny slip through their fingers.
Dan Aris
They already get such handouts from the government. And have sat on them (just like the cell phone ppl).
That is part of the excitement that the spectrum auction was supposed to bring. IIRC that spectrum auctioned did blanket the nation.
Two?!...that makes two of us.A very good thought indeed. You may be onto something. I'll definitely wait and see for what September brings us!
Very interesting. I am so ready for a (new) MacBook. Studies are starting next week, so hopefully it's introduction won't be too much later.
Actually, the backbone providers spent a mint during the telecom boom running fiber all over the place to allow for serious data transmission. The chowderheads just never set aside the money necessary to run it the last few miles to homes so when the boom turned to a bust and they all collapsed, nobody was connected.
Here in Seattle Comcast finally hooked us up to these larger pipes so we're now 16MB down, which does help for 720p HD downloads.
I don't buy the iMac update. It would be the most insignificant bump in years, unless Apple puts all the high end BTO options into it.
Very true. Reporting on the new Blackberry Bold suffering the SAME 3G problems. What's their connection? BOTH use the AT&T monopoly. Maybe it isn't the hardware or the software... maybe it's the network!
How about opening up the canal of choice and see what -- if any -- problems exist using an iPhone and/or a BlackBerry via another carrier.
Well some retailers are lowering prices on imacs so it seems something is going on.
Apple very well might update them, but it would seem odd at this time. The Mac Mini, Mac Pro and Cinema Displays all need an update before the iMac.
Actually, the backbone providers spent a mint during the telecom boom running fiber all over the place to allow for serious data transmission. The chowderheads just never set aside the money necessary to run it the last few miles to homes so when the boom turned to a bust and they all collapsed, nobody was connected.
Here in Seattle Comcast finally hooked us up to these larger pipes so we're now 16MB down, which does help for 720p HD downloads.
Very nice!
I am luckier than a lot of other people but my 1.5 mbit download, 867 kbit upload, phone line DSL is borderline painful. The worst part is I don't see it changing anytime soon. We only received DSL a little over a year ago, before that it was 28k dial-up.
yeah
yeah that is true it would make more sense to update mac mini and such. I hope they update mac mini it was one of my favorite macs even though i never owned it but I was always into buying one. I currently am waiting to get a new macbook soon so hopefully he rumors are true because im about to get an amazon voucher for $1200. So yeah hopefully the have some good updates. one thing I dont understand is rumors are sayign that the macbooks will be built from one solid aluminum casing, but how will the hinges work if its all solid. lol.
yeah that is true it would make more sense to update mac mini and such. I hope they update mac mini it was one of my favorite macs even though i never owned it but I was always into buying one. I currently am waiting to get a new macbook soon so hopefully he rumors are true because im about to get an amazon voucher for $1200. So yeah hopefully the have some good updates. one thing I dont understand is rumors are sayign that the macbooks will be built from one solid aluminum casing, but how will the hinges work if its all solid. lol.
Level of importance to update:
1. Mac Mini
2. Cinema Display
3. Mac Pro
4. iMac
That is what I think.
Is that scale 1 least important, 10 most important... or is it going down on a "Top 10" list w/ #1 as the most important?
I'd say the MacBook/Pro needs to be higher than a Mac Mini.