MacDailyNews wishes everyone a Happy New Year!
Looking back, 2004 saw some major changes for Apple with millions upon millions of iPods seeding the fertile grounds of dissatisfied Windows users who, having tasted elegance, quality, and attention to detail, took a much closer look at that iMac G5 of Apple’s and saw something very special running the show called Mac OS X ‘Panther.’ We cannot imagine their shock at seeing Mac OS X for the first time after dealing with Windows for years!
Apple may have gleaned enough information from the “iPod Halo Effect” to have decided an entry-level (US$500-ish) Mac is needed. We’ll see what happens eleven days into 2005 at the earliest. If it does happen, and Apple gets the features, price, and marketing right, it’ll be the biggest announcement out of Apple since the iPod. They should call it iSwitch (as in “bait and switch”) because it’ll be dangled by Apple to get ’em in the store where they’ll be very tempted upgrade to an iMac G5 (just like many iPod mini shoppers ended up going for the extra $50 and bought the 20GB iPod instead – exactly as Apple had planned). Still, many will buy this new “Headless Mac,” so we hope Apple makes enough of them, if this is what they decide to do.
Yes, 2004 was certainly the year of the iPod. We think conditions are ripe for the “Pod” to unleash its payload in 2005. Think “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” and you’ll see why “iPod” was given that name; the film was about the take-over of an entire community by seed pods. Will the Wintel community be seduced by iPod+iTunes and frustrated enough by an endless stream of viruses, spyware, adware, and malware to take a real look at switching to safe, secure, powerful, and fun Mac hardware running Mac OS X? If not in 2005, when? (We don’t know what the heck Microsoft thinks it’s doing, but we hope they keep it up!)
We think iPod+iTunes will remain a big news item in 2005, but the year will also mark a widespread awakening about the Mac platform and Mac OS X. 2005 is going to be a pivotal year for Apple Computer, Inc. Get ready for a wild ride and, perhaps, unusual surprises out of Cupertino. There could be a lot more Mac users around us this time next year. We’re looking forward to much Mac daily news!
Speaking of MacDailyNews, thank you for visiting MDN throughout the year and making us a part of your day. We really appreciate it.
Happy New Year!
MacDailyNews Note: As we state on our “contact” page ( http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/contact/ ), in 2005 our mission will stay the same:
Our mission is to scour the Web for articles that interest Mac and Apple product users, remark on the content of these articles, provide news about Apple Computer, Inc. and their products, and to opine about all things related to Apple and the Mac. Most importantly, MacDailyNews exists to provide a place for our readers and the Mac community to discuss these daily news items in their own words with real-time feedback. Why do we do this? Because long ago we received the most important advice a computer user can ever receive, “buy a Mac.” We want to help spread that valuable advice.