Let's not sound so funerial.... The Sky is not falling! Steve Jobs is not going to take the individual posters here to ease anyone's paranoia about the future of Macs.... Some folks might think that Mac is dead, and try to make it sound logical, but then it's only those folks' opinion, that is not base on anything the Apple said or did...
The Mac Desktops can't be innovated as quickly as the brand new product lines like iPods, iPhone, iPads... Desktops are an older concept, and a few cosmetic changes don't warrant much fanfare! The HD's can be upgraded, and the Video Cards etc. So, we are not going to see Major Refreshes too often and too dramatic!
The Pro Software already does a TON of stuff, and there can't be too many Revolutions there! Thus, we can't expect Apple to SCREAM about them too often too loudly!
But, let's consider the WORST CASE SCENARIO, as per the negative Mac Desktop is dead earlier posts! In that case, Apple can still open OS to the 3rd party like HP, Dell etc. But, that's as likely to happen as seeing Taliban on American Idol!
Another Remote Possibility: Virtual Mac OS running on Windows, ala Parallels or VM Ware running Windows on Macs...
But, still both of those scenarios are too silly:
iPads, iPhones require Mobile Me, and one would need a Mac for that, or some kind of desktop!!! So, why would Apple give up on those sales?
iPads, iPhones are a HALO EFFECT MAGNETS that will bring bigger crowds to Apple Stores. People will be exposed to Macs and end up switching to Macs from Windows, on the assumption that Macs are as easy and fun as iPads, iPhones, or because they are bored with Windows, and are tired of viruses....
So, the Rumors of Mac Desktop Deaths are Premature and Greatly Blown Out of Proportion!
I will miss those Get a Mac Ads, and still them on YouTube. I assume that Apple Controls that Channel... I don't see why the would Delete them! Those ads are part of Computer/Tech History! They will be viewed for years to come!
The New Mac Ads will appear! Apple doesn't need to make fun of Microsoft any more, and vs. They don't even need to make fun of Google! Apple needs to continue making the best products, and let those speak for themselves, via the actual sales numbers, not opinion polls!!!
The Movie Studios, TV Networks etc. will play Apple vs. Google Divide and Conquer games, same with ISPs, Wireless Carriers, and Social Media! In the end, the WORLD is big enough for ALL of those companies!!!
We'll be always able to shoot our movies and edit them, write our text and edit it, same with photo and other stuff!
The Sky is NOT Falling! The Cloud Computing is Coming! In the end it's about CONTENT and EASE OF ACCESS/DISTRIBUTION!
Google and Android will keep Fragmenting itself, and same with Windows Mobile. Mac Universe of iPhone, Mobile Me etc. will look SIMPLER, more STABLE, with better SUPPORT!
New iPhone and other New Stuff is coming, and will keep coming long after all of us are gone! Sony will assemble their Android TVs. Apple will get someone assemble their products! The Logos will say Sony, Apple etc., and a few geeks will know the actual names of the plants/suppliers for these Resellers like Apple and Sony! In the end it's SOFTWARE and how it all come/WORKS TOGETHER!
APPLE STORES and the SUPPORT will be 2nd to NOBODY, and Apple's Future is BRIGHT!
People will vote with their $$ and we'll always have our Macs!
OK, it seems that ONLY thing they have to sell about Win 7 is "Snap". How many commercials are there out there that show someone dragging one window to the left and one to the right? Does it do anything else?
Just exactly what are you smokin' dude and where do I get some? Your remarks are some of the most ridiculous I have read in years. Actually I guess the Mac was on the way out right after it was introduced by your way of thinking. It has been such a short run (26 yrs so far) and the slow death you are speaking of - do you count this in decades remaining or years?
I don't do drugs, so I'm sorry I can't share any with you.
Steve Jobs' outlook can change on the dime. Love an Apple product today; hate it tomorrow. Read the biographies.
When he announced the iPad, he said "Apple is now the largest mobile device company in the world." So that's what Apple, Inc. is now, not Apple Computer, Inc., maker of personal computers, but a mobile device company. I see now. Now everyone obey the command. I think Apple's "1984" ad should be redone with Steve Jobs' picture on the giant screen.
And Apple Chief Operating Officer recently said at a Goldman Sachs' annual tech conference that "Apple is now a mobile device company." Is there room for the Mac anywhere in there?
Steve believes the personal computer era is over, and he will take actions to hasten it. He's an impatient guy. The Mac will be gradually exsanguinated over time. Soon there will be no Macs. It just will be more gradual and "under-the-radar" than killing microfloppies and Adobe Flash.
