is it the end of macworld as we know it?

jade

Well looking at MAcworld and the rumor round up, I'd say it was a little disappointing. Where were the surprises?



miPods: well that was in all of the newspapers and magazines.

Final Cut Express 2: Well think secret had that one

G5 Xserves: well that was a no-braininer with all the posts from beta testers and of course speculation from IT mags

iLife 04: well yet again all the rumor sites had this one

Office 2004: Yet again, already out there



The only surpirse: the 1984 poster.



It's the end of the macworld launch! And life will be full of random surprises.



Here's looking to a new year with "New products on Tuesday" rumors every week.





January:

miPod 2gb to go with Pepsi ad

20th anniversary mac product (with g5)

Pro music app at NAMM (apple has a good sized booth near the entrance)



February

more tunes, maybe 550,000

Garage Band section in iTunes: upload your tracks!

updated imacs



March

new g5s updated speeds, maybe 3ghz

the CRT is dead and so is the emac



April

g5 powerbooks



June

Final Cut Pro upgrade

Announcement of enterprise stategy and product map







And a whole new random timeline of updates. What's next? Product roadmaps????????

m.o.s.t

Quote:

Originally posted by jade

[B]





January:

miPod 2gb to go with Pepsi ad

20th anniversary mac product (with g5)

Pro music app at NAMM (apple has a good sized booth near the entrance)

I think the focus for January-Febuary

Is going to be *AND ONLY GOING TO BE*



A) iPod / mini iPod

iTunes sales/store updates(more songs)

C) The Pepsi giveaway



- NO 2gb mini iPod

- NO 20th anniversary mac product -before March (end of Pepsi promo)

bigmclargehuge

Quote:

Originally posted by jade





March

new g5s updated speeds, maybe 3ghz

the CRT is dead and so is the emac

I talked with a couple of sales guys at The Apple Store in Salem just after Christmas and they said they couldn't keep the eMacs in stock long enough to effectively inventory.



I certainly hope they don't drop this line. It's a fantastic introduction to Apple for switchers, I know because I've converted three using this product.

cubist

Yep, hate to say it but, other than PM speed bumps, I think we've seen all there is to see until Aug/Sep.

macsrgood4u

Apple has grown up. Since there's only one Macworld now, they have in the past two or three years spread product introductions over the year rather then concentrating releases once or twice per annum. Macworlds are fun for those who attend and the Mac faithful, but they are outdated at a time when corporations are trying to stay alive in a slow economy. It costs a lot of money to be there and each year less and less appear. It's now time for Macheads to simply understand this and move on with their lives. Apple will still introduce unique products. Special events will occur from time to time, but mostly Apple will release product on a more "normal" basis I believe. Anyways, each Macworld brings disappointment to some who have expectations ridiculously high by believing rumor sites. Onward and upward I say.

crusader

Here here!! I second that: "Onward and upward!"

matsu

Apple needs keynotes. They don't have to be product unvielings, but they do have to happen. It gets too much interest not to keep on doing it, at least once a year.



I don't know of any other CEO who is as good as salesman as Jobs is when you get him on stage.

kane

The only things about this recent keynote that I really enjoyed was the G5 Xserve introduction and the footage from Virginia Tech. Everything else, from iLife to iPod mini just came off as boring to me. I think that Jobs and Apple spend an unproportional amount of time talking about the iTunes Music Store, when the fate of the company still lies within the success of its computers and operating system.

amorph

A few comments:



The move away from keynote introductions has been going on for at least two years now. Look at the number of introductions over the course of 2003. Between a significant but carefully focused R&D budget, the more modular OS X and the low development times of Cocoa, Apple is able to maintain a steady stream of releases across the year. This, among other things, raises people's awareness of their vitality and their products. Expos have been dying slowly for the last few years, although not as steadily or as quickly as I remember projecting they would. If the economy turns around significantly, they might even recover.



Mark my words: You will never see a direct link between iTMS and GarageBand. They do not want piles of dross cluttering the store's search results, and they do not want to waste gigs of storage and bandwidth to accommodate it either. With the HP deal, they'll be hard up for bandwidth as it is. You'll see closer integration with .Mac, though.



As far as the Mac is concerned, Apple is hyping the products that are doing well, which is not a difficult strategy to understand. It all comes back to the Mac (which some analysts don't understand), but some of that follows. If the lure to pick up an iBook is the iBook itself, or an iApp, or an iPod, it's a sale. Apple doesn't have to pitch Macs in order to sell Macs. They're doing this, in fact, because pitching Macs directly doesn't seem to work all that well. They need a hook. They've got hooks now.



That said, moving to General Discussion...

tjm

It's the end of MacWorld as we know it....





...and I feel fine!





(my apologies to R.E.M.)

ghost_user_name

We don't forgive you.



...

ipeon

Quote:

Originally posted by Matsu

I don't know of any other CEO who is as good as salesman as Jobs is when you get him on stage.

That's because Steve Jobs is not a salesman.