What May Come At WWDC From "Left Field".
Speculation, of course, but I think there may be a major surprise in the iPod area. Look for a super mini with a 1.5 GB drive at a $129 price point. (Probably wishful thinking, but it would just about be a slam-dunk winner against the competition for the Holiday Season).
Comments
A cheap iPod mini would strike me as foolish when you have a backlog. Apple would become the "Osborne" of the 21st century.
Any aquisitions would be a suprise. Jobs has said none are coming.
a new DLD would be a suprise. Or a high end Powermac.
Another thing I wouldn't see apple releasing is a PDA... this market seems small and over crowded already.
You have ot remember this is a conference for Developers... they aren't going to release anything big unless it has to do specifically with devs.
P.S. WWDC has actually replaced MacWorld NY as the place for ALL kinds of new products from Apple, not just stuff for developers. Times, they are a changin'.
Originally posted by MacsRGood4U
Speculation, of course, but I think there may be a major surprise in the iPod area. Look for a super mini with a 1.5 GB drive at a $129 price point. (Probably wishful thinking, but it would just about be a slam-dunk winner against the competition for the Holiday Season).
Probably 2.5 GB since the word on the street is that 2.5 and 5 are being made.
Originally posted by Outsider
A lowend tower would be a welcome surprise from left field.
I second the low-end tower. While we're at it, let's make it a headless iMac G5! Maybe even near the magic US$1000 price point. That would be way out left field.
C.T.
Plastic casing Single Proc
AGP/2 PCI slots
Matching 17" monitor optional
Price is $1199 to 1599
What would be in left field is what I call the PowerMac-mini. Strip out one of the duals, 3 cooling zones, shrink the PM case and keep the top speed just one notch below the big fella (just I want in a G5 iMac). Other basic internals would match the PM counterpart. The key is pricing, and a PM-mini with a 20" display would be $200 more (or greater) than a similar 20" iMac with similar G5 speed, etc. You, sadly, will have to pay for the case and all the goodies that are inside of it.
The only reason why I still think of this as possible is the fact that the new displays are not released yet, and there will not be a 3 gig PM for release with the displays at the WWDC. Can't release the new displays to go with a new AIO iMac . . .
Windows compatible iChat to give the iSight a larger audience.
Redesigned iMac, nobrainer.
Displays without ADC.
Now, I'll swing for left field...
New Mac branded keyboard or input device for the updated GarageBand.
Voice recorder for the iPm.
Apple Branded Airport Express speakers with remote.
I'll trade all of that for real photo editing in iPhoto.
Good night all.
This makes sense because of the technical expertise that Apple has in video. Think about it: Which iApps don't have a Apple-brand DLD? iPhoto & iMovie. I can't imagine any Apple digital camera that can compete with giants like Canon and Sony. But a hard drive-based video camera is thinking different enough to maybe change the industry. It has been done before in the professional world. Could Apple make the first consumer hard drive based camera? (I don't think anybody has done it before. But even if someone did, the technology wasn't mature enough... until now.)
It also kinda sorta matches with Apples previous job opening for a engineer to make a portable video device. Everyone thought that it was the rumored vPod. But it could be a video camera too.
The only potential problem: Battery Life.
NEW KEYBOARD AND MOUSE!!!! The apple mouse is over 3 years old. Yes it went from black to white... *yank yank*
This mouse hurts my hand and wrist so much after a few hours of working with it. Its extremely poorly designed... even though it's better than the puck. I don't care if its 2-button or not... but 2-button is certainly welcome.
All my apple mice immediately go in the closet... no biggy. So the mouse isn't my main concern.
THE DAMN KEYBOARD!!! Does anyone have any idea how hard it is to find a good mac keyboard right now? Apple's keyboard is such a POS. Again it causes me pain within a few hours... why you say? It isn't adjustable any more! So what I see myself doing is buying an older Apple Pro keyboard... I don't understand why apple took away adjustment... I spend a lot of time on special keys and it hurts to reach up for those keys when they are higher. I can't believe Developers haven't bitched out apple for this.
How about a two or three button mouse? Heck, the operating system supports it, why can't the guys across the campus in the hardware division whip one up? It's certainly no technical stretch.
-Gator
Here's why not a two or three button mouse.
Originally posted by Carson O'Genic
MacOffice (AppleWorks extreme) to be given away free with all new CPUs. All part of Apple's serious puch into the business world.
I think the days of Apple trying to increase market share are over. The macintosh is no longer the most important thing in the company. It is all about the iPod now. Apple will sill make computers for us, just like they did with the Apple II, but I fear our days are numbered.
Originally posted by anand
I think the days of Apple trying to increase market share are over. The macintosh is no longer the most important thing in the company. It is all about the iPod now. Apple will sill make computers for us, just like they did with the Apple II, but I fear our days are numbered.
So the analyst would have you believe. Dual 2.5Ghz computers tend to rebutt that arguement quite well
See, the Mac in 1984 *replaced* the Apple ][... they were in direct competition.
The iPod and the Mac are complementary, and the iPod's ultimate end goal?
iTunes everywhere. Why iTunes?
QuickTime everywhere. Why QuickTime?
Infrastructure.
Apple's finally learned what MS used to get where they are - it's all about the infrastructure, not the front end. Outlook is just a tool to get you locked into an Exchange Server. That's where the lock-in occurs. Word is just a tool to get you locked into the .doc format, etc.
Apple kept trying to compete on the front end glitz, and losing, and in retrospect, it's obvious.
But.
iPods come with free iTunes, which get users on iTMS, and both need QuickTime - all of which is infrastructure that, thanks to QT's incredibly well thought out architecture, makes QuickTime a highly compelling target for media producers to shoot for.
And where do they get the rigs to produce QT media?
Why, Apple, of course. At fat margins.
Originally posted by Kickaha
Not for a good long while...
Excellent points Kickaha... Especially about how apple used to battle on front-end is and switching over to M$ tactics. Well thought out argument.
Originally posted by Kickaha
Not for a good long while.
See, the Mac in 1984 *replaced* the Apple ][... they were in direct competition.
The iPod and the Mac are complementary, and the iPod's ultimate end goal?
iTunes everywhere. Why iTunes?
QuickTime everywhere. Why QuickTime?
Infrastructure.
Apple's finally learned what MS used to get where they are - it's all about the infrastructure, not the front end. Outlook is just a tool to get you locked into an Exchange Server. That's where the lock-in occurs. Word is just a tool to get you locked into the .doc format, etc.
Apple kept trying to compete on the front end glitz, and losing, and in retrospect, it's obvious.
But.
iPods come with free iTunes, which get users on iTMS, and both need QuickTime - all of which is infrastructure that, thanks to QT's incredibly well thought out architecture, makes QuickTime a highly compelling target for media producers to shoot for.
And where do they get the rigs to produce QT media?
Why, Apple, of course. At fat margins.
Hey, that makes sense!