Product Transition - So whats next ?
Lets assume that is will be a hardware product transition. Since Apple sell hardware. And if it affect profit margin with a product transition then hardware is properly right.
After this announcement a lot of rumors start flying around. Like Apple not using Intel Chipset, .. etc. Now we know a few fact.
1. Apple is not ditching Intel Chipset. Nvidia Chipset just dont cut it. As they wont have a license for Next Gen CPU with QPI connection.
2. Apple is not making their own chipset with their own IGP, even though they own PowerVR SGX license, having to design the whole thing seems to take too much work. Not to mention most of next gen Intel CPU will have iGFX inside anyway.
3. Apple not ditching Intel X86 either, P.A semi or ARM aren't good enough to have apple switching again. So Apple will still be using x86.
So what is this product transition then? Any wild guess?
After this announcement a lot of rumors start flying around. Like Apple not using Intel Chipset, .. etc. Now we know a few fact.
1. Apple is not ditching Intel Chipset. Nvidia Chipset just dont cut it. As they wont have a license for Next Gen CPU with QPI connection.
2. Apple is not making their own chipset with their own IGP, even though they own PowerVR SGX license, having to design the whole thing seems to take too much work. Not to mention most of next gen Intel CPU will have iGFX inside anyway.
3. Apple not ditching Intel X86 either, P.A semi or ARM aren't good enough to have apple switching again. So Apple will still be using x86.
So what is this product transition then? Any wild guess?
Comments
Lets assume that is will be a hardware product transition. Since Apple sell hardware. And if it affect profit margin with a product transition then hardware is properly right.
After this announcement a lot of rumors start flying around. Like Apple not using Intel Chipset, .. etc. Now we know a few fact.
1. Apple is not ditching Intel Chipset. Nvidia Chipset just dont cut it. As they wont have a license for Next Gen CPU with QPI connection.
2. Apple is not making their own chipset with their own IGP, even though they own PowerVR SGX license, having to design the whole thing seems to take too much work. Not to mention most of next gen Intel CPU will have iGFX inside anyway.
3. Apple not ditching Intel X86 either, P.A semi or ARM aren't good enough to have apple switching again. So Apple will still be using x86.
So what is this product transition then? Any wild guess?
There are a multitude of wild guesses in several threads already. I don't see how this thread is magically going to produce better guesses.
So what is this product transition then? Any wild guess?
Laptop -> slate, no keyboard.
I don't think they'll discontinue the normal laptops but there will be a transition phase so they'll have a touch slate with new MB and MBP but gradually, it will just be the slate as people see that touch is the way of the future.
You can see from the Jeff Han videos that there isn't really anything you can't do with touch alone that a keyboard and trackpad lets you do. It certainly won't replace an external mouse but that doesn't change as you can still use one.
People said the iphone wouldn't work with just a touch display and competitors touted their built-in keyboard but it clearly does and I can type just as well on an iphone (in landscape) as I can on a computer keyboard. Now those competitors are going touch-only.
Think about the lost productivity dragging the cursor all the way around the display especially with a trackpad when you can simply just poke the screen where you wanted to be in the first place.
The transition has to be laptop related as stocks are running out in less than a month and the transition phase is in the July-September period. It is also state-of-the-art and in an area Apple is currently excelling.
They don't really have a choice to be honest because they'll be left behind otherwise:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbxaSNENwLQ
Lets assume that is will be a hardware product transition. Since Apple sell hardware. And if it affect profit margin with a product transition then hardware is properly right.
After this announcement a lot of rumors start flying around. Like Apple not using Intel Chipset, .. etc. Now we know a few fact.
1. Apple is not ditching Intel Chipset. Nvidia Chipset just dont cut it. As they wont have a license for Next Gen CPU with QPI connection.
2. Apple is not making their own chipset with their own IGP, even though they own PowerVR SGX license, having to design the whole thing seems to take too much work. Not to mention most of next gen Intel CPU will have iGFX inside anyway.
