“I was secretly looking forward to Apple’s announcements at MacWorld; I have to admit, I was deeply disappointed,” Rob Enderle writes for Designtechnica. “The iMac and Titanium notebook designs were, in my eyes, dated. Granted, in many ways they are still very clean designs and stand out against their competitors, but the current iMac isn’t as innovative as the last one (and others did similar things last decade) and the Titanium hasn’t changed that much since it was released a long time ago. While I was very sure, given the timing of Intel’s new part, that Apple was going to release their first Intel-based products, knowing Apple, I also believed they would use this opportunity to refresh these designs. Unfortunately, they didn’t; I can’t help but feel disappointed.”
“For buyers, this would suggest waiting until after mid-year to purchase the new platform (which, if you recall, was the date that Steve Jobs originally set). This should result in not only a better experience but hardware from Apple that may go farther in setting the pace in hardware design than ever before,” Enderle writes. “One thought: These things could become collectors’ items, as the initial runs could be relatively small for an Apple product. However, MacWorld was no match for CES this round; next round, I’m not so sure… Apple will have to do a lot to match the wow factor of [some of the products announced at CES]. However, Apple does have Steve Jobs, who often can make even mediocre things seem spectacular.”
Full article here.
Apple debuted the current iMac design (up to 1/2-inch thinner and 15 percent lighter with built-in iSight camera) only three months ago, in October 2005. Apple debuted the aluminum PowerBook enclosure on January 7, 2003 with the 17-inch model. Apple replaced the 15-inch Titanium PowerBook with the aluminum PowerBook on September 16, 2003. Apple portable Pro Macs have featured aluminum enclosures since that time. As usual, Enderle obviously missed those not-so-minor facts. That one man can get so much wrong so often and continue to write articles and be quoted by others is amazing and sad.
[UPDATE: 11:45am EST: Added 17-inch PowerBook aluminum release date information to MDN Take.]
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Related MacDailyNews articles:
Big surprise: Enderle was wrong about Apple’s holiday quarter Mac sales – January 19, 2006
Enderle: ‘Some people got really excited by the new iPod, but a growing number of people did not’ – October 19, 2005
Tech pundit Enderle: ‘Microsoft wrote the first Mac OS’ – September 28, 2005
Tech pundit Enderle incorrectly compares Apple’s Mac OS to iPod licensing – September 01, 2005
Enderle: ‘Surveys indicate demand for Apple’s products is dropping like a rock’ due to Intel switch – August 01, 2005
Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘fourth quarter should be ugly for Apple’ – August 09, 2005
Enderle: ‘iPod Halo Effect is just a myth, same thing as having Paris Hilton visit Apple stores’ – May 02, 2005
Tech pundit Enderle: Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger’s main features ‘borrow heavily from Longhorn’ – May 02, 2005
Tech Pundit Enderle: ‘This year will be more difficult for Apple Computer’ and iMacs in earthquakes – January 24, 2005
If this Enderle “Group” thing doesn’t work out, at least he can get a job as a fertilizer salesman.
Rob can’t even get the waiting part right. IF you’re going to wait then you need to wait until late August or maybe even September NOT June.
The August/September time frame is when the 64-bit Merom is expected to ship. The pro line will be updated then (the MacBook Pro may be updated to 64 bit then too). The consumer line (Mac mini, iBook, iMac) may not be updated then, but who knows.
MW: husband
Apple is husbanding its resources looking forward to the full transition by the end of this calendar year. Expect more radical designs in the not too distant future.
Perhaps he wants wings on the casing. Or a fat ’60’s stripe down the middle. Or maybe a pimp-machine. MW: firm. Or viagra.
Furthermore the best thing to do is not give his site hits, but inundate his inbox with inane emails. Don’t hate him, or vilify him, just send him random emails with nonsense in them or links to Mac articles, or the script of your favorite movie.
If he’s that bored, then give him something to read, just don’t visit his site ever.
And which of those CES products that wowed him are shipping today?
I was secretly looking forward to Enderle’s review of MacWorld; I have to admit, I was deeply disappointed. On second thought, I was not looking forward to anything from Enderle.
