CHEAP FRUIT
enjoy uncertainty. think
inexpensive.
I've had a little over twenty-four hours to process
and to consider -- and, of course, to drool over -- the bushel-basket-full of
new product announcements that (TWM idol) Steve Jobs and company laid out at
yesterday's Macworld keynote. It was a full, rich two hours
of unveilings, even by Apple & Macworld standards, and this year's bumper
crop certainly justified the wait, the anticipation, and the rumor mill mania
that we sweet, sorry Mac zealots whip up every second week of January, watching
live web streams, obsessively reloading the Macrumors live
feed, and just generally worrying and wondering how much of our money our
favorite company will tempt us into spending.
The answer this year: not a lot.
Which is not to say, of course, that there weren't a lot of lovely, luscious announcements yesterday. Because there were. A lot. And they were certainly lovely and luscious and lust-inducing. But they just weren't expensive. In fact, they were downright cheap. Almost shockingly so -- especially by premium Mac standards. Which makes yesterday's developments as big as they are bold, as wild as they are welcome.
Some tech analysts have already come out of the cyber-woodwork to question or to criticize the move -- BusinessWeek called it an aggressive down-market gamble -- after, it should be noted, years of doggedly questioning and criticizing Apple for not making a move toward low-end consumers. But if timing is everything, then Apple's move already has everything it needs to succeed. With the company's cool and cachet running at record-high levels thanks to the full-on frenzy for the glorious iPod line, with iTunes introducing once-skeptical PC-users to the simple grace and elegance of Apple's digital media applications, and with their high-end hardware as sleek and stylish and powerful (and expensive) as ever, this seems like the right time, the perfect intersection of promise and possibility into which to throw a couple of killer low-end products packed with Apple's typically high-end polish...
THE MAC MINI
I want one. I mean, I have absolutely no need for one -- I'm already swimming in Macs -- but I want one. Or, perhaps more accurately, I want to buy one. I've already e-mailed a couple of friends -- Mac-loving digital souls trapped in PC-using occupational bodies -- and told them they absolutely have to get one. (For themselves, of course -- because price, at $499, is no longer an object -- but also so I can come over and play with it and configure it and just generally show them all the cool things they can do with it, the computer equivalent of those annoying welcome-wagon people who show up at your new house with pies and coupons and directions to the nearest dry cleaner.) At six inches square and only two-inches high, it's the most gorgeous and tightly-packed piece of potent computing you'll ever find. Much less be able to carry in a small purse or lunchbox.
THE iPOD SHUFFLE
I want one. I mean, I have very little need for one -- my 40GB fourth-generation iPod is a big, bold beauty that goes everywhere I go -- but I want one. And I plan to buy one next week, as soon as they show up at the Shadyside Apple Store. Because at $99, well, the price point is perfect. I've been drooling over the iPod Minis since they first came out, and I've been living and owning one vicariously through Adam since his birthday, but it would have been foolish -- cool and stylish and geekily cool, but still foolish -- to get one for myself. But a Shuffle, at less than 1 ounce and as small as a pack of gum, with space for a 120-song playlist of songs in heavy rotation, I can easily justify for quick, light, on-the-go walking and jaunting and exercising. And it's just too damned cool, one more way to main-line my iPod addiction.
iWORK / iLIFE
I want them both and have, in fact, already ordered them. Two flexible, streamlined software suites, one old, one newly refreshed, to make the Mac experience all the more productive and enjoyable, as their names suggest, at work an in life. I'm anxious to try Apple's first truly sophisticated attempt at word processing , and I'm already hooked on Keynote, their first stab at presentation software which, despite a few failings and lacking features, quickly made me forget about PowerPoint. And the iLife suite, well -- it's truly become the center of my computing and digital entertainment life; I organize my music, manage my iPod, edit my own DV movies, create my own songs, and author my own DVDs, all for the insanely low price of $79 (or $49 with my educational discount). I honestly couldn't imagine my computer or my creative life without these apps.