There was no logical, defensible reason to kill the "Get a Mac" campaign. It was never stale. Though it adhered to the same formula, the subject matter and scenarios varied widely -- enough to hold everyone's interest ad infinitum. They were a hit with the public and are still a hit as they're being killed.
I'll tell you why Apple canceled the highly successful and industry praised "Get a Mac" campaign: Windows 7. Apple went spineless, because they had so much ammo when Vista was around, but as WSJ's Walt Mossberg wrote, between Mac OS X and Windows 7 "it's now more of a toss-up."
Apple went spineless after the launch of Windows 95 and felt they could no longer compete as they did on the deficiencies of previous versions of Windows as Windows had ripped off the last Mac feature left.
What Mac TV ad campaign will succeed "Get a Mac"? None.
There will be no more Mac TV ads or print ads, for that would run counter to Steve Jobs' efforts to kill the "outmoded" personal computer as we've always known it. It's time for the "post PC era to begin."
In the Apple Q2 2010 quarterly conference call, an Apple representative obliquely referred to a "Future product transition." My money is on a transition away from personal computers and to mobile devices. Now follow the command.
Also noted in the call was that "Not much was said about the Mac."
An article on Betanews talked about what it called a "Macolypse," where between November 2008 and April 2009, Mac year-over-year sales dropped sharply "even as Windows PCs dramatically gained."
The article attributes this to:
? In September, Microsoft started its "I'm a PC" marketing campaign, which, according to the company and analysts, boosted Windows perceptions and PC sales over several months.
? Apple took a four month break from airing "Get a Mac" commercials.
So does anyone doubt a relationship between the "Get a Mac" campaign and Mac sales?
Steve Jobs recently wrote in an email: "The times they are a changin?, and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is."
And it's no longer a secret that the Mac OS X team was "gutted" of key talent reassigned to iPhone OS. When asked in emails about this Mac OS X product management members aren't even diplomatic and don't do a lot to disguise their resentment.
If that isn't a tangible example that Apple is depleting resources devoted to the Mac and Mac OS X and reallocating them to iPhone OS, I don't know what is.
If you think you can affect the situation by buying or updating your Mac models more often, that will only anger Steve Jobs. He doesn't WANT them to sell well. He needs an alibi for killing the Mac.
I don't do drugs, so I'm sorry I can't share any with you.
Steve Jobs' outlook can change on the dime. Love an Apple product today; hate it tomorrow. Read the biographies.
When he announced the iPad, he said "Apple is now the largest mobile device company in the world." So that's what Apple, Inc. is now, not Apple Computer, Inc., maker of personal computers, but a mobile device company. I see now. Now everyone obey the command. I think Apple's "1984" ad should be redone with Steve Jobs' picture on the giant screen.
And Apple Chief Operating Officer recently said at a Goldman Sachs' annual tech conference that "Apple is now a mobile device company." Is there room for the Mac anywhere in there?
Steve believes the personal computer era is over, and he will take actions to hasten it. He's an impatient guy. The Mac will be gradually exsanguinated over time. Soon there will be no Macs. It just will be more gradual and "under-the-radar" than killing microfloppies and Adobe Flash.
There was no logical, defensible reason to kill the "Get a Mac" campaign. It was never stale. Though it adhered to the same formula, the subject matter and scenarios varied widely -- enough to hold everyone's interest ad infinitum. They were a hit with the public and are still a hit as they're being killed.
I'll tell you why Apple canceled the highly successful and industry praised "Get a Mac" campaign: Windows 7. Apple went spineless, because they had so much ammo when Vista was around, but as WSJ's Walt Mossberg wrote, between Mac OS X and Windows 7 "it's now more of a toss-up."
Apple went spineless after the launch of Windows 95 and felt they could no longer compete as they did on the deficiencies of previous versions of Windows as Windows had ripped off the last Mac feature left.
What Mac TV ad campaign will succeed "Get a Mac"? None.
There will be no more Mac TV ads or print ads, for that would run counter to Steve Jobs' efforts to kill the "outmoded" personal computer as we've always known it. It's time for the "post PC era to begin."
In the Apple Q2 2010 quarterly conference call, an Apple representative obliquely referred to a "Future product transition." My money is on a transition away from personal computers and to mobile devices. Now follow the command.
Also noted in the call was that "Not much was said about the Mac."
An article on Betanews talked about what it called a "Macolypse," where between November 2008 and April 2009, Mac year-over-year sales dropped sharply "even as Windows PCs dramatically gained."