In any case, he can’t help but be disappointed, as nothing he predicts ever comes true.
Why not just ignore this idiot?
We were intially dissapointed in last June’s show also, none of the rumored toys were there, but the rest of the year was fantastic with a new annoucement of toys almost every month. That dragging it out is what kept the world baited waiting for more.
Just another proof to how people misunderstand the concept of ‘design’. They think like our friend Enderle does, that it is all about throwing a flashy new look over some innards and it’ll make us all go ‘wow’! That seems to be the idea most PC-makers have now that they have noticed that Apple gets a lot of positive feedback on its design.
Oh yeah? Well, what about this – we make this box look like the head of an alien? Now, isn’t that great, eh?
Sigh.
Design is when form meets function. That is what Jobs understood a long, long time ago, but something which seems to take forever for others to grasp.
So, why wasn’t the iMac changed? Or the Power… uh, MacBook? Unless you don’t want ot make it look like something else, like a clown’s face (or Enderle’s?), unless you don’t have a real good idea as to how you can improve the design and keeping it functional or even improve that side to it, you better leave it. There are more important things to concentrate on.
Thank heavens that Apple has that attitude or we might have seen flame-laquered iMacs!!!
The real reason Enderle was disappointed was that Paris Hilton did not show up at MWE
“That one man can get so much wrong so often and continue to write articles and be quoted by others is amazing and sad.” Well MDN, you can start by NOT quoting him!!!!
‘Apple is husbanding its resources looking forward to the full transition by the end of this calendar year. Expect more radical designs in the not too distant future.’
Sounds just right to me Shadowself.
The new MacBook Pro is actually a somewhat significant design revisions from the last version anyway. It has a changed footprint, and it is slightly thinner, screen lid is thicker, not to mention different screen, and iSight. He should wait and sit the two next to each other to make an informed review before making a fool of himself. iMac’s design was just revised 3 months ago, so you should obviously ignore those ramblings. This guy’s claims hold no water. He might as well say that the new iPod video isn’t a design revision from the iPod photo, since it still has a screen, clickwheel, and is white.
Also – Why do they call themselves DesignTechnica when they obviously don’t have a clue about either Design or Technology. I’ve listened to their podcast a few times, and it is stocked full or wrong/misinformed/missleading information. It’s actually pretty entertaining if you like screaming at you iPod when these idiots say something completely wrong/misinformed/missleading.
Move on folks; nothing here to see. Unless you like to see the aftermath of yet another Enderle crash and burn.
oh yeah – track pad is also larger – magsafe connector etc….
“I was secretly looking forward to Apple’s announcements at MacWorld…”
Get out of the closet, loser!
And while you’re at it hypocrite, get off the Mafiasoft payroll.
I’ve never met the guy but he seems like a bit of a prat.
why I didn’t sleep very well last night. It must of been that the creator, head and only member of the Enderle Group is not impressed with the new Intel Macs.
Steve Jobs
Enderle was not impressed by Apple’s announcements… but giant subwoofers in SUVs at the CES did impress him! What a tool!
Oh, yeah… And Apple hasn’t produced a “Titanium” since 2002. Try to keep up, Enderle!
Everyone who is responding to this should skip the reader feedback on this page and go to the source. Click on the “full article here” link and it takes you to the full article on the Designtechnica website. Then if you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see a link called “Corrections”. This takes you to a page that allows you to respond directly to Designtechnica. Designtechnica portrays itself as “Your Gateway to a hi-tech lifestyle”. I wrote them and told them that publishing what Enderle says makes the information on their website untrustworthy. Even if he gets published to increase traffic it makes them look bad for offering bad information to consumers. Everyone responding here should do the same.
If you want different colors other than aluminum, you can get your powerbook customized at colorwarepc.com – or buy it there.
I’m not a fruit
Whooo hooo I wanna´be somebaody that says something witty, snide and sarcastic about this guy that MDN keeps promoting so I can be like everyone else here but I can´t think of anything because if it wasn´t for mdn posted it here I would have never heard of this guy.
Rob Enderle you’re disappointing. You need to read the facts before you write your crap.
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“Rob Enderle you’re disappointing.”
So, what you’re saying is that we got Robbed?