Aztexts
Thursday, January 18, 2007
Pearshaped
Apple Computer Inc. Macworld came and went last week and with it came the Apple TV and the hugely covered iPhone.
The Apple TV, is really quite an interestingly stupid product. It's purpose as a Wireless entry into the living room, is a failed attempt. With the Mac Mini with the same file-sharing capabilities, larger hard disk and DVD drive, it is a much smarter choice for the living room than the Apple TV. The "advantage" of the Apple TV being able to purchase and watch shows from the ease of your couch is nullified completely outside of America, with no iTunes Store to download so many great shows from. Not to mention the fact that you'll have to convert your videos to a compatible format to play on the Apple TV. I definitely do not see any advantages of this over the Mac Mini or even any of Microsofts Offerings.
there is much to love and hate about the iPhone and it's specifications, which has been covered to death by critics over the last week. This so called revolutionary phone, which really isn't that revolutionary, and as the Steve Jobs "Reality Distortion Aura" fades the gaping flaws start to reveal themselves. My lust for being one of the first on the block to get my hands on this thing has withered away to a conscious recollection of how infamous first generation Apple products really are, and how much Apple likes to refresh their product line-up... As we all saw last week, the day the iPhone was released, it was made known to the whole world within 24 hours. News channels reporting on this revolutionary new phone from the makers of the iPod, and you have to congratulate the Apple marketing team on that note. That is where it ends.
As Apple rises from it's underdog status to a major player in the electronics world again, it's abandoning what used to set it apart from the rest of the industry. One of the greatest things of the older Apple Keynotes was that products would be available within a week of announcement. With Apple's three latest offerings, the iPod Shuffle, Apple TV and the iPhone all announced with a significant lag time, causing great frustration to many an Apple Fan. From a financial standpoint, this lag time, really doesn't matter as most people don't find out about these products until they walk into the shop, and as seen this christmas, the iPods were completely sold out across the world.
Apple's advertising campaign is also one which I do not agree with either, the cockiness would actually be quite annoying and is a big claim from a company who's computers don't really have that great a market share. Their portrayal of Windows as a totally non entertaining platform has not much merit either, with the computer gaming market firmly rooted into Windows.
I've touched(incoherently) on many subjects in this post. Maybe this is where Apple's growth stops, and crumbles from it's pride, or maybe this is where Apple gets back out into the world as the great operating system it is. On one hand Apple needs to remember that it is the best computer maker in the world, and on the other hand it must also learn to contain it's pride.
We'll see how this plays out.
Aztex>-- ¶ 5:05 AM 0 comments
The Apple TV, is really quite an interestingly stupid product. It's purpose as a Wireless entry into the living room, is a failed attempt. With the Mac Mini with the same file-sharing capabilities, larger hard disk and DVD drive, it is a much smarter choice for the living room than the Apple TV. The "advantage" of the Apple TV being able to purchase and watch shows from the ease of your couch is nullified completely outside of America, with no iTunes Store to download so many great shows from. Not to mention the fact that you'll have to convert your videos to a compatible format to play on the Apple TV. I definitely do not see any advantages of this over the Mac Mini or even any of Microsofts Offerings.
there is much to love and hate about the iPhone and it's specifications, which has been covered to death by critics over the last week. This so called revolutionary phone, which really isn't that revolutionary, and as the Steve Jobs "Reality Distortion Aura" fades the gaping flaws start to reveal themselves. My lust for being one of the first on the block to get my hands on this thing has withered away to a conscious recollection of how infamous first generation Apple products really are, and how much Apple likes to refresh their product line-up... As we all saw last week, the day the iPhone was released, it was made known to the whole world within 24 hours. News channels reporting on this revolutionary new phone from the makers of the iPod, and you have to congratulate the Apple marketing team on that note. That is where it ends.
As Apple rises from it's underdog status to a major player in the electronics world again, it's abandoning what used to set it apart from the rest of the industry. One of the greatest things of the older Apple Keynotes was that products would be available within a week of announcement. With Apple's three latest offerings, the iPod Shuffle, Apple TV and the iPhone all announced with a significant lag time, causing great frustration to many an Apple Fan. From a financial standpoint, this lag time, really doesn't matter as most people don't find out about these products until they walk into the shop, and as seen this christmas, the iPods were completely sold out across the world.
Apple's advertising campaign is also one which I do not agree with either, the cockiness would actually be quite annoying and is a big claim from a company who's computers don't really have that great a market share. Their portrayal of Windows as a totally non entertaining platform has not much merit either, with the computer gaming market firmly rooted into Windows.
I've touched(incoherently) on many subjects in this post. Maybe this is where Apple's growth stops, and crumbles from it's pride, or maybe this is where Apple gets back out into the world as the great operating system it is. On one hand Apple needs to remember that it is the best computer maker in the world, and on the other hand it must also learn to contain it's pride.
We'll see how this plays out.
Aztex>-- ¶ 5:05 AM 0 comments
