Apple to Rule the Digital Home by 2013?

Stony Stevenson writes to tell us that a new study from Forrester Research is taking a crack at what seems to have become a hobby for so many, predicting Apple's market strategy. Specifically, Forrester is predicting that Apple will become the 'hub of the digital home by 2013.' "Forrester predicts that Apple will offer eight key products and services to connect PCs and digital content to the TV-stereo infrastructure in consumers' homes. A 're-engineered' Apple Store will expand into in-home installation services to deliver what Forrester describes as a 'fully integrated digital experience.'"

Comments

Re:No one wants integration

[Tom90deg]

Well, you're missing the point. Lock in is a very bad thing. Unless it's Apple doing it. Then it's very very good.

Re:Maybe no?

[Hal_Porter]

I dunno... isn't one of the major selling points of Apple products a sense of style that you are supposed to show off to other people? I know that's not their only selling point, but it sure seems like a big one. They do well by portable goodies (laptops, iPhone, iPod) that you can wave in front of someone and say "shiny", but are more average on other things. I suppose you can still show off your "digital hub" to people who come over to your house, but it doesn't feel the same.

Quick, get a fanboi in here to show me the error of my ways! ;) You could talk LOUDLY about you digital home hub on the subway on your iPhone.

Ludicrous Fanboyism!

[crhylove]

Let me bring it back down to reality for you:

Apple has been first to market with stolen ideas about a million times. The mouse they stole from xerox, they had first. They failed. Speech recognition they had first. They failed. An OS that was GUI rather than text based: failed. A strong Unix based OS: Hey, they won one. They made a better ipod than sony, and the handful of RIAA slaves that really weren't that enthusiastic about mp3s to begin with.... duh....

OS 9 was a dismal abortion. So was every OS they put out, up until OS X. Suddenly they get one minor thing right (and it's still far behind most linux/unixes!), and they are going to take over the home? Every home? Within 5 years?

Has anybody here ever used quicktime? IT SUCKS. Have you tried iTunes? IT SUCKS. Have you tried anything from apple besides os X and an ipod that DIDN'T TOTALLY SUCK!??!

Yeah, I thought not. Don't get me wrong, ipods are a good design, despite the horrid itunes interface, the DRM, and the over priced nature of them and lack of flash media integration. OS X is also a good design, albeit drastically behind even most of the inferior Linux distros.

The ONLY thing Apple has right is that they design their products for total idiots, and roundly hit the mark 2 out of ten times.

Microsoft is losing it's hegemony, and Apple is a small part of the story, but Linux will be the big winner. It's inevitable. FOSS will take over everywhere, just like Firefox already has. I already use:

Firefox
Thunderbird
Pidgin
Open Office
Infrarecord
The GIMP
VLC
Cool Player + Portable
UltraVNC
Mupen64Plus
and ioquake3.

Not just because they are FOSS, but because they are the best programs available, and they are free. It's not going to take long until a Linux distro emulates Windows perfectly in form and function and also comes bundled with those obvious choices. Maybe we'll have to wait for ReactOS, or maybe it will be some future Ubuntu derivative, but it's only a matter of time.

And I'm sure there will be a FOSS skype killer soon enough, so that I don't require proprietary software anywhere on my machine. FOSS is just a better model. Give it time. This war is already over.

Re:Quick summary:

[eclectic4]

"Not every home even has a drier, or a microwave oven (surprise surprise) or even a TV. Heaps of people don't own anything more than a small radio and cheap TV. Apple is not going to rule the home because it cannot produce products that everybody can afford."

Apple is going to rule the Digital Home. Read the article and the title of this /. article again.

Besides, the people that live without a microwave or a TV aren't even close to Apple's target customer. In fact, those people wouldn't be near many company's target customer. Apple does not produce products that "everybody" can afford. Neither do most companies.

I think you may be a tad confused... or are just someone that has a very limited income that really wants a Mac. Either way, welcome to the real world! It's nice to have you...