The article attributes this to:
? In September, Microsoft started its "I'm a PC" marketing campaign, which, according to the company and analysts, boosted Windows perceptions and PC sales over several months.
? Apple took a four month break from airing "Get a Mac" commercials.
So does anyone doubt a relationship between the "Get a Mac" campaign and Mac sales?
Steve Jobs recently wrote in an email: "The times they are a changin?, and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is."
And it's no longer a secret that the Mac OS X team was "gutted" of key talent reassigned to iPhone OS. When asked in emails about this Mac OS X product management members aren't even diplomatic and don't do a lot to disguise their resentment.
If that isn't a tangible example that Apple is depleting resources devoted to the Mac and Mac OS X and reallocating them to iPhone OS, I don't know what is.
If you think you can affect the situation by buying or updating your Mac models more often, that will only anger Steve Jobs. He doesn't WANT them to sell well. He needs an alibi for killing the Mac.
Who out there is a betting man or woman?
I am betting you are wrong on most counts for at least 3 years. You can't truly believe or expect Apple to walk away from multi-millions in Mac unit sales.
Let's not sound so funerial....and try to make it sound logical, but then it's only those folks' opinion, that is not base on anything the Apple said or did...
It's "funereal."
Refer to post #44 for specifics, not opinions. I did not come to the conclusion I did lightly or quickly, and oh how I wish I were wrong!
I don't WANT the Mac killed! Or even the Windows PC for that matter!
My observations are not my opinions. I reluctantly came to the conclusions I did after reading comments from COO Tim Cook, Steve Jobs and others.
I don't want it to be true.
I can't effectively use Adobe Creative Suite 5 on an iPad running iPhone OS, with a single processor with a single core and running at 1GHz with 64GB of Flash RAM for active RAM as well as storage. Apps can access a maximum of 256MB.
But it is a fact that Steve Jobs wants to kill the optical disk, Adobe Flash and the personal computer as we know it. Actually, I don't think he wants to kill the personal computer as much as he's concluded that "the personal computer era is over." He's convinced.
He's just impatient as he waits (for however long) for it to finally end. And to have his company properly poised, he's diverting resources away from personal computers and to mobile devices, so he'll be ahead of all other personal computer makers when then end happens and their R&D budgets are all screwed up.
I don't like this anymore than anyone else does.
email [email protected] and tell him that as a loyal customer who has forked over so much money to his company for so many years, you want Mac and Mac OS X development pursued as forcefully as ever. No more shortchanging the Mac in favor of mobile devices.
And advertise the Mac. I reluctantly believe the end of the "Get a Mac" campaign is not just the end of a campaign, but the end of Mac TV advertising.
it is a marketing decision on an old marketing practice, no, Mac will not die, simply, the half of the customers of iPhone, iPod and iPad are PC users and Apple decided that it is better to not bother them!
I am betting you are wrong on most counts for at least 3 years. You can't truly believe or expect Apple to walk away from multi-millions in Mac unit sales.
So you agree that Jobs has declared "the personal computer era is over" but it may play out over a three year period? Then we don't disagree.
And I can ABSOLUTELY believe Apple will walk away from the Mac if Steve Jobs sabotages it, neglects it, poaches critical Mac talent for mobile devices, stops advertising or promoting the Mac, and then Mac sales decline to the point where Apple breaks-even or loses money on Macs. He'll have engineered a perfect argument to convince the Board of Directors and institutional investors and large shareholders to agree to discontinue the Mac.
Read a Steve Jobs biography and take notice of his well-documented habit of turning on his once "favorite" Apple products and plot their destruction. He even mistreats the product's product management teams. Many Apple personnel have left for that reason. The atmosphere becomes one of hostility, they no longer fell welcome at the company, and they leave.
email him at [email protected] and be an opposing force to his plan to foster the Mac withering on the vine.
Apple has ended its long-running and highly successful "Get a Mac" ad campaign, and this week the company finally pulled the series of commercials from its website.
"
And good riddance.
While the campaign was highly successful, it did lose its effectiveness over time; it went from getting people to actually switch, to something only the choir bothered to notice. When was the last time anyone in an Apple Store said one of those ads convinced them to try Apple?
That said, Apple didn't have to pull the ads from their site. The ads will be an important part of Apple's history. Check out http://www.info.apple.com/support/ol...twarelist.html ; there are still Apple II downloads available, so Apple can't tell us they need the room on their servers.
I find it strange that after all this time they still use the desktop from windows XP when it comes to their point about booting windows. Where's the love for windows 7?