3. Apple not ditching Intel X86 either, P.A semi or ARM aren't good enough to have apple switching again. So Apple will still be using x86.
So what is this product transition then? Any wild guess?
Wild guesses:
1.
Apple transitions to a hybred SSD / conventional disk drive storage arraingement in it's PCs.
2.
Apple transitions to an Apple SOC for it's new iPod line up. We actually shouldn't be to surprised here as Steve himself has said PA was purchased to build chips for iPods. Of course this could be the reality distortion field at work.
3.
I do not discount the possibility of an Apple designed chip set for Macs. Their is a huge advantage to Apple if the right tech is stuck into such a chip set.
4.
I see a huge potential for a reworking of the entire iPod line up. The goal being more storage acres the family and more touch based devices.
5.
The Mac Mini becomes an all solid state machine at least in one variant.
6.
Touch based devices transition to OLED devices.
7.
Apple comes out with a rough usage Mac Book along the lines of a Panasonic ToughBook. I'd love to see a little competition for Panasonic here.
8.
Apple intoduces new server hardware with customized vector processing/floating point hardware. Maybe even something that accelerates their Cocao big number class.
9.
Related to the PA stuff above the transition might be more modest in that the transition might simply be to a PA Semi SOC that Implements a new ARM archtecture on custom silicon. The difference being that the actual Touch device doesn't change much on the outside.
10.
Apple goes BlueRay across the board. I see a slim chance here as long the legal issues remain in place.
Well that is ten for a start!
Dave
12. Mid-tower
13. ATI or nvida on board video
I'm hoping that the next MBP revision has the Nehalem chip. I just hope it keeps the same form factor. A higher res screen would also be nice.
Why is everybody insist it is a hardware transition. Perhaps it is the move to Snow Leopard, this a large scale project that will touch everything that Apple makes, from the Shuttle to the Mac Pro. It appears that to almost a complete rewrite of the system, and I can't think of anything that is more time-consuming, man hours, that computer company could do.
Snow leopard has already been announced and frankly is just the evolution of Mac OS/X. Besides in Apples case it is rather hard to think of Mac OS as a product in it's own right but rather a feature of Apple hardware. This a transition here would require something totally new. Moving from OS/9 to UNIX and Nextstep was a transition nothing about Snow Leopard indicates to me such a overhaul. In fact the very name Snow Leopard implies more of an evolution than a heavily reworked OS.
So in a nut shell I don't see this transition involving software. It still appears to be a shift in hardware of some sort. Still it is hard to get a grip on just what Apple is talking about here. Especially looking at the current PC line up, which might lead one to suspect new PC form factors.
What will be interesting is to see if all of this excitement was worth it after this quarter ends. The coming transition might be real from Apples standpoint but anticlimatic to us. For example an all new iPod line up might be a huge transition for Apple, depending on what is delivered it might be a big yawn for us. In otherwords our expectations maybe exhibiting thermal runaway.
Dave
Touch trackpads instead of mice
Predictions seem to run the gamut from the completely insane to the generally non-sensical. No one really bothers to do the research anymore or examine the company's behavior concerning new product launches.
MBP is NOT getting Nehalem in September. It won't even launch in mobile variants until early next year. If this crazy rumor is true, I'll be a monky's uncle, poop my pants, and run out and buy one.
Apple is NOT making a Toughbook-style laptop. This is just someone's wishful thinking because they probably own a Toughbook and hate it.
OLED is NOT making it anywhere anytime soon. Sony makes an 11-inch TV that costs like $2500 alone and they have stated that development has been rather slow in creating larger displays. There's even some problems with the display lifespan!
Apple IS making a tablet. In fact it's probably already built in the form of working prototype. Whether or not they come to market with it is subject to whether or not they determine they can make a viable go IN that market.
