iPhone at Macworld
Originally uploaded by Eliya.
Its that time again. And man has it been an exciting year for Apple huh? Lets do a quick year in review.
1. Shipped and announced the iPhone.
This phone and its OS has carved out as much market share as Linux has. Also the earnings agreement betwen the various network operators has made Apple some serious money. Overall a boon for Apple much like the original iPod.
2. Shipped A new version of Logic. Many Logic faithfuls were unimpressed by the Logic that debuted in September however it has become a very friendly way for people to get inot home recording and buy a mac.
3. Shipped a New FCS. Major software revisions were seen all over Apple's pro product line this past year, now that most of the pro market has switched over to Intel. The new FCS update seems to have gone well and stream lined and made the software more Mac like.
4. New version of iMovie Shipped. When this happened it caused some massive ripples in the community. It showed where Apple was going with its new UI and even mroe user freiendly stance.
5. Shipped 10.5! This is huge. It seems that each major OS revision Apple makes is a jump in functionality and interface. It does have some bugs some of which caused it to be delayed from June to October. But damn is this an improvement QuickLook alone is worth the price of admission as well as Time Machine. It took Apple to make backing up so simple and easy. Now if only they would enable backing up over WiFi.
Obviously a major year for Apple full of some incredible triumphs. Now that we covered a small bit of the past lets look to the future.
Here are my 2008 Macworld predictions.
1. We will see tablet mac, that has WiFi and EDGE enabled. Therefore you are always connected to the internet via broadband where ever you are. Most people who follow Apple know that the NIH is a HUGE customer for Apple and they have been bugging Apple for years to develop a tablet mac. I'm sure Apple saw the success of the touch screen on the iPhone and the potential of previous software that has been in OS X since 10.2 aka InkWell and thought why not? This is also a place where Apple excels. It takes a struggling market, figures out how to do it right and rejuvenates the entire industry around that niche. Just like how the iPod made the MP3 market viable.
2. We will see a professional version of iWeb. Everything that is in iLife with the exceptions of iTunes (and who really counts that anymore?) has a pro equivalent. I maintain that it is only a matter of time before Apple jumps into the Web Development market as well. I mean they even have a pro version of iPhoto.
3. There will be a wireless AirPort backup system announced tomorrow. I read that over at DaringFireball and I thought it was a pretty novel idea. However I'm not sure Apple wil actually do this especially considering they already have two piece of hardware that have never taken off. Aka the Mini and the Apple TV.
4. Which brings me to my next two predictions Apple will release HD content on iTunes for download and rent! Its kind of odd that the Apple TV requires an HD TV, but content from iTunes is not HD. To compete with something like the XBox LIVE MarketPlace iTunes will have to go this route in providing HD content. Besides in only 1 year time the analogue signal will be switched off forever and we might as well upgrade to HD will we are simultaneously upgrading to digital right?
4B. The rentals I suggested almost a year ago exactly. I would not be surprised at all if Apple decided that instead of doing the deals themselves they partnered with a company like NetFlix to sus out that end of the issue. Though its more likely that rentals were included in the new movies deals Apple had to make to sell movies on iTunes.
5. Here comes the way out there... that One More Thing that Steve always has tucked up his sleeve after every major announcement will be...Steve Jobs announcing his successor live on stage! This will obviously never happen since any announcement of this magnitude will trump any product announcement in the papers the next day, and most CEOs don't announce the successors until they are ready to step down ala Queen Elizabeth. But wouldn't it be exciting if he did?I think Twitter HQ would explode due to all the twists that would be IMing back and forth about it.
So there you are all 5 predictions for 2008 Macworld it will sure be fun to see which ones come true! I'll be back after the entire shindig is over to see how well I did. Hopefully it will be better than last time
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