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5 Predictions for Apple in 2007
Michael writes "2006 is coming to a close, and all anyone can think about (in regards to Apple, at least) is the upcoming Apple phone, but what happens next? What are we going to be salivating over and speculating about after Macworld? What changes are in store for Apple in 2007? No one knows for sure, but it sure is fun to take a guess."
Apple will remain a top subject of internet speculation.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
My top 5:
5. Apple will break the 10% market share mark in new computer sales
4. The iPod will face it's first big competitor at Christmas 2007, from a vastly improved Zune
3. iPod will release a hard-drive free version of it's Video iPod, utilizing multiple flash memory cards to achieve 40GB+
2. Apple will release the iPhone, and it will be the must have phone of 2007
1. Apple will announce plans for a set-top box, integrating gaming, cable, and internet browsing
Crack - Free with every butt and set of boobs
Apparently, someone will be going to Jail and Steve Jobs will be losing a boat load of money.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
I bought a MacBook Pro a month ago, my first Mac in 15 years.
The touchpad works quite well overall, the two-finger scrolling is especially good IMO.
You can perform a right-click with the touchpad as well, but you have to turn on the feature first. Once it is on just have two fingers on the touchpad and click the button -- right click.
Overall the MacBook Pro is far and away the nicest notebook I have used, and I've used a lot of notebooks. My Toshiba Libretto and IBM ThinkPad are soon to be for sale.
Some people are like slinkies--basically useless but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.
There are three ways to right click from apple. The old fashioned ctrl-click. Going in to system preferences and turning on the option so when there are two fingers on the track pad and clicked for it to act like a right click. And of course the Mighty Mouse. Personally, I use both the wireless mighty mouse and the two finger touch-pad click for when I am too lazy to pull out the mouse. Oddly enough - I don't find myself right clicking that often...
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Apple has a major stock scandal brewing. You'll probably be reading a lot more about their legal woes than their products next year.
#1 Steve Jobs will move in next to Jeffrey Skilling.
I think these are the most likely to happen: :P
Finalcut Pro will come out with a Windows version and Apple will lose a ton of the market share until...
Apple makes themselves compatible with AMD processors too and increases their market share until...
China demands repayment for all the invested/borrowed money we owe them and we try to pay it off by sueing thousands of Chinese companies for making inadaquite, bad quality products and they start world war 3 over it and we all nuke each other and have to live in caves and the Apple market share dips a little until they put in solar panels outside the caves for power so ppl can run their Macs again
I'll give 10:1 if that doesn't all happen! Any takers?
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I do strongly feel this may well describe the future state of the Macintosh in general. Look at sites like Mac Gamer, and you'll see a steady decline in the updates to these sites since the Intel Macs went mainstream. It almost seems like the Mac game developers/porters have thrown in the towel and have acknowledged that the majority of their previous customer base would rather install Windows on their shiny new Macs, rather than wait the usual six months for them to produce a native Mac OS X port.
If gaming on the Mac has eroded to this lowly state, it can't be long until other markets are affected too. Developers of several popular multimedia/graphics/productivity tools that have maintained multiple code bases over the years may finally decide to kill off their Mac versions to cut costs, once armed with the knowledge that the average Mac user can simply be coerced into buying a copy of Windows and installing it via a Bootcamp-like utility. Before long, Apple may well have to break down and start to officially sell Macs with Windows pre-installed to remain competative in the PC market.
Eventually, being a "Mac user" could mean little more than "someone who uses the Mac OS for file management, internet activity and itunes, and uses Windows for everything else". Granted the integration may be tighter between the two OSes, but it'll still end up with Mac users paying royalties to Microsoft in the end... either for Windows, or the necessary APIs needed to ensure complete compatibility.
In a few years, Apple will be as generic a name brand as IBM, Dell or HP.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Its getting harder and harder to innovate in consumer electronics, and to have your product noticed. I have trouble thinking of Apple coming up with something as ubiquitous as the ipod in the near future.