I haven't tried the Windows 7 OS yet. Since Apple uses the same suppliers and hardware as other manufacturers for the internal parts it really comes down to software quality. I didn't love the Apple Mac Book hardware. I loved the Leopard OS because it was so functional without too many bugs.
How wrong you are. Have you seen any Macintosh, laptop or desktop broken down to it's bare parts? Apple constructs much of the internals. Someone else, with better first hand knowledge then me, at this hour, could attest that Apple have a lot of control of the hardware AS the software.
When I use to work in sales for CompUSA (as the only dedicated Mac Guy) and then an Apple Sales Associate at an Apple Store, the often time winning argument in switching people (long before the Get a Mac ads) was that Apple controlled the hardware and the software so when something breaks down it was easy to diagnosis and fix. Much is still the case, despite an Intel processor as the CPU.
OK, it seems that ONLY thing they have to sell about Win 7 is "Snap". How many commercials are there out there that show someone dragging one window to the left and one to the right? Does it do anything else?
I've not seen any ads, I'm not sure any MS ads have screened in NZ since the Madonna ones around XP's launch, and the I'm a Mac ones never did either, but seriously they advertise snap? It is by far the feature of 7 that I hate most, and thankfully it can be turned off! It's right up there with the Windows Explorer sidebar that is cluttered with many useless things that cannot be removed ... so in a way that is more annoying.
Anyway, on the topic, I'm reluctantly tending towards the Macs being slowly done away with camp. They've really just run out of things to advertise in the way those ads did. Maybe a new "I'm an iPad", "and I'm a Mac" series to really get the point across?
Edit: the immediately above is interesting. I didn't notice what was quoted there, but I'm pretty surprised that people are turned by the OS more so than by the hardware. Running Windows under boot camp on a Mac laptop is a much nicer experience than running it on any PC I've seen - no driver issues and you know there's the nice quality hardware built in and everything you need with it. It is often even more enjoyable than running OS X.
I think we're going to see a shift away from "Mac vs PC". I believe Apple's next ad strategy will focus on the whole "Apple experience" with iPad, iPhone, iPod, Mac, Apple TV etc. not isolating the Mac as its most important product. If they sell an iPhone, it's just as important as if they're selling a Mac, or an iPad.
i think we're going to see a shift away from "mac vs pc". I believe apple's next ad strategy will focus on the whole "apple experience" with ipad, iphone, ipod, mac, apple tv etc. Not isolating the mac as its most important product. If they sell an iphone, it's just as important as if they're selling a mac, or an ipad.
Apple is allying with Microsoft vs new evil, anyone?
I think there is room for MS and apple to work together to thwart google. Apple could make Bing the default search engine on all apple products (which isn't something to sneeze at -- it won't be long before apple is selling 100 million devices a year that would have a default search engine -- maybe 2011 or 2012) and MS could give Apple a leg up over google in Exchange and Office compatibility / interoperability. MS Office for Mac and iPad, but NOT for Chrome. Full Exchange support for Mac and iPhone/iPad, but NOT for Android/Chrome. Those are all things that would matter.
When the switch from PPC to Intel was made, Steve wasn't interested in killing the Mac at that time. It's since iPhone OS and the iPad that he now resents the Mac and will do everything he can to treat it with "death by a thousand cuts."
This is total, unadulterated, BS. Macs are an important part of Apple's revenue AND Apple's strategy.
The key to success of the iDevices was the ecosystem surrounding it. You need a computer to get the full benefit of that.
Then there's the army of graphics professionals using Macs. Why in the world would Apple walk away from an entrenched market making billions of dollars per year? To save a few tens of millions in R&D costs? The entire concept is absurd. Apple management must be laughing their heads off when uninformed trolls even suggest such a thing.
I am betting you are wrong on most counts for at least 3 years. You can't truly believe or expect Apple to walk away from multi-millions in Mac unit sales.
I'm not sure what the point of joining this argument is... From my perspective, the trolls have lost the "apple is doomed" angle so have instead begun what seems to be a concerted effort to create new memes.
One is the FUD "Apple is abandoning the Mac" panic. They start with some kernals of truth (mobile devices now account for tha majority of profits/ Computer removed from Apple Inc.) and try to twist that into some sort of illogical the "Mac is doomed" story. This makes no sense. Macs are still quite profitable AND they complement mobile devices--they do not compete with them! But notice, by even just trying to converse with this troll storyline politely, you threw in the "for at least three years" caviot--the rediculous meme wins!
Another meme I see all over the place in troll comments is limited appeal story. The ones that state over and over that the iPad is just for kids and old people/the iPhone is for women...
Doesn't apple own the copyright for the commercials? So why would that have anything to do with it?
