“We’re down to the last two-and-a-half days of 2006, and Apple CEO Steve Jobs is 11 days from taking the wraps off a shiny new product line at MacWorld San Francisco. Other former Apple figures might be a few weeks from being indicted,” Pete Mortensen writes for the Wired’s “Cult of Mac” blog. “What better time to take stock of the last 12 months and look ahead to what’s coming?”
Cult of Mac’s Ten Questions Apple Must Answer in 2007:
10. Is Apple ready to compete in two new fields (Home Theatre and Mobile Telephony)?
9. Will .Mac survive into 2008?
8. Has the switch to Intel been successful from a third party software perspective?
7. What should Apple credit for soaring Mac sales?
6. What’s Apple going to do with its new campus in Cupertino?
5. Is Apple comfortable with Mac OS X as the “Big Tent” operating system?
4. Is Apple getting complacent with its industrial design?
3. What more can Apple do with the iPod?
2. What’s Apple up to do with Google?
1. Can Apple stay successful if Jobs steps down?
Full article here.
Please tell me why Apple needs to address whether or not it can be successful without Steve Jobs in 2007? Steve will continue to be around, so it is not a matter that needs to be immediately addressed.
I don’t see any reason why Apple has to answer questions of that type.
Apple doesn’t usually announce plans in advance. Rumour mongers and analysts don’t like it, but that’s how Apple operate, so get over it.
Apple doesn’t need to address anything that Apple doesn’t want to address.
I’d certainly be interested in the answers to most of those – particularly the issue of industrial design. Who knows – hopefully Steve will wow us with something ravishingly new and wonderous to behold at Macworld, but I think it can safely be argued that Apple’s design department has been snoozing of late. MacBook Pros that are all but identical to 5-year old PowerBooks, iPod nanos which essentially take their cues from the iPod mini, etc. Aside from the MacBook and the iPod stereo thing, I can’t think of any entirely redesigned hardware to have emerged from Apple as of late (and the shuffle doesn’t count – they just rejigged a bit of the nano’s casing).
That’s called Risk Management: Steve is historically so tied to the profitability of Apple that the stock price – a valuation based on the potential for future profit – is significantly dependent on his presence. Don’t forget that not only is Steve a cancer survivor, he’s currently named in a stock options scandal involving falsification of documents. And he’s also publically stated that if he’s not happy doing what he’s doing, he’ll move on! Three risks investors need to ensure are mitigated – or they will be reflected in the stock price.
Wow, this guy is totally full of himself. Apple doesn’t have to answer any of your shit.
I think Apple does need to address the question of success without Steve Jobs. Sure, he may not step down any time soon, but the man can’t predict his own death. Fatal car accidents happen every day – what if Steve were to be killed in one? At least with a “retirement”, Apple would have a chance to prepare for his departure. With his unexpected death, all bets are off. Personally, I think Jonathan Ive will take over.
The issue of industrial design for Macs is quite simple. When the processors were changed from PPC to Intel, it was important that customers felt that they were buying a proper Mac. Keeping the look essentially the same makes customers feel reassured. It looks like a Mac, it acts like a Mac, then it surely is a Mac – irrespective of what’s powering it.
Now the transition is complete and customers have discovered for themselves that Intel Macs are just like any other Mac, there’s no reason to stay with the familiar look. I’m quite sure that Mr Ive hasn’t been idle and the fruits of his genius will be revealed before too long.
The Mac look is getting boring.
iMacs are just ugly giant white chiclets on sticks.
And my new generation Nano – heck, I have to wrap it in some ugly case to protect it so what does it matter what Apple designs? – I nor anyone else ever sees it.
Apple would totally die without Steve Jobs. Jobs = Apple/Apple = Jobs. In the long run it is a terrible predictment for Apple to be in. I know Steve is trying to be the Walt Disney of Computers where Walt was the sole face of the company to the world, but computers are different than movies and theme parks.
Apple has to figure out how to get new products out faster.
10. Yes. Yes. (Whenever/if they release…)
9. Yes.
8. Yes.
7. Intel switch, OSX, crap Windoze, retail stores, good design, iApps, FCP…
6. Data center… for… ?
5. Of course. Why not?
4. Nah. But Apple still moves very slowly at times… that’s worrisome. Success can bring complacency and malaise.
3. January 8?
2. Friends first. Lovers…? I wouldn’t go there, yet.
1. Yes. Tho we don’t know who the next frontman would be and I haven’t seen anyone exciting yet.
A’right? Cool? Cool.
10. Is Apple ready to compete in two new fields (Home Theatre and Mobile Telephony)?
Answer: Yes (or Duh, take your pick). Within a year, count on iTV being able to deliver FiOS-like customers the ability to purchase TV networks ala-carte, $2.99 stnd def, $3.99 a HD per month, and turn cable and dish networks on their heads… 10 mbps+ required for HD versions of ESPN, etc…
9. Will .Mac survive into 2008?
Answer: Only if they are able/willing to give it its own iLife application. An iTunes-like solution where email, website and content can be managed.