From the article:
"After years of speculation, the full screen video iPod will make it's debut just in time for the 07 holiday season sales push."
Can someone please explain to me what the market is for portable video players with builtin viewing screens, in general?
I see these at electronics stores and their appeal is completely lost on me.
When might I use such a device? Well, I suppose when I am somewhere without access to a computer or television, want to watch a video, and can devote my full attention to a little ~2.5" screen (so not when I'm driving). For me, that is never.
As far as I can tell the primary markets for these are:
1) People who spend a large amount of time on public or air transportation, but don't carry a laptop.
2) Young children of parents who are rich enough to buy them personal video viewing devices but don't already have viewing screens built into their SUVs.
Anyone? I can't even think if a reason to buy the existing video iPod, muchless a full screen model.
Video is overrated. BBC radio news, for example, is more informative than any broadcast or cable television news outlet in the U.S. Add in the daily hour long DemocracyNOW broadcast (or podcast) and you have more real, compelling news than you will find in a week of 24x7 Fox News. And you can listen those while you commute or work. Video monopolizes your brain. Not only that, but even old pre-1950 radio dramas are at least comparable in quality to the majority of sitcoms, dramas. and comedies on television today: i.e. they are crap.
Kill your television. Don't bring it with you in a little box.
1. Acquire satellite radio: This would allow apple to sell iTunes over wireless without a computer. Also, satellite radio use digital transmission. iPod can either do built-in transmitter or make it as an accessory. This would allow user to play their iPod on car radio (satellite radio) without wire and without loss of signal quality. I can think of tons of other benefits of Apple-satellite radio merger, but not enough space here. This will also allow wireless song sharing like Zune.
2. Acquire TiVO or offer similar service. Allow TiVO to download iTunes song and synch with iPod. Agains this will allow people to buy iTunes over broadband without using computer. Also, people can play their iTune songs on home stereo via DVR easily. This would fit in ther iTV or MacMini strategy quite well.
3. iPod remote: Make an iPod remote which looks like iPod nano. It can be synched with real iPod using a computer. Now user can truly do full control of their iPod using this remote control. My biggest problem of current generation of remotes is that I can't select a song, photo, video. I can only do play and then skip it if I don't like it. With a wheel and display, I can exactly select the song and then play. Such a remote should not cost more than 50/60 dollars.
4. External memory/battery module for iPod nano: Make an external memory/battery module for iPod which will connect to docking connector. That way, I can expand my iPod nano. How about 8 GB module for $99? Or a 48 hour battery module.
5. A camera module expansion.
Frm the article:
"I expect to see Parallels fully integrated into Leopard by the time the OS is released, giving us the first OS in history (to my knowledge anyway) that will allow us to seamlessly run our Windows, Mac, and even Linux programs from the same desktop."
This would be a user experience and customer support nightmare for Apple.
Not to mention it would be incredibly risky for Apple to acquire and bolt on a complex 3rd party application at this late stage in Leopard development.
The author of this article is clueless. Which isn't surprising, considering it is essentially a blog post on a mac fan site. He's just regurgitating rumours from Mac community forums in order to get page hits.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
"Can someone please explain to me what the market is for portable video players with builtin viewing screens, in general?"
Glad to... you can't see video on a portable video player without a viewing screen. Hence the desire for a viewing screen.
Hope that helps you out, there.
Cheers,
-- Terry
13.3" MacBook Pro. Please? Can I have a decent upgrade path for my 12" Powerbook that doesn't involve getting a much bigger laptop or crappy plastic keys? Please?
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Anyone? I can't even think if a reason to buy the existing video iPod, muchless a full screen model.
Since I own a video iPod (80GB woot), I can state my reasons:
1) I have my entire photo collection with me at all times. No more pictures in my wallet.
2) I watch lastnight's Daily Show before work every morning.
3) Video podcasts.
4) I can share music videos with others on a drinking night.
And I haven't even mentioned my music until just now.
If Apple released OS-X for commodity PC hardware and competed againts MS, then I'd start caring. Or, if they allowed Mac clones, I'd start caring. Othwerwise, they can tank and I won't shed a tear.
