If the PC press can't see it then it doesn't exist
In the wake of the success of Macworld, Jesse Berst felt that he
had to get his digs
in somehow. I quote: "Apple is painting itself into a corner and the
latest releases prove it."
According to Jesse, Apple is sticking with the status quo desktop
while the whole world moves over to the PDA/phone market. This focus
on the desktop will spell Apple's demise.
To round out the first quote we have this one: "If Apple wants to
break out, it must make a play for the next generation of computing
hardware and services. So far, I've seen no evidence that Apple
understands that."
OK, so Jesse doesn't see any evidence of Apple making a move into
the PDA/phone market in either their hardware or their software
offerings. This, of course, means that Apple has no strategy for the
PDA/phone market.
Brilliant deduction I must admit.
If we use this reasoning, then it would be fair to surmise that
Apple has nothing prepared for the desktop market. I don't see any
evidence that Apple understands the way the desktop market is moving.
Really, no sarcasm intended here. I see no evidence of future
products and hear hardly anything about future products.
The main difference between Jesse Berst and me, however, seems to
be that I don't expect Apple to release its product plans for the
next 2 or 3 years to the general public. I don't even expect Apple to
get me to sign a non-disclosure agreement so that I can take a look
at their product plans for the next 2 or 3 years.
If you pay some attention to Apple (or at least Steve Jobs) you'll
notice that surprises are the order of the day. Foisting new products
on an unsuspecting public is a regular occurrence. I'm sure that all
that free advertising from the Mac and regular press is just an added
bonus.
I personally think that Apple's approach to new products is much
better than the typical computer company approach. Normally, products
are announced a year or two in advance of shipping. This, of course,
lets the press sit on the sidelines slamming the company for missing
deadlines. If there's anything Apple doesn't need, it's bad press for
missing deadlines. Just the fact that the dual-processor G4 is seen
as a stopgap measure to chip problems (which it is) means the press
would be all over the delay of an Apple PDA.
I'm convinced that Apple does have several strategies to meet
whatever demand they feel they can fill. Whether that's shoehorning
OS X into a PDA or simply creating the backend software to allow
people to deliver information to PDAs and handhelds is anybody's
guess. I'm sure, however, that Jobs is most likely just playing his
"spring the surprise when they least expect it" game.
So to the PC press wailing that Apple's strategy is way off base,
quit whining. Just because you don't have a clue what's up doesn't
mean there isn't something going on.
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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