8. Has the switch to Intel been successful from a third party software perspective?
Answer: Apple need not answer this, as this question seems rehtorical in nature, but yes, the switch has been successful.
7. What should Apple credit for soaring Mac sales?
Answer: Again, Apple answering this question is irrelavant. The point is it has been successful, mostly due to two points:
A. Intel being accepted in the consumer Windows world, thus Apple becomes less threatening in the mind of the consumer.
B. The ability to run Windows and associated application on a Mac – if need be – allowing enough of a comfort level for Windows users to switch.
C. iPod/iTunes + Apple retail stores.
6. What’s Apple going to do with its new campus in Cupertino?
A. Space for when they buy out Adobe and move the Seattle kids south.
B. When Apple is acquired by Google, and Steve Jobs stays CEO, and gains another $5 billion+, furthering his quest of becoming the richest man in the world… but I didn’t say that…
5. Is Apple comfortable with Mac OS X as the “Big Tent” operating system?
Answer: Duh, yes, an OS is the perfect rabit hole, and it remains the key to long-term viability. That said, iTunes is rapidly emerging, and will soon emerge as being the second most important platform for the company after MWSF ’07.
4. Is Apple getting complacent with its industrial design?
Answer: This is a leading question, and it seems strange to see such a question put forth. MWSF should put this assumption to rest.
3. What more can Apple do with the iPod?
Answer: Full-screen version with 720p capabilities, that’s what. Q107.
2. What’s Apple up to do with Google?
Answer: See answer to #4.
1. Can Apple stay successful if Jobs steps down?
Answer: Short-term, yes. Long-term, no.
Steve has the next 12-18 months already on track. After that, should Steve leave, who knows what other person can be the visionary Steve Jobs is, and who can drive and get people to commit to his ideas the way he can? Bill Clinton and his own powerful reality distortion field perhaps? Bill and Al, once again at the helm. Ahhh, that’s just too funny, or scary, you decide.
What makes him think .Mac is not going to be around for years to come? What a stupid question.
The look of the Mac is not getting boring, unless you’re simply a “what’s new” whore and likely have a taste for Alienware. And iMacs are great looking machines.
As far as Apple without Jobs: Jobs is surely setting a tone within his camps so that Apple can become more about the products and technologies it creates and less about the show and the PR and the drama.
Additionally, the number of Apple customers is increasing, but the number of devotees likely is not. Apple as a “cult” will pass.
You’re kidding right?
There have got to be some better questions.
“Is Apple getting complacent with its industrial design?”
Well at least they haven’t released anything that looks like that XPS vomit that Dell sells. That would be the definition of complacency.
0. What about those stock options?
Why answer any questions to the public?????? does any other company have to? A company is responsible only to the board and stockholders……All companys do and have to change over time, Apple can’t/won’t/should’t be always the same…Life and markets change constantly. Few companys last with out changing and re-inventing themselves. Who knows, 50 years from now Apple might not even be in the computer biz……my 2 cents
OMG, we really do expect great things from Apple and Sir Steve. No wonder he had a hard time coming back….think about all of this. He and the company has done a FANTASTIC job on everything….and that goes for all the employees and the BOD…ya, even Al Gore…don’t really know what he has done…but he is part of the BOD…
We all want and expect INSANELY GREAT things out of Cupertino…those things sometimes take a while longer…even Apple can’t control the laws of physics….we may think they can change those laws, but it just doesn’t happen over nite….(not changing, but controlling the laws of physics)
I for one, do expect great things….but we all sometimes gotta wait a bit longer….
How about the first 3D computer…Mac…..no one ever mentions this….if you don’t think they aren’t working on it….well then, you really don’t have that vision thing…it is coming….and it will be the greatest thing the world has ever seen…
Steve said in an interview years ago that this sort of stuff only happens once every 20 years….well, that is what I recall….but he is about right…once every 20 years….and it is past due…
but with the shinking of integrated circuits…they got stalled because the process had to change a little..and mature….I don’t really think Mr. Jobs has the patience for that…but he knows what he wants…and think of the pressure he puts himself under….it’s not only the workers, but if yu’al don’t think he doesn’t do it to himself….i think we are all very lucky for him and all of the employees at Apple to do their job…and stay on their job….the pressure must be something most of us have never been part of….
Product suggestion:
The iRaq iMac: brilliant at everything, but can’t save a file. Comes with keynote speech by Administration saying it’s the best there is just about every day.
Includes new games: Pin the Tail on the Donkey [with caricatures of the Wolfwitch, Rum-field and Chainy-man…].