The ads have run their course. There's no real reason to keep them around anymore, in Apple's view. Even though disk space is cheap, bandwidth isn't. There's also the minor issue of the actors' residuals.
Ideally, Apple or their ad agency would donate these ads to Duke University to be archived in their Adviews program. But for now, at least we'll have YouTube.
Comments
Let's not sound so funerial.... The Sky is not falling! Steve Jobs is not going to take the individual posters here to ease anyone's paranoia about the future of Macs.... Some folks might think that Mac is dead, and try to make it sound logical, but then it's only those folks' opinion, that is not base on anything the Apple said or did...
The Mac Desktops can't be innovated as quickly as the brand new product lines like iPods, iPhone, iPads... Desktops are an older concept, and a few cosmetic changes don't warrant much fanfare! The HD's can be upgraded, and the Video Cards etc. So, we are not going to see Major Refreshes too often and too dramatic!
The Pro Software already does a TON of stuff, and there can't be too many Revolutions there! Thus, we can't expect Apple to SCREAM about them too often too loudly!
But, let's consider the WORST CASE SCENARIO, as per the negative Mac Desktop is dead earlier posts! In that case, Apple can still open OS to the 3rd party like HP, Dell etc. But, that's as likely to happen as seeing Taliban on American Idol
Another Remote Possibility: Virtual Mac OS running on Windows, ala Parallels or VM Ware running Windows on Macs...
But, still both of those scenarios are too silly:
iPads, iPhones require Mobile Me, and one would need a Mac for that, or some kind of desktop!!! So, why would Apple give up on those sales?
iPads, iPhones are a HALO EFFECT MAGNETS that will bring bigger crowds to Apple Stores. People will be exposed to Macs and end up switching to Macs from Windows, on the assumption that Macs are as easy and fun as iPads, iPhones, or because they are bored with Windows, and are tired of viruses....
So, the Rumors of Mac Desktop Deaths are Premature and Greatly Blown Out of Proportion!
I will miss those Get a Mac Ads, and still them on YouTube. I assume that Apple Controls that Channel... I don't see why the would Delete them! Those ads are part of Computer/Tech History! They will be viewed for years to come!
The New Mac Ads will appear! Apple doesn't need to make fun of Microsoft any more, and vs. They don't even need to make fun of Google! Apple needs to continue making the best products, and let those speak for themselves, via the actual sales numbers, not opinion polls!!!
The Movie Studios, TV Networks etc. will play Apple vs. Google Divide and Conquer games, same with ISPs, Wireless Carriers, and Social Media! In the end, the WORLD is big enough for ALL of those companies!!!
We'll be always able to shoot our movies and edit them, write our text and edit it, same with photo and other stuff!
The Sky is NOT Falling! The Cloud Computing is Coming! In the end it's about CONTENT and EASE OF ACCESS/DISTRIBUTION!
Google and Android will keep Fragmenting itself, and same with Windows Mobile. Mac Universe of iPhone, Mobile Me etc. will look SIMPLER, more STABLE, with better SUPPORT!
New iPhone and other New Stuff is coming, and will keep coming long after all of us are gone! Sony will assemble their Android TVs. Apple will get someone assemble their products! The Logos will say Sony, Apple etc., and a few geeks will know the actual names of the plants/suppliers for these Resellers like Apple and Sony! In the end it's SOFTWARE and how it all come/WORKS TOGETHER!
APPLE STORES and the SUPPORT will be 2nd to NOBODY, and Apple's Future is BRIGHT!
People will vote with their $$ and we'll always have our Macs!
Relax, and enjoy your Summer everybody!!!
Just exactly what are you smokin' dude and where do I get some? Your remarks are some of the most ridiculous I have read in years.
I don't do drugs, so I'm sorry I can't share any with you.
Steve Jobs' outlook can change on the dime. Love an Apple product today; hate it tomorrow. Read the biographies.
When he announced the iPad, he said "Apple is now the largest mobile device company in the world." So that's what Apple, Inc. is now, not Apple Computer, Inc., maker of personal computers, but a mobile device company. I see now. Now everyone obey the command. I think Apple's "1984" ad should be redone with Steve Jobs' picture on the giant screen.
And Apple Chief Operating Officer recently said at a Goldman Sachs' annual tech conference that "Apple is now a mobile device company." Is there room for the Mac anywhere in there?
Steve believes the personal computer era is over, and he will take actions to hasten it. He's an impatient guy. The Mac will be gradually exsanguinated over time. Soon there will be no Macs. It just will be more gradual and "under-the-radar" than killing microfloppies and Adobe Flash.