Bottom line here: all four new products on this page cost only $756, or roughly between $275 and $725 less than Apple's previous combinations of an entry-level consumer computer, digital music player, and software packages. Or roughly $1000 less than Apple's brand of bold and stunning computer technology -- which has always been easily worth the money, but which should now, in the eyes of price-conscious consumers, easily provide more than their money's worth. And maybe, finally, urge them to see and touch and taste what they've been missing all these years.
The answer this year: not a lot.
Which is not to say, of course, that there weren't a lot of lovely, luscious announcements yesterday. Because there were. A lot. And they were certainly lovely and luscious and lust-inducing. But they just weren't expensive. In fact, they were downright cheap. Almost shockingly so -- especially by premium Mac standards. Which makes yesterday's developments as big as they are bold, as wild as they are welcome.
Some tech analysts have already come out of the cyber-woodwork to question or to criticize the move -- BusinessWeek called it an aggressive down-market gamble -- after, it should be noted, years of doggedly questioning and criticizing Apple for not making a move toward low-end consumers. But if timing is everything, then Apple's move already has everything it needs to succeed. With the company's cool and cachet running at record-high levels thanks to the full-on frenzy for the glorious iPod line, with iTunes introducing once-skeptical PC-users to the simple grace and elegance of Apple's digital media applications, and with their high-end hardware as sleek and stylish and powerful (and expensive) as ever, this seems like the right time, the perfect intersection of promise and possibility into which to throw a couple of killer low-end products packed with Apple's typically high-end polish...
THE MAC MINI
I want one. I mean, I have absolutely no need for one -- I'm already swimming in Macs -- but I want one. Or, perhaps more accurately, I want to buy one. I've already e-mailed a couple of friends -- Mac-loving digital souls trapped in PC-using occupational bodies -- and told them they absolutely have to get one. (For themselves, of course -- because price, at $499, is no longer an object -- but also so I can come over and play with it and configure it and just generally show them all the cool things they can do with it, the computer equivalent of those annoying welcome-wagon people who show up at your new house with pies and coupons and directions to the nearest dry cleaner.) At six inches square and only two-inches high, it's the most gorgeous and tightly-packed piece of potent computing you'll ever find. Much less be able to carry in a small purse or lunchbox.
THE iPOD SHUFFLE
I want one. I mean, I have very little need for one -- my 40GB fourth-generation iPod is a big, bold beauty that goes everywhere I go -- but I want one. And I plan to buy one next week, as soon as they show up at the Shadyside Apple Store. Because at $99, well, the price point is perfect. I've been drooling over the iPod Minis since they first came out, and I've been living and owning one vicariously through Adam since his birthday, but it would have been foolish -- cool and stylish and geekily cool, but still foolish -- to get one for myself. But a Shuffle, at less than 1 ounce and as small as a pack of gum, with space for a 120-song playlist of songs in heavy rotation, I can easily justify for quick, light, on-the-go walking and jaunting and exercising. And it's just too damned cool, one more way to main-line my iPod addiction.
iWORK / iLIFE
I want them both and have, in fact, already ordered them. Two flexible, streamlined software suites, one old, one newly refreshed, to make the Mac experience all the more productive and enjoyable, as their names suggest, at work an in life. I'm anxious to try Apple's first truly sophisticated attempt at word processing , and I'm already hooked on Keynote, their first stab at presentation software which, despite a few failings and lacking features, quickly made me forget about PowerPoint. And the iLife suite, well -- it's truly become the center of my computing and digital entertainment life; I organize my music, manage my iPod, edit my own DV movies, create my own songs, and author my own DVDs, all for the insanely low price of $79 (or $49 with my educational discount). I honestly couldn't imagine my computer or my creative life without these apps.
Bottom line here: all four new products on this page cost only $756, or roughly between $275 and $725 less than Apple's previous combinations of an entry-level consumer computer, digital music player, and software packages. Or roughly $1000 less than Apple's brand of bold and stunning computer technology -- which has always been easily worth the money, but which should now, in the eyes of price-conscious consumers, easily provide more than their money's worth. And maybe, finally, urge them to see and touch and taste what they've been missing all these years.
Posted: Wed - January 12, 2005 at 07:19 PM
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Published On: Jul 28, 2008 01:38 PM
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Published On: Jul 28, 2008 01:38 PM