Given free to every hard-pressed serviceman in Iraq, the unit will be armored with Kevlar and can be used as a seat cushion for protecting strategically important soft targets.
Can be given to local inhabitant as compensation for shot [cow, sibling, spouse, child, coconut grove].
Startup Song: Walters & Kazha – The War Is Not Over
Yes it is. Time to bring the boys home. Or start all over: Give Saddam his country back for a year then reinvade without the idiots in Washington having any say in how to get it done.
“There are no stupid questions, but there sure are a lot of inquisitive idiots.”
and other quotes for the serious skeptic, unrepentant pragmatist, determined dissenter, and subversive malcontent
Bill Clinton and his own powerful reality distortion field perhaps? Bill and Al, once again at the helm.
O…M…F…G…
I don’t know who’d be worse at a keynote: Bubba Clinton with his sax, or Gore the Mannequin saying he invented everything.
Apple does give the impression of having a long-term succession problem; it’s hard to think of anyone big or bright enough to fill Steve’s shoes.
When Steve does leave Apple, he will need to get as far away from Cupertino as possible. Like go explore Antarctica or something. Any successor will need room to run Apple their way, without Steve casting a shadow or influencing their decisions. They won’t need the politics of everyone second-guessing their moves, or everyone asking Steve what he thinks.
Heh maybe Steve should take a page from Donald Trump and hire an apprentice, an Apple Apprentice! Make it a TV series, I’d watch it.
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Give Saddam his country back for a year then reinvade without the idiots in Washington having any say in how to get it done.
Saddam’s dead, dude. Follow the news.
Steve Jobs has both an iron fist and a magic touch. Maybe he can save Iraq.
Why is it always “10” questions, points, or things to do?
By forcing the number 10 you are ether leaving off important questions or (worse) asking dumb questions in order to fill space.
And why MUST Apple answer anything from Pete? The full article doesn’t say.
yer fired – you are an A..hole. What does that have to do with Apple and it’d future? Gore never said he invented the internet, only repunlican maggots make that claim.
FSCK CLINTON AND GORE.
Honey…um…sweetheart!? Can you pass them there anger management pills? Thanksabunch.
Queeeezo (?) — What are you talking about?
I love the iMac — it’s the only way I can actually get a desktop system into this shoebox of an apartment, and still have room on the desk for office type stuff.
Airport Express rocks — I was able to set up my own wireless network in 15 minutes (and that counts the 10 minutes of swearing until I realized I had to reset the cable modem).
And as for getting new products out faster — I’d rather they take their time and make sure they work than get them out faster then release a bunch of patches when people start complaining (see iTunes 7)…
Oh, and about Jobs leaving — he could step down from the day-to-day operations but remain available as an “Apple Mentor” or some such title — or maybe an “iCEO Emeritus”.
And I’m sure whoever succeeds him is going to be well vetted — Jobs has learned from his mistakes, you can’t count on someone who sells sugar water to do a good job selling computers…
The iPod Shuffle I gave my daughter for Xmas is leading edge, and certainly not a chrome-trim retread of the last model.
Ditto Nano vs. Mini et al.
Nice to have something tall, gleaming and black in the tower models though…
Saddam’s dead, dude. Follow the news.
I knew they’d execute before the New Year, and it was successful. You just have to watch CNN’s endless repetitions about the 1982 massacre and coverage of reactions in most places other than Iraq – where it is too dangerous to to any proper coverage – to see that this has effectively displaced news of the over 100 casualties suffered by our boys in that theatre.
Charges of Genocide
The dictator’s victims included between 50,000 and 100,000 people who died in the Anfal military operation against Iraqi Kurds in 1987 and 1988 and tens of thousands of others who opposed him, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Now … about the Study: War blamed for 655,000 Iraqi deaths … who’re we going to blame? The Three Stooges mentioned in my earlier post? Of course not, eh?
of the over 100 casualties suffered by our boys in that theatre – in this month [December] alone.
OK, so Saddam got rid of his WMD programs after the massive Clinton bombing [Operation Desert Fox] almost finished his hold on the country. So, it’s a war of “liberation” against a tyrant then.
Only problem is that the Three Stooges didn’t believe that and ignored the best advice of America’s brightest as to Stage IV operations – winning the peace. Lacking any plans for that, they turned the unquestioned victory into a Vietnam-style debacle.
As the saying goes: War Crimes are defined as those committed by the other side, not by us. And they wonder why love is so hard to come by….
The vast majority of Iraqi civilian deaths have been caused by insurgent anarchist terrorists. Of course, that doesn’t mean the US shouldn’t have done better at keeping a lid on things. The looting sprees that followed the fall of Baghdad were harbingers. Societies that are oppressed often can’t handle freedom when it’s suddenly handed to them.