The fact that they don't do either of those things is the reason Apple hasn't tanked yet. Say it with me: "Apple is a hardware company."
I just don't get how everyone can hate MS so much, and look the other way at Apple's proprietary hardware and DRM.
It's a matter of degrees, really. Apple's DRM is about ten times less restrictive than anyone else's, and their "proprietary hardware" is perfectly amenable to installing other OSes. What you meant is that they won't let their OS be installed on anyone else's hardware, which of course is a good thing for them since (1) it's the main reason people buy their hardware in the first place and (2) it makes OS X more stable and dependable because there's a much more limited range of hardware to adapt it to.
This is old trollfood, of course. But it's late, and I'm bored.
2. ITMS and the iPod will be targeted heavily by Microsoft. Eventually the iPod will be replaced just as sony list the Walkman/Discman fame of the 80s and 90s.
.mp3 replaced the cd. apple was late to the mp3 player party, and the first ipods weren't even that good. but when they finally got a great product, it took over the market. as long as .mp3 is the preferred format, the ipod will always be successful. microsoft is determined to make their .wmv (or whatever it is) the standard and they are too focused on implementing their own special brand of DRM. ITMS is so popular because it "just works". and of course it does, ITMS, iTunes, and the ipod all come from the same people. microsoft will have to have their own store, their own program, and their own player. that will take a few years to get mind as well as market share. and even then, their size can't help them like it did in the office suite market. I think apple's biggest concern is not microsoft but current ipod users not upgrading.
it wasn't so much the ipod replaced the walkman, but the
My problem? I was perfectly gruntled, until some numbnuts came by and dissed me.
Yes, I know that Zune's wifi isn't real, but "has wireless" is a checkbox that ipod cannot currently check.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
I predict that the market will clone the Windows API, and it will stablize, much like Unix has.
... well Linux, and none of the badness of Windows.
Apple will implement the API and tie it with all the goodness of Mac OS X and none of the badness of Windows.
Linux will implement the API and tie it with all the goodness of
The term "Windows Compatable" will become much like "IBM Compatable" was in 1980s. Software will no longer be written for Microsoft Windows, but rather the new Windows API.
Microsoft will abandon Vista fairly quickly after nobody wants it. Mac and linux takes off.
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I know GNUStep.. and it's not Aqua
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You don't have to use the mouse button, you can just tap with two fingers for a right click once you've enabled two finger scroll and tap in the trackpad settings.
I know nobody cares about my predictions, especially since they're about to end up at the bottom of the thread, but here are a few anyway:
Eight Core Mac Pro- just so Apple can advertise the most powerful personal computer EVAR
New Cinema Displays with built in iSight, IR sensor, HDCP. 23" becomes 24", firewire hub goes away. Maybe a smaller one
New keyboard, with USB2.0 ports built into it (three years too late)
.Mac will morph into some kind of social networking thing. Myspace for Mac users. It should, but won't, be free
Windows versions of Safari and iChat A/V, which no one will use because they both kinda suck
Apple needs a mid-tower computer between the mini and the Pro. The iMac doesn't cut it. Steve's cube fetish will resurface here
A tablet Macbook would be great, as long as the voice and handwriting recognition work better than anything before
Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life.
however, by integrating in parallels developers could now decided to write ONE version of their software (windows) and be done with it
Which is precisely why there will always be obstacles to running Windows under OS X. I don't see Apple providing a Wine port, nor virtualization in Leopard. Can't have dedicated Mac Developers abandon coding under Cocoa and Carbon and let OS X die on the vine. The farthest Apple will go is to maybe provide a little "special" help to Parallels in the form of providing access to OS X engineers, but that's about it. They want -no- they NEED it to be inconvenient to run Windows on a Mac. An $80 charge before you can pirate windows onto your box is a pretty good level of inconvenience. $80 + a retail Windows license...even more convenient.
