Is the tide turning?
13/12/06 19:06 Filed in: Computer
Tales
It seems
strange, but I seem to know many people who now have
Macs, or are getting one, or are seriously thinking
of getting one. After all these years of wandering in
the wilderness preaching the Apple gospel, things may
be changing. What I do see is that people are liking
the totality of the Mac experience - whether it be
camcorder+iLife+Mac with Firewire or audio or iPod or
just trying something new. But I have heard good
things about the Apple retail experience - when
people go to the Apple Store and seriously talk to a
person. Though you could argue that improving upon
the level of expertise in most large stores (you know
who I mean) would not be difficult. But again this
philosophy of the totality of the experience is in
complete contrast to the other sides.
It makes me think how Apple could do something with the much-rumoured iPhone and the impending code-named iTV. The thing is, as a UK-resident, neither of these devices will be initially aimed at the non-US market. So it'll be the USA cell phone (aka mobile phone) standards and the USA TV standards (NSTC, etc.) that will get the fanfare of the initial products. But, as sure as the iTunes Music Store has (slowly) reached beyond the shores of the USA, the iTV will get PAL, I really hope that they get stuff to tie in with DVB-T and DVB-S and please even DAB radio. As for the iPhone then getting a service like the Apple Store experience will be a mighty challenge, because the most likely thing is that they will rebadge/leverage an existing service of the incumbents who stumped up the prices for the licences (the gang of 4 in the UK: O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and the other one: 3). Clearly none of these has the totality of the experience that Apple provides. I would not be risking too much to assume that this is similar with the USA incumbents such as Verizon, Cingular, etc.
All of this talk about the phone part of the iPhone talk is usually missing - others seem to go on about the iPod Integration or the User Interface, or whether it will have one or two batteries. Maybe we'll all be surprised in 2007 - even the Newton could be resurrected more than the Inkwell technology currently in OSX 10.4!
It makes me think how Apple could do something with the much-rumoured iPhone and the impending code-named iTV. The thing is, as a UK-resident, neither of these devices will be initially aimed at the non-US market. So it'll be the USA cell phone (aka mobile phone) standards and the USA TV standards (NSTC, etc.) that will get the fanfare of the initial products. But, as sure as the iTunes Music Store has (slowly) reached beyond the shores of the USA, the iTV will get PAL, I really hope that they get stuff to tie in with DVB-T and DVB-S and please even DAB radio. As for the iPhone then getting a service like the Apple Store experience will be a mighty challenge, because the most likely thing is that they will rebadge/leverage an existing service of the incumbents who stumped up the prices for the licences (the gang of 4 in the UK: O2, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and the other one: 3). Clearly none of these has the totality of the experience that Apple provides. I would not be risking too much to assume that this is similar with the USA incumbents such as Verizon, Cingular, etc.
All of this talk about the phone part of the iPhone talk is usually missing - others seem to go on about the iPod Integration or the User Interface, or whether it will have one or two batteries. Maybe we'll all be surprised in 2007 - even the Newton could be resurrected more than the Inkwell technology currently in OSX 10.4!
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