Midtowers will never happen again for Apple. Sorry folks. This is a hardware company that has built brand recognition based on their consumer-level hardware being simple and easy to use. Monitors included. The Mac Pro is Apple's answer to the pro/enthusiast market who want's a customized setup.
OS X on PC's is the dumbest one I've heard yet. OS X is there to sell the hardware. It's the reason people switch from PC to Mac. It will not happen during Job's tenure, and most likely ever.
That's not to say that some of these coming true would be incredible. (Namely OLED, Nehalem, Tablet, etc.) But look at these with a bit of common sense and reason and you'll find the most likely things to happen are somewhat more subtle and reasonable.
Full SSD transition is possible and certainly doable. I don't quite see how this helps matters though with Apple getting a leg up on the comp. because SSDs are still not quite up to the mythical standards that we want them to be.
Blu Ray is very possible and certainly doable. Again though, no real benefit unless paired with updated res displays and a solid market of people wanting to burn/play blu rays with their computer.
The Nvidia rumor is probably the most interesting and compelling rumor I've come across so far. It makes sense that this would be a "product transition" and that it would give them a leg up on the competition because of the pairing with Snow Leopard's OpenCL support. This has the potential to turn ordinary notebook computers into serious computing devices that would effectively leapfrog most of Intels roadmap for the next few years. Nehalem and Sandy Bridge sound great and all, but I don't think either of them could hold a candle to the massive parallel processing that goes on when you make GPU components do the work of a main CPU. I don't know the current status of this rumor, whether or not it's been debunk, but it's one that I find very exciting.
Large-scale price reductions are a very good possibility as well. This fits in line perfectly with the comments regarding 'cutting into profits' and 'getting ahead of competition.' Apple makes fantastic computers who's main drawback is the cost of ownership.
Apple transitions to an Apple SOC for it's new iPod line up. We actually shouldn't be to surprised here as Steve himself has said PA was purchased to build chips for iPods. Of course this could be the reality distortion field at work.
Makes sense. SOCs tend to get smaller, cheaper and more efficient as time passes, which would allow the battery to get bigger. This is a good thing, as battery technology is always on the verge of an order-of-magnitude breakthrough, but never seems to make it. Anything that increases it works for me.
Touch based devices transition to OLED devices.
Another help with battery life, and a better screen to boot. I have an iRiver Clix 2, which has a beautiful little OLED screen. No need for OLED breakthroughs to make an iPod Touch-sized device.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2...01_005339.html
Banana, what do you think of Bob Cringely's idea of special H.264 chips?
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2...01_005339.html
Interesting article. I'm not sure this is what's going down though. Admittedly, the Apple TV has fallen kinda flat since it's inception. I'm not sure that this particular strategy would work to dig it out of it's already deep hole. Quite an interesting take on it though and certainly a possibility. I would definitely call this one over blu-ray. Apple seems interested more in the downloadable content as the future rather than physical media.
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/articl...crackable-lock
Everyone is a moron.
OS X on PC's is the dumbest one I've heard yet. OS X is there to sell the hardware. It's the reason people switch from PC to Mac. It will not happen during Job's tenure, and most likely ever.
Actually, I replaced 2 of my home PCs, my parent's PC, my customer's PCs with iMacs, and then my work laptop with a MacBook Pro and put Windows XP onto Bootcamp on all of them. Customers don't want to learn a new operating system. They are just sick of PCs being junk. People are switching because Apple now makes the best PC hardware on the market. I have to use Windows XP because OSX doesn't have a viable answer to the Taskbar at the bottom which holds in order all of your 12 open windows. OSX might have an open window down there only if you used an extra click to put it there first, or it might be behind another open window, you have to poke around and click too much to find it and that interferes with high-speed multi-tasking. As long as Apple keeps producing the best hardware available people will continue switching to Apple hardware, regardless of OSX.