Oh wait, didn't we just have a bazillion threads about the Vista EULA forbidding users to run it under a VM. Why is that? Seriously, the answer is because it significantly simplifies any efforts to bypass the DRM technology in Vista. Just like Napster, Apple would find themselves behind contributory copyright infringement suits as soon as they provide virtualization tech and it is used to bypass DRM on HD or BluRay DVDs. So, this is reason #2 why Apple won't be selling bundled virtualization. "But that wouldn't make any sense to file a suit like that" you might say, to which I would have to reply "When has the MPAA ever been logical about filing lawsuits?".
cat
Apple is an integration company. The product they sell is user experience.
cat
Heh, that's funny. There are lots of things to criticise about Apple, but they absolutely don't "just throw [latest gadget] into a product as a checkbox filler." One of the main criticism of iPods is that "they don't contain feature X found in many other mp3 players." Compared to players from Creative or even to the Zune, the iPod is underfeatured. That's because unless the feature makes some kind of sense and can be integrated into the "iPod experience" in a moderately non-confusing way, Apple won't do it.
Can you give me anything about the iPod that's actually innovative, rather than "Same as competitor's product but looks sexier".Uhm... That's an entirely different question. Did Apple introduce anything new with the iPod? In a way, no. They took features away compared to other MP3 players, which is what grandparent was saying: Apple doesn't just throwin features left and right. What they did was make the iPod easy and efficient to use (especially compared to other players at the time).
So... you're not even contradicting what grandparent has said. You have a valid point (the iPod's features aren't that innovative), but it actually agrees with grandparent's point (Apple doesn't just add the latest fancy feature to the iPod whenever it gets the chance), as far as I can tell.
7. Apple will license OS.X to generic PC manufacturers starting with Dull^W Dell.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
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I'm thinking... MacChicken
One prediction that's been going round for years but has never really happened is the Apple Office-killer. Sure Pages and Keynote are nice, but there is an obvious gap where you woudl expect the spreadsheet and database to be, and those MacPro desktop machines are conspicuously overdue for a speedbump. I think Apple are saving up for something big...
I predict Apple will go agressively after the business market, this upgrade cycle would be the perfect time to convince businesses to 'switch', especially if iWork had all 4 expected apps, robust compatibility with office documents, and the pricetag of (MacPro + Leopard + "iWorkPro") is significantly less than (Vista capable pc + Vista + Office 2007), which seems entirely possible. Throw in the expected 8-core MacPro, a bit of dual boot hype and garnish with XServes, and it's a tasty package.
As for the iPhone and widescreen video iPod, I wouldn't be at all surprised if these were actually one device not two. A 360 degree clamshell design that's a very scratch-resistant shuffle when closed, a phone when 180 degrees open and a widescreen video iPod when 360 degrees open sounds like a highly marketable device to me, especially if Apple leverage their close ties with flash memory producers to give it good video storage space without a hard drive. Nokia tried hard with the N93, but they ended up with a rubik cube designed by a committee. Apple product design head Jonathan Ive must have been looking at that thing and laughing.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
I just received an Xbox 360 for Christmas and have to wonder is it not already "iTV" it streams movies and music from a Windows PC, it has a movie store (albeit a very limited selection, but there are hi-def offerings), it has a TV show store (once again a small selection, better than the movie selection though as it has recent episodes, and once again available in hi-def, it plays DVD's and HD-DVD's if you want to spend a little extra, and of course it plays video games, heck my Directv remote even has a code to program it to control the Xbox.
Just a quick list of things the iPod did first in an MP3 player:
1. the smaller, more expensive drives
2. touch wheel
3. click wheel
4. database frontend
5. an annoying hardware dock
6. shipping earbuds that aren't terrible
7. non-replacable batteries in an integrated form factor
8. No stop button (?)
9. No screen
10. Companion music store
11. DRM
12. Random-only play
13. Podcasting
14. Prioritizing physical size over storage space
They're like The Matrix. Revolutionary when it came out, copied to the point of being trite now. But Apple has done some very original things with the line throughout the years, and should be recognized for such.
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