“I took a trip to the future last month, and boy, was my flux capacitor tired,” Rick Aristotle Munarriz writes for The Motley Fool.
So, how does Apple look in 2010, just two short years from now?
Munarriz reports from the future, “As you probably expect, Apple continues to nibble away at the market share in the desktop and laptop computing space. Apple’s domestic market share has doubled to 12% by 2010, well ahead of when market-watchers like Gartner figured this would happen.”
“Apple is still the trendsetter when it comes to style, design, and pushing the technological envelope. There are actually MacBooks rolling out in 2010 that weigh less than those Air models that were all the rage in 2008,” Munarriz reports. “But these come with an optical drive to watch Blu-ray flicks or experience enhanced music CDs.”
MacDailyNews Take: Maybe Rick doesn’t have a time machine after all. Or he took a wrong turn and went backwards. Shiny spinning plastic discs are the past, not the future.
Munarriz continues, “Apple still easily hit its 10 million cumulative-unit sales mark by the end of 2008, with the vast majority of those iPhones going to happy AT&T converts. Apple just got smarter about it. It eventually bumped the price up to $599, with an instant $200 rebate on sales tied to AT&T two-year contracts.”
“Apple is still the leading player — by far — in digital music players. But the market’s not as big as it used to be. Cell phones — including Apple’s own iPhone — and smaller portable computers helped eliminate the need for toting around two costly trinket,” Munarriz reports.
Full article, in which Munarriz proves once and for all that he’s incapable of time travel by claiming that “even the second incarnation of Apple TV proved fruitless,” here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Joe Architect” for the heads up.]
by claiming that “even the second incarnation of Apple TV proved fruitless”
unfortunately he is right: the second coming of the apple tv died a silent death because of the old “no content” problem …
You guys definitely hate blu. too bad
AppleTV is not going to replace Blu-Ray for aficionados, just as MP3 is not going to replace CD’s (or DVD-A for real sound quality) for those same aficionados. AppleTV cannot deliver 1080p, the “extras”, and the 7.1 sound of Blu-Ray. In the future, it might, but we’ll be onto the third or fourth generation of Blu-Ray. I understand the need for MP3’s and AppleTV, and I have both. But I also like very high quality music and video, and i always will.
@ ralph from berlin
I think we all get it, you are very unhappy with the lack of rentals in the itunes music store. Move on, quit your crying and find something new to bitch about.
Quick history lesson now. When the itunes music store first launched it was designated as a failure. Anyone remember why? I do, lack of content. It is now the largest most successful online music store. It was not a failure after all. Does this mean Apple TV is going to be successful? No, but you do have to start somewhere right?
Please Ralph, find something new to whine about.
Rick M of MotleyFool may not have a very clear crystal ball, but then again, he’s not a tech pundit. He’s an investment fundamentalist, and he likes Apple, and has for a few years now.
> But these come with an optical drive to watch Blu-ray flicks or experience enhanced music CDs.”
During those two years, Apple must have invented the technology that makes the inside of something larger than outside. Imagine the possibilities…
@ ken1w:
What?!! It is there in the future, and the past for that matter.
I saw it on the BBC— Dr. Who i believe he’s named, has one!
Except the new mac pro might have to look like a police call box?
lol
Davsot is right. The fact that Apple is not pushing Blu-Ray does not have to mean that we all like lemmings start claiming that the movies rented through the iTunes store are superior. Why? Simply because they aren’t. Blu-ray delivers much better video and audio. Don’t get me wrong, I love the convenience of renting movies though my Apple TV, but I will continue buying my all time favourite movies and for that, Blu-Ray currently represents, by far, the state-of-the-art.
Biggest Apple fan but, the iPhone sux, sorry to say…
Saw a guy, like I was, had to have the “latest Apple toy”.
Well I told him flat out that I was a over 20 year Apple veteran and found the iPhone to be a functionally failure of a device.
The laptop was much much more superior as a internet device and he made the point that you can’t carry a laptop in your pocket.
I rebutted that I have a SUV that has no problem carrying 7 other people and towing over 5 tons at the same time, a laptop wasn’t going to hurt it none. So basically the iPhone was only good for cities or other places where walking and carrying a laptop case would be a chore.
Then I mentioned how tiny the screen is when he cursed himself as he hit a wrong link and had to wait a few minutes to get back to the previous page over a SLOW GODDAM 2G NETWORK.
Then I said how much I love my full sized keyboard, he responded he had several laptops. I mentioned can he run Javascript on the iPhone?