There was no logical, defensible reason to kill the "Get a Mac" campaign. It was never stale. Though it adhered to the same formula, the subject matter and scenarios varied widely -- enough to hold everyone's interest ad infinitum. They were a hit with the public and are still a hit as they're being killed.
I'll tell you why Apple canceled the highly successful and industry praised "Get a Mac" campaign: Windows 7. Apple went spineless, because they had so much ammo when Vista was around, but as WSJ's Walt Mossberg wrote, between Mac OS X and Windows 7 "it's now more of a toss-up."
Apple went spineless after the launch of Windows 95 and felt they could no longer compete as they did on the deficiencies of previous versions of Windows as Windows had ripped off the last Mac feature left.
What Mac TV ad campaign will succeed "Get a Mac"? None.
There will be no more Mac TV ads or print ads, for that would run counter to Steve Jobs' efforts to kill the "outmoded" personal computer as we've always known it. It's time for the "post PC era to begin."
In the Apple Q2 2010 quarterly conference call, an Apple representative obliquely referred to a "Future product transition." My money is on a transition away from personal computers and to mobile devices. Now follow the command.
Also noted in the call was that "Not much was said about the Mac."
An article on Betanews talked about what it called a "Macolypse," where between November 2008 and April 2009, Mac year-over-year sales dropped sharply "even as Windows PCs dramatically gained."
The article attributes this to:
? In September, Microsoft started its "I'm a PC" marketing campaign, which, according to the company and analysts, boosted Windows perceptions and PC sales over several months.
? Apple took a four month break from airing "Get a Mac" commercials.
So does anyone doubt a relationship between the "Get a Mac" campaign and Mac sales?
Steve Jobs recently wrote in an email: "The times they are a changin?, and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is."
And it's no longer a secret that the Mac OS X team was "gutted" of key talent reassigned to iPhone OS. When asked in emails about this Mac OS X product management members aren't even diplomatic and don't do a lot to disguise their resentment.
If that isn't a tangible example that Apple is depleting resources devoted to the Mac and Mac OS X and reallocating them to iPhone OS, I don't know what is.
If you think you can affect the situation by buying or updating your Mac models more often, that will only anger Steve Jobs. He doesn't WANT them to sell well. He needs an alibi for killing the Mac.
Who out there is a betting man or woman?
I don't do drugs, so I'm sorry I can't share any with you.
Steve Jobs' outlook can change on the dime. Love an Apple product today; hate it tomorrow. Read the biographies.
When he announced the iPad, he said "Apple is now the largest mobile device company in the world." So that's what Apple, Inc. is now, not Apple Computer, Inc., maker of personal computers, but a mobile device company. I see now. Now everyone obey the command. I think Apple's "1984" ad should be redone with Steve Jobs' picture on the giant screen.
And Apple Chief Operating Officer recently said at a Goldman Sachs' annual tech conference that "Apple is now a mobile device company." Is there room for the Mac anywhere in there?
Steve believes the personal computer era is over, and he will take actions to hasten it. He's an impatient guy. The Mac will be gradually exsanguinated over time. Soon there will be no Macs. It just will be more gradual and "under-the-radar" than killing microfloppies and Adobe Flash.
There was no logical, defensible reason to kill the "Get a Mac" campaign. It was never stale. Though it adhered to the same formula, the subject matter and scenarios varied widely -- enough to hold everyone's interest ad infinitum. They were a hit with the public and are still a hit as they're being killed.
I'll tell you why Apple canceled the highly successful and industry praised "Get a Mac" campaign: Windows 7. Apple went spineless, because they had so much ammo when Vista was around, but as WSJ's Walt Mossberg wrote, between Mac OS X and Windows 7 "it's now more of a toss-up."
Apple went spineless after the launch of Windows 95 and felt they could no longer compete as they did on the deficiencies of previous versions of Windows as Windows had ripped off the last Mac feature left.
What Mac TV ad campaign will succeed "Get a Mac"? None.
There will be no more Mac TV ads or print ads, for that would run counter to Steve Jobs' efforts to kill the "outmoded" personal computer as we've always known it. It's time for the "post PC era to begin."
In the Apple Q2 2010 quarterly conference call, an Apple representative obliquely referred to a "Future product transition." My money is on a transition away from personal computers and to mobile devices. Now follow the command.
Also noted in the call was that "Not much was said about the Mac."
An article on Betanews talked about what it called a "Macolypse," where between November 2008 and April 2009, Mac year-over-year sales dropped sharply "even as Windows PCs dramatically gained."