Actually, I replaced 2 of my home PCs, my parent's PC, my customer's PCs with iMacs, and then my work laptop with a MacBook Pro and put Windows XP onto Bootcamp on all of them. Customers don't want to learn a new operating system. They are just sick of PCs being junk. People are switching because Apple now makes the best PC hardware on the market. I have to use Windows XP because OSX doesn't have a viable answer to the Taskbar at the bottom which holds in order all of your 12 open windows. OSX might have an open window down there only if you used an extra click to put it there first, or it might be behind another open window, you have to poke around and click too much to find it and that interferes with high-speed multi-tasking. As long as Apple keeps producing the best hardware available people will continue switching to Apple hardware, regardless of OSX.
Good point. People do switch because of better hardware rather than software. But my point is that OS X is a MAJOR selling point for Macs (it may not be the only selling point). Apple knows that OS X sells a lot of hardware for them and licensing it out to PC OEMs is like hoping you'll still produce golden eggs after you've sold the goose.
Actually, I replaced 2 of my home PCs, my parent's PC, my customer's PCs with iMacs, and then my work laptop with a MacBook Pro and put Windows XP onto Bootcamp on all of them. Customers don't want to learn a new operating system. They are just sick of PCs being junk. People are switching because Apple now makes the best PC hardware on the market. I have to use Windows XP because OSX doesn't have a viable answer to the Taskbar at the bottom which holds in order all of your 12 open windows. OSX might have an open window down there only if you used an extra click to put it there first, or it might be behind another open window, you have to poke around and click too much to find it and that interferes with high-speed multi-tasking. As long as Apple keeps producing the best hardware available people will continue switching to Apple hardware, regardless of OSX.
It's called a dock, and it does the same thing as a taskbar. Anything that is open sits in the dock with a light under it. You don't have to poke around anywhere, just use expose.
Not to be rude or anything, but in my opinion, most people that complain that OSX doesn't have a viable solution for something that Windows does (interface wise) are the people that didn't take the whopping 1-2 days it takes to learn the OSX interface.
Actually, I replaced 2 of my home PCs, my parent's PC, my customer's PCs with iMacs, and then my work laptop with a MacBook Pro and put Windows XP onto Bootcamp on all of them. Customers don't want to learn a new operating system. They are just sick of PCs being junk. People are switching because Apple now makes the best PC hardware on the market. I have to use Windows XP because OSX doesn't have a viable answer to the Taskbar at the bottom which holds in order all of your 12 open windows. OSX might have an open window down there only if you used an extra click to put it there first, or it might be behind another open window, you have to poke around and click too much to find it and that interferes with high-speed multi-tasking. As long as Apple keeps producing the best hardware available people will continue switching to Apple hardware, regardless of OSX.
Fuck me, you're saying the TaskBar is an example of good GUI design? Damn, that's some warped logic right there. And
OS X's multi-tasking ability is vastly superior; I'm sorry that you are unwilling to take the time to learn how to use it properly (yes, I use both Windows and OS X, no I'm not a rabid Apple fanboi - OS X has its annoyances but multi-tasking sure as hell aint one of them).
In the following discussion, note that Windows with a capital "W" refers to the OS, windows with a lower-case "w" refers to the GUI element.
In this area, OS X's superiority comes down to the fact that, unlike Windows, it has a proper distinction between windows and applications. The dock (OS X's closest equivalent to the taskbar) allows users to switch between applications, whilst windows can be switched between using exposé. Exposé allows windows to be switched either within a single application, or across all applications, and when active allows drag and drop onto the "exposéd" windows, unlike Windows "alt"-"tab" window switcher.