Checkmate…
Now if the iPhone had a full sized keyboard and a pair of those video goggles…
…perhaps…perhaps…
Time And Relative Dimensions In Space = TARDIS
Rick’s Expected Time And Dimensions In Space = RETARD
mw: probably
oops that would be
RETADIS
sigh… nvm
Now if the iPhone had a full sized keyboard
eMate 2.0? How about with built-in wireless/wifi and a bluetooth headset for taking calls?
Then again the future has surprised us before. Still fun to go back and see the predictions from 1993.
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I haven’t used my shiny plastic disc drive in ages. Those things are definitely a thing of the past.
and a pair of those video goggles…
Funny nobody’s been able to turn regular reading glasses into video screens. At least until volumetric displays, viewable only by the user, are developed. The bug-eye goggles gotta be shrunk a bit more if they’re gonna go mainstream.
Hmm maybe this is one area Apple could put part of that $18 billion into…
The iPhone is a phone with some unique capabilities. It’s a phone. With capabilities. A phone. A phone. A Phone.
When I’m traveling to new cities on foot, I don’t want a laptop. I want a phone with capabilities. Of course a laptop has more capabilities– it’s not a phone.
See where I’m going with this, Mac Maniac? They are not the same thing. Your rebuttal about your SUV really makes no sense. You could fit a desktop in an SUV, too– maybe even a nice mainframe computer, definitely a rack. That would have more power than a laptop and you could tow a trailer.
I guess laptops suck, sorry.
Why buy what you can’t see.
It’s just as stupid as buying what you can’t hear.
If a digital audio file contains only the sound a human ear can hear then it’s more than good enough, it’s all you need.
Likewise, if a digital video file contains all the data you can see at 10 feet from your HDTV than it’s more than good enough, it’s all you need.
Don’t be suckered into another round of media replacement. DRM free digital files will meet all of your needs. Don’t support any other media.
Easy predictions:
A.
B.
C.
Very hard to do.
Blu-Ray will be an option when they release the new MacBook Pros. Wait for it.
Mac Maniac
I’m writing this on my iPhone while walking through the city without my laptop. The iPhone is the best PHONE ever created! You’re an idiot.
“So basically the iPhone was only good for cities or other places where walking and carrying a laptop case would be a chore.”
Agreed! Cities and other places (such as the country and the seabed). Those are the only places where an iPhone is useful
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Everywhere else–the places where walking while carrying a laptop every moment of your life actually makes SENSE–the iPhone is indeed a “functionally failure.”
But you are wrong about JavaScript. The iPhone runs JavaScript just great right out of the box, no hacks needed.
Check, mate.
Optical media will be dead by 2010. The only macs that will get bluray will be in the pro line because as “pro machines” they need to have everything and the kitchen sink. Apple tv shows were Apple inc is really going. The internet will to do hd content what it did to music. Just wait. With the exception of illegal downloads Apple will be the gatekeeper. Everything from the iPod killing cds to the Macbook air is just the slow death of physical media unfolding before our eyes. MacdailyNews is right. Shiny spinning disks are the past.
Speaking of “Time,”
WHERE IS TIME CAPSULE???????
PS – PLEASE tell me Apple hasn’t factored the leap year into this …!
Blu Ray is great for the movies you want to keep, and right now Apple certainly doesn’t have enough content to compete with established rental firms. BUT… some of the comments here, and even the article itself, seem to believe that both Apple and technology in general are standing still. No, TV can’t deliver full 1080p and 7.1 sound…yet. But you can’t believe that the capabilities won’t be updated within the next year; this is the same hardware that they introduced more than a year ago. You also can’t expect that content to rent (and maybe buy) from Apple won’t get better as broadband improves. A lot of common broadband is challenged by 720p HD downloads. That is not an Apple issue. My TV can only do 720p or 1080i, and my sound system is still only 5.1 anyway, and I am ahead of the curve for most Americans. I’d be willing to bet that the current TV is perfectly adequate for 90% of current home setups. Really, the main reason to continue with hard media (be current DVD or Blu Ray) is the extras that come on the disc that are not supplied by downloaded rentals. I really enjoy listening to commentaries, especially when done by the director of the film. That why most of my rentals will still be on disc, but I am more than thrilled by the convenience of choosing a movie to watch when the desire hits me at midnight. We are rapidly getting to the point where I can cut the cord on my cable subscription. And, once again, TV does NOT begin and end with movie rentals. That is just one of its many tricks.
@MacDaddy: ditto
@ R : ditto