The article attributes this to:
? In September, Microsoft started its "I'm a PC" marketing campaign, which, according to the company and analysts, boosted Windows perceptions and PC sales over several months.
? Apple took a four month break from airing "Get a Mac" commercials.
So does anyone doubt a relationship between the "Get a Mac" campaign and Mac sales?
Steve Jobs recently wrote in an email: "The times they are a changin?, and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is."
And it's no longer a secret that the Mac OS X team was "gutted" of key talent reassigned to iPhone OS. When asked in emails about this Mac OS X product management members aren't even diplomatic and don't do a lot to disguise their resentment.
If that isn't a tangible example that Apple is depleting resources devoted to the Mac and Mac OS X and reallocating them to iPhone OS, I don't know what is.
If you think you can affect the situation by buying or updating your Mac models more often, that will only anger Steve Jobs. He doesn't WANT them to sell well. He needs an alibi for killing the Mac.
Who out there is a betting man or woman?
I am betting you are wrong on most counts for at least 3 years. You can't truly believe or expect Apple to walk away from multi-millions in Mac unit sales.
Guys,
Let's not sound so funerial....and try to make it sound logical, but then it's only those folks' opinion, that is not base on anything the Apple said or did...
It's "funereal."
Refer to post #44 for specifics, not opinions. I did not come to the conclusion I did lightly or quickly, and oh how I wish I were wrong!
I don't WANT the Mac killed! Or even the Windows PC for that matter!
My observations are not my opinions. I reluctantly came to the conclusions I did after reading comments from COO Tim Cook, Steve Jobs and others.
I don't want it to be true.
I can't effectively use Adobe Creative Suite 5 on an iPad running iPhone OS, with a single processor with a single core and running at 1GHz with 64GB of Flash RAM for active RAM as well as storage. Apps can access a maximum of 256MB.
But it is a fact that Steve Jobs wants to kill the optical disk, Adobe Flash and the personal computer as we know it. Actually, I don't think he wants to kill the personal computer as much as he's concluded that "the personal computer era is over." He's convinced.
He's just impatient as he waits (for however long) for it to finally end. And to have his company properly poised, he's diverting resources away from personal computers and to mobile devices, so he'll be ahead of all other personal computer makers when then end happens and their R&D budgets are all screwed up.
I don't like this anymore than anyone else does.
email [email protected] and tell him that as a loyal customer who has forked over so much money to his company for so many years, you want Mac and Mac OS X development pursued as forcefully as ever. No more shortchanging the Mac in favor of mobile devices.
And advertise the Mac. I reluctantly believe the end of the "Get a Mac" campaign is not just the end of a campaign, but the end of Mac TV advertising.
I am betting you are wrong on most counts for at least 3 years. You can't truly believe or expect Apple to walk away from multi-millions in Mac unit sales.
So you agree that Jobs has declared "the personal computer era is over" but it may play out over a three year period? Then we don't disagree.
And I can ABSOLUTELY believe Apple will walk away from the Mac if Steve Jobs sabotages it, neglects it, poaches critical Mac talent for mobile devices, stops advertising or promoting the Mac, and then Mac sales decline to the point where Apple breaks-even or loses money on Macs. He'll have engineered a perfect argument to convince the Board of Directors and institutional investors and large shareholders to agree to discontinue the Mac.
Read a Steve Jobs biography and take notice of his well-documented habit of turning on his once "favorite" Apple products and plot their destruction. He even mistreats the product's product management teams. Many Apple personnel have left for that reason. The atmosphere becomes one of hostility, they no longer fell welcome at the company, and they leave.
email him at [email protected] and be an opposing force to his plan to foster the Mac withering on the vine.
Apple has ended its long-running and highly successful "Get a Mac" ad campaign, and this week the company finally pulled the series of commercials from its website.
"
And good riddance.
While the campaign was highly successful, it did lose its effectiveness over time; it went from getting people to actually switch, to something only the choir bothered to notice. When was the last time anyone in an Apple Store said one of those ads convinced them to try Apple?
That said, Apple didn't have to pull the ads from their site. The ads will be an important part of Apple's history. Check out http://www.info.apple.com/support/ol...twarelist.html ; there are still Apple II downloads available, so Apple can't tell us they need the room on their servers.
"windows 7 is apple's idea..."
Haha. That's exactly what I think every time one of those commercial airs.
"windows 7 is apple's idea..."
you took the words right outta my mouth.
I haven't tried the Windows 7 OS yet. Since Apple uses the same suppliers and hardware as other manufacturers for the internal parts it really comes down to software quality. I didn't love the Apple Mac Book hardware. I loved the Leopard OS because it was so functional without too many bugs.
