PC Magazine’ Segan: Apple’s iPad could kill the Mac

“The Mac’s greatest enemy may not be Microsoft Windows. It may be Apple itself. In a conversation at a Goldman Sachs technology conference, Apple COO Tim Cook said that Apple is a ‘mobile devices company,’ and that more devices will get the iPhone OS,” Sascha Segan writes for PC Magazine. “A bit later, AT&T’s CEO said the iPad would mostly be a Wi-Fi (read: home) product rather than something you tote around and use on the street.”

“This jibes with something I’ve been thinking about Apple: if it could do the Mac all over again, it would use the iPhone OS,” Segan writes. “Don’t think of the iPad as a big iPod touch. Think of it, rather, as the new Mac—a new mode of home-based computing that Apple hopes will bubble up through its product line.”

“If that market explodes and Apple takes its focus away from the Mac, the Mac platform very well might wither in favor of this new, smooth, controlled experience,” Segan writes. “The MacBook and Mac Mini lines will succumb first, as they are lower-cost and appeal mostly to consumers. Mac Pros will last the longest, as professionals tend to require a wide range of peculiar hardware and accessories.”

“The biggest difference between a Mac and an iPad isn’t ARM vs. X86, or multitouch vs. mouse. Both devices are running modern *NIX-based operating systems… [and] the new iWork for the iPad is proof that Mac-like productivity apps and ARM-based platforms can go well together,” Segan writes. “But the Mac is an open platform, and the iPad is closed.”

Segan writes, “As someone who’s owned a Mac since 1986, and as someone who likes the vibrancy and innovation that open platforms bring to the marketplace, I’ll admit I’m fearful, uncertain, and doubtful. Apple has fallen in love with end-to-end experiences, and I don’t want anyone other than me to have the last word on what I can install on my own home computer.”

There’s a lot more explanation in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: We were surprised that Segan’s article didn’t include this quote:

If I were running Apple, I would milk the Macintosh for all it’s worth — and get busy on the next great thing. – Steve Jobs, Fortune Magazine, February 19, 1996