A bit underwhelming, Garage Band, the new music app seems interesting, if that is your thing. It has been in development for ages seemingly, I remember rumors from ages ago about a sequencing application called iMusic. The most amazing thing is the price really, $49 including the original iLife apps. Even the usb keyboard is pretty cheap. Though iPhoto and iMovie look to become part of the pay for package and no longer a free download, only iTunes will remain free. One interesting idea that struck me was as well as being able to take your music and put it in your iTunes library and on your iPod, how about being able to sell it through the iTunes Music Store, with a templated promo site on your .Mac account. Buy iLife'04 from the Apple Store UK.
iPhoto was the bit I was most interested in as the current version is too slow once you have over a thousand pictures in it. Speed is a much needed asset for the programme, it'll probably keep me and many others from buying iView Media though, which is sad for them. European photo printing services are welcome, but have been a long time coming. The ability to sensibly organise, categorise, rate and search the photos I have in iPhoto will be a welcome addition, as the current tools are not very powerful. Taking the playlist ideas from iTunes is a good idea, as it builds the user experience of the suite and it a much appreciated feature of iTunes.
On MacDevCenter someone asked for an iScan application, this I might well be interested in buying, as most scanner software is pretty lame. I bought a very nice Minolata Scan Elite 5400 recently and it is a great scanner, but the software leaves a lot to be desired.
The iPod mini, nice, very low weight, as evidenced by the arm band for running. A thousand songs is the same capacity as the original iPod, which I thought was a bit small, my 20G is 80 odd percent full. Mind you if I didn't have one, I'd think of getting this instead of the new 10 15G, as it is so much smaller and lighter.
The new Final Cut Express is a solid evolutionary upgrade to the existing package, integrating it further with the other packages Apple produces. Buy Final Cut Express 2 from the Apple Store UK.
G5 Xserve, pretty useful if you want one, but it is not really something I'd use of want to buy at the minute. The compute node is tapping into a market that Apple must be thanking Virginia Tech for daily. I think the 3rd fastest super computer on the market much have come as a bit of a shock to Apple. Though to give them credit the XGrid initiative and the compute node does seem to show they have integrated it into their strategy. the XRaid storage is so cheap for what you get that it is ludicrous.
So a fun worship at the jobsian altar, even if the rumour sites did get everything right ahead of the keynote....
I guess though that Apple are doing things right, no iPhone or tablet or pda, nor a huge screen or TV. The iBox rumour is interesting and I expect that there is a prototype of it somewhere in Infinite Loop, as I'm sure given the interests of Apple that tivo type devices are on the radar, but everything that becomes a prototype, even if it goes out to external testing will not become a real product. Apple spend a huge amount on r&d, somethings must get canned or shelved.
I too left the end of the keynote (watching online) feeling slightly flat. But perhaps more importantly it also left me feeling slightly uneasy, without really knowing why.
On reflection this morning, there seem to me to be an implicit strategic message contained within the presentation that leaves me with a fundamental concern.
The embarrassingly lackluster MS presentation (I'm sorry, I just can't get enthusiastic about improved previews in Excel) seemed to me to be Apple saying "Look, we are as excited as 10 year olds on Christmas morning about our iPod sales but we know that if MS pulls office we are still screwed". Because Apple's core business is built upon three pillars called The Computer, The Operating System, and The Applications. They have control over the first two, but not the third. And if Office goes for some reason that Applications pillar starts to crumble. The vast majority of Windows users out there just use Office, and it is a critical workflow component of most Mac based professionals. Try convincing a Windows user to switch without Office. It's end of conversation.
Couple this with the new iLife marketing line that "It's Microsoft Office for the rest of your life", the TV Box rumours, the energy being put into the ITMS and iPod, do we get the message that Apple is beginning to throw in the towel with regard to the Mac, and is primarily going after something called 'the personal digital user market'? Or in other words, does this represent a shift away from the central premise for the last 20 years that "Apple means Macs" (my words, not theirs), towards a strategy where "Apple provides the best personal computing experience" - whatever the platform.
Apple's recent decision to port iTunes to Windows is a big acknowledgment that it is no longer afraid to let go of the Mac's coattails. And at the start of the presentation Steve quoted the strap-line that appears at the bottom of all Apple's press releases:
"Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings"
In doing so he was keen to focus on the second sentence which of course doesn't mention Macs at all.
In pointing all this out I am not suggesting for a minute that Apple is thinking of ditching the Mac in the near future or that it doesn't understand where its core business lies right now. But if Apple is saying that it has a long term strategy to be a company that does not have the Mac as its cornerstone this makes moving from OS9 to OSX look like peanuts by comparison. For me, the appearance of MS on the stand just served to reenforce the fragility of the situation. Apple wants to move in new directions but knows that this is always very difficult transition for any company to make. How to open up into new markets without throwing its core business out with the bath water.
I guess I felt flat after the presentation because there was nothing much there for me or anyone else who I would regard as a core Apple customer. I primarily want to see new hardware and OS software improvements.
All this said, Apple have of course given us great OS and the G5 over the last 12 months. So I guess I ought to take a more overall balanced view.
Maybe I will look at what I have written here in a week's time and disagree with all of it. I am just struggling to understand why the presentation left me feeling empty, like being with a partner who has decided to break off the relationship but hasn't told you. You know something fundemental has changed, but you just can't see it yet.
Am I the only one?