How wrong you are. Have you seen any Macintosh, laptop or desktop broken down to it's bare parts? Apple constructs much of the internals. Someone else, with better first hand knowledge then me, at this hour, could attest that Apple have a lot of control of the hardware AS the software.
When I use to work in sales for CompUSA (as the only dedicated Mac Guy) and then an Apple Sales Associate at an Apple Store, the often time winning argument in switching people (long before the Get a Mac ads) was that Apple controlled the hardware and the software so when something breaks down it was easy to diagnosis and fix. Much is still the case, despite an Intel processor as the CPU.
OK, it seems that ONLY thing they have to sell about Win 7 is "Snap". How many commercials are there out there that show someone dragging one window to the left and one to the right? Does it do anything else?
I've not seen any ads, I'm not sure any MS ads have screened in NZ since the Madonna ones around XP's launch, and the I'm a Mac ones never did either, but seriously they advertise snap? It is by far the feature of 7 that I hate most, and thankfully it can be turned off! It's right up there with the Windows Explorer sidebar that is cluttered with many useless things that cannot be removed ... so in a way that is more annoying.
Anyway, on the topic, I'm reluctantly tending towards the Macs being slowly done away with camp. They've really just run out of things to advertise in the way those ads did. Maybe a new "I'm an iPad", "and I'm a Mac" series to really get the point across?
Edit: the immediately above is interesting. I didn't notice what was quoted there, but I'm pretty surprised that people are turned by the OS more so than by the hardware. Running Windows under boot camp on a Mac laptop is a much nicer experience than running it on any PC I've seen - no driver issues and you know there's the nice quality hardware built in and everything you need with it. It is often even more enjoyable than running OS X.
i think we're going to see a shift away from "mac vs pc". I believe apple's next ad strategy will focus on the whole "apple experience" with ipad, iphone, ipod, mac, apple tv etc. Not isolating the mac as its most important product. If they sell an iphone, it's just as important as if they're selling a mac, or an ipad.
...+1
Apple is allying with Microsoft vs new evil, anyone?
I think there is room for MS and apple to work together to thwart google. Apple could make Bing the default search engine on all apple products (which isn't something to sneeze at -- it won't be long before apple is selling 100 million devices a year that would have a default search engine -- maybe 2011 or 2012) and MS could give Apple a leg up over google in Exchange and Office compatibility / interoperability. MS Office for Mac and iPad, but NOT for Chrome. Full Exchange support for Mac and iPhone/iPad, but NOT for Android/Chrome. Those are all things that would matter.
When the switch from PPC to Intel was made, Steve wasn't interested in killing the Mac at that time. It's since iPhone OS and the iPad that he now resents the Mac and will do everything he can to treat it with "death by a thousand cuts."
This is total, unadulterated, BS. Macs are an important part of Apple's revenue AND Apple's strategy.
The key to success of the iDevices was the ecosystem surrounding it. You need a computer to get the full benefit of that.
Then there's the army of graphics professionals using Macs. Why in the world would Apple walk away from an entrenched market making billions of dollars per year? To save a few tens of millions in R&D costs? The entire concept is absurd. Apple management must be laughing their heads off when uninformed trolls even suggest such a thing.
I am betting you are wrong on most counts for at least 3 years. You can't truly believe or expect Apple to walk away from multi-millions in Mac unit sales.
I'm not sure what the point of joining this argument is... From my perspective, the trolls have lost the "apple is doomed" angle so have instead begun what seems to be a concerted effort to create new memes.
One is the FUD "Apple is abandoning the Mac" panic. They start with some kernals of truth (mobile devices now account for tha majority of profits/ Computer removed from Apple Inc.) and try to twist that into some sort of illogical the "Mac is doomed" story. This makes no sense. Macs are still quite profitable AND they complement mobile devices--they do not compete with them! But notice, by even just trying to converse with this troll storyline politely, you threw in the "for at least three years" caviot--the rediculous meme wins!
Another meme I see all over the place in troll comments is limited appeal story. The ones that state over and over that the iPad is just for kids and old people/the iPhone is for women...
Doesn't apple own the copyright for the commercials? So why would that have anything to do with it?
The ads have run their course. There's no real reason to keep them around anymore, in Apple's view. Even though disk space is cheap, bandwidth isn't. There's also the minor issue of the actors' residuals.
Ideally, Apple or their ad agency would donate these ads to Duke University to be archived in their Adviews program. But for now, at least we'll have YouTube.