Applications can also be switched using the "application switcher" that appears when you press the "command (apple)" and "tab" keys together. Note that the application switcher is much more powerful than the Windows alternative "alt-tab". Once the application switcher is active, it can be navigated with both the keyboard and the mouse, and can be used to hide or quit applications without having to switch to said application first. An additional advantage is that it uses the same modifier key ("command (apple)") to activate as all other keyboard shortcuts in OS X, and this can be a considerable time saver if, for example, copying and pasting between two applications. In Windows, you select text in your source app, press "ctrl" and "c" to copy, release both those keys, move both fingers to press "alt"-"tab", then release both those keys to move both finger again to press "ctrl" and "v", now switch back by releasing both "ctrl" and "v" to press "alt"-"tab", select more text, repeat until done. In OS X, you select the source text, press "command (apple)" and "c", release both keys, but move just one finger to the "c" key (the other finger stays poised above the command key), press the tab key, release, press "v", release, press "tab". It might not sound like much, but being able to keep one finger over the command key and only change the other key that you're pressing speeds up the process immensely if you've got to repeat it several times.
Together, the dock, application switcher and exposé provide a much more powerful solution than the Windows taskbar. I heartily recommend that you spend more time learning how to properly use OS X; you won't regret it (other than Windows might start to really piss you off whenever you have to use it
Fuck me,
In Windows, you select text in your source app, press "ctrl" and "c" to copy, release both those keys, move both fingers to press "alt"-"tab", then release both those keys to move both finger again to press "ctrl" and "v", now switch back by releasing both "ctrl" and "v" to press "alt"-"tab", select more text, repeat until done. In OS X, you select the source text, press "command (apple)" and "c", release both keys, but move just one finger to the "c" key (the other finger stays poised above the command key), press the tab key, release, press "v", release, press "tab". It might not sound like much, but being able to keep one finger over the command key and only change the other key that you're pressing speeds up the process immensely if you've got to repeat it several times.
Together, the dock, application switcher and exposé provide a much more powerful solution than the Windows taskbar. I heartily recommend that you spend more time learning how to properly use OS X; you won't regret it (other than Windows might start to really piss you off whenever you have to use it
Then you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around?
You don't have a clue. I do all of my switching in XP with the mouse.
Highlight what to copy < right-click < copy < click once on the taskbar tab you're moving to < right-click < paste.
I can see all open windows and programs in a row all the time. Nothing hidden out of sight, nothing requires another hand on the keyboard, no mix of closed and opened programs all on the same bar. No switching to the program first then selecting the correct window. It takes 1 click to go right to the correct open window within the program of your choice.
It's called a dock, and it does the same thing as a taskbar. Anything that is open sits in the dock with a light under it. You don't have to poke around anywhere, just use expose.
Not to be rude or anything, but in my opinion, most people that complain that OSX doesn't have a viable solution for something that Windows does (interface wise) are the people that didn't take the whopping 1-2 days it takes to learn the OSX interface.
When I have 3 web browser windows open and 3 word processor files open, in XP I can go from window 2 of one program to window 3 of the second program or any other combination in a single click (I do not use the 'grouped windows' option). Anything else any other way Could be done, but requires more clicks to do. When each window switch used to take 1 click and now it takes 2 or 3, that's going in the wrong direction.
You don't have a clue.
It's you that doesn't have a clue, being a self-confessed non-user of OS X. I use both OSes extensively, and OS X clearly wins in this area.
I do all of my switching in XP with the mouse. Highlight what to copy < right-click < copy < click once on the taskbar tab you're moving to < right-click < paste.
O.K. Nothing stopping you using only the mouse in OS X. Allocate a hot corner to exposé, and ta-da, you have your one-click access to the desired window (corners are very big mousing targets (fitt's law), and an "exposéd" window is a much larger target than a TaskBar button, so it's likely the hot-corner flick + click on desired window would take the same or less time than clicking on a TaskBar button).
By the by, using the keyboard when you've got a lot of this to do is clearly a lot faster. If you've a disability that stops you using the keyboard then you have my sincere commiseration. Perhaps you don't use the keyboard in Windows because the "solution" is so damn clunky.
I can see all open windows and programs in a row all the time.
No you can't. You can only see open windows as there's no distinction between windows and applications.
It takes 1 click to go right to the correct window within the program of your choice.
As it does with exposé. Only exposé is better because you can see what's in each window as well as seeing a text descriptor thereof.