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Another Macworld Expo has come and gone, and Apple has decided
not to wow the crowd with some gee whiz innovation.
Solid performance upgrades were the norm and, I suspect, welcome
for a lot of people.
Of course, a little speed bump here and there was hardly enough
to placate those that participated in the biannual rumour feeding
frenzy. Several Mac news and opinion sites jumped on Apple for not
releasing anything "new" and "exciting." It seems that Apple is
having trouble meeting the high expectations of its users.
It really kind of sucks to be Apple these days. No matter what
they do, their adoring fans will likely clobber them. If they push
the envelope, they'll be nailed for being to "risky" (remember the
Cube!) in uncertain economic times. If they decide to hold back on
any surprises and ride out the economic storm, they are derided for
being "boring." They can't win.
Admittedly, Apple fans are a tough crowd to please. They've
become used to getting droolworthy products from Apple. They expect
this, much like a child expects dessert after a hateful meal. The
Macworld Expo is a treat for Mac users because we can almost be
guaranteed something sweet after many secretive months.
I suspect that Apple may be adopting an "underpromise and
overdeliver" attitude. In other words, don't promise anything too
spectacular and then deliver something that they know will knock
people's socks off.
In any event, while its nice to hold a company up to a high
standard, the moon cannot be expected every time a Macworld rolls
around. A new iMac, tower, PowerBook, or iBook is not necessarily a
good thing to have at each and every show.
Apple is playing its cards correctly. In the uncertain economic
climate and a lot of focus on OS X, new hardware will, for a
change, have to take a back seat. When the PC market heats up
again, expect us to be singing "Happy Days are Here Again."
I'm looking forward to the next Macworld. Things should be a
whole lot more exciting then. Apple is going through a small
transition now that probably slowed down the product announcements
a bit. It's focusing on OS X, riding out the downturn, and,
undoubtedly, prepping some amazing hardware for January.
January makes much more sense for the release of new products. A
significant drought in hardware changes will have occurred meaning
more people will buy new machines. The expectation of new machines
will also drive the sales of older models. The economy will have
heated up a little bit and more people will feel compelled to
replace the aging PC workhorse they bought two years ago.
All in all, nothing now and much more later isn't such a bad
proposition.
Apple still has to live with unhappy users, though.
Stephen Van
Esch is the founder and president of
the
E-learning Foundry, an online training
resource for Mac users. Steve loves the Mac and is doubly bilingual,
since he's also fluent in Windows and French.
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