First, an interesting side note to my Christmas entry about the travels of a young couple from Nazareth to Bethlehem. One of my favorite monthly readings is Harpers Index column in Harpers Magazine. The column just publishes various statistics or figures garnered from various other sources, with no commentary and only slightly tongue in cheek juxtapositions. According to the Index in the December. 2006 issue of Harpers, were Joseph and Mary to make that same trip today, they would be required to pass through at least 10 security check-posts. No comment, as I said, its just an interesting side note.
Now on to business…
Just a few thoughts on this weeks news from the 2007 Macworld Expo. Theres a lot of pressure on Apple and Steve Jobs now, as the Macworld Expo has a reputation of being the source of BIG THINGS coming from Apple. Everyone (including yours truly) was expecting the iPhone. The last system update I downloaded sometime in December even included some iPhone software. In addition to the iPhone, we also got AppleTV.
My first impression was relief of the decision NOT to introduce the iTV. Im getting pretty tired of i-everything. It was clever, now Im over it. Seems like Apple may have to give up the iPhone name, too, as Cisco has held a registered trademark on that name since June of 2000. Apple was aware of the legal aspect and the two companies were in negotiations at the time of Jobs introduction of the device, so Cisco feels they have no choice but to sue Apple over use of the term. Not sure how this is going to play out, but interesting, all the same.
Basically, the iPhone will be a phone, iPod, internet, personal assistant type device at a cost of $499 to $599. It has touch screen controls and as is required of Apple, very sleek and cool design. Not sure Ill be getting one anytime soon, but if someone wants to send me one for evaluation, I wouldnt turn it down!
The AppleTV device is interesting for different reasons…no controversy, no pre-release hype. I see it as a part of a well-planned strategy as Apple enters and positions itself in the rapidly growing home network/entertainment/theater market. Their Mac mini was, to my way of thinking, the first foray into this market and I see the AppleTV device as the natural next step. The home entertainment aspect of computers, networks and TV viewing is exploding and is exactly the right place for Apple to go. Nearly every home I can think of has more than one TV, more than one computer, some sort of broadband internet connection, and some sort of TV delivery service such as cable or satellite. Becoming the company or one of the companies that brings all this together could be a very sweet thing.