Now, back on topic: I’ve got some bad news for those who are getting bored with Apple’s designs: Steve Jobs told Newsweek a year ago: “The form factors (of the iMac and MacBook Pro) are perfect, we don’t know how to make them any better.”
Why should the iTV have a built-in hard disk?
Surely the design of the iTV suggests that it’s meant to sit on top of, or under, a mini – just as my LaCie 300 GB hard disk/hub does.
You then have a powerful little combination.
If that’s the case, then the sales of the mini will soar.
For those who don’t like the speed and direction that Apple is going, here’s your chance for fame and fortune. Demonstrate your skills and virtuosity, market your unparalleled abilities, and make yourself an essential asset of change and innovation. Besides, if you are so smart, it should be intuitive to you what the answers are to the obvious questions and to know the answers to the esoteric questions left unasked.
“The form factors (of the iMac and MacBook Pro) are perfect, we don’t know how to make them any better.”
Making them so it doesn’t take a surgeon to service them would be a good start.
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Isn’t it “supposably””?
“turned the unquestioned victory into a Vietnam-style debacle.”
And if things keep going the way they are, after another 87 years of fighting, there will have been as many Americans die in Iraq as died in Vietnam.
In another 512 years of fighting, it might match the US military death toll for World War II.
In another 17,480 years of fighting, it’ll match the allied forces military death toll for World War II.
Oh, and about Jobs leaving — he could step down from the day-to-day operations but remain available as an “Apple Mentor” or some such title — or maybe an “iCEO Emeritus”
Wouldn’t there be the risk of Steve not approving his successor’s ideas, and trying to manipulate or micro-manage things as a mentor?
Here’s a thought: Could’ve Steve risen to the top of today’s Apple under someone like himself?
“Apple does give the impression of having a long-term succession problem; it’s hard to think of anyone big or bright enough to fill Steve’s shoes.”
Equally challenging would be to find someone whose ‘life’ is Apple. Ive seems to qualify however additional PR work would need to be done. At this point, Jobs has been put on such a pedastal that all followers would suffer by comparison.
Kinda like the situation with the Denver Broncos in that every quarterback is compared to Elway.
Uhh…,
Isn’t it “supposably””?
What are you, a retard?
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/5666/
Now stop asking retarded questions about words that don’t even exist, put that helmet back on your head, sit the fsck down, and STFU!
No I’m Not said: “Gore never said he invented the internet, only repunlican maggots make that claim.”
You are right, but only to a small degree. The claim from Gore was made in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on March 9, 1999. Found here: http://www.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/03/09/president.2000/transcript.gore/
Gore said “During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet.” Following that news outlets, not republican maggots, reported that Gore claimed credit for inventing the internet.
So you are right in that he never claimed he invented the internet, only that he created it. Which is an equally absurd claim. But if that makes you feel better then more power to ya.
Wow, this guy is totally full of himself. Apple doesn’t have to answer any of your shit.
Unless he’s an APPL shareholder. Then he can ask anything he wants.
Apple doesn’t have to answer, of course. The same way he doesn’t have to continue to be a shareholder. It’s a vicious circle.
Wow, this guy is totally full of himself. Apple doesn’t have to answer any of your shit.
Unless he’s an APPL shareholder. Then he can ask anything he wants.
Apple doesn’t have to answer, of course. The same way he doesn’t have to continue to be a shareholder. It’s a vicious circle.
Wow, this guy is totally full of himself. Apple doesn’t have to answer any of your shit.
Unless he’s an APPL shareholder. Then he can ask anything he wants.
Apple doesn’t have to answer, of course. The same way he doesn’t have to continue to be a shareholder. It’s a vicious circle.
Isn’t it “supposably””?
As the bus driver said, no.
But that reminds me: I was reading a blog the other day that used “chronically” instead of “chronicling”. Sad.
iTV will be nothing more than a simple device to enable streaming of digital video from a Mac to an HDTV.
Apple has already made the move to IEEE 802.11n on the Mac end of the link, so iTV will simply accept streaming video (MPEG-2/4 with DRM) over IEEE 802.11n, decode it, and pump it out over an HDMI 1.3 interface.
DVR and TIVO functionality will be provided by an application running on the Mac, not the iTV device. Buying TIVO might be a good move for Apple.
Apple will then have a direct shot into an HDTV to provide video on demand, play DVDs (BluRays), and anything else they can stream over broadband (Saddam’s hanging?).
I for one would like to buy my video straight off the inet and bypass TWC, DIRECTV and all the other content aggregators that rip-off both the content producers and the consumers. I hope Apple can beat the RBOCs to the IPTV goldmine.
Jonathan Ive should take over after steve
Comparison – The number of American deaths in Iraq (3,000) is around the number of American deaths resulting from 9/11. By your logic, I guess that’s not a big deal, either.