“Managing the Mac product line must be one of the most challenging problems at Apple. That may not be obvious given the product’s success,” Horace Dediu writes for Asymco. “With an estimated $5.5 billion in operating margin Apple is the most profitable PC vendor, capturing over 60% of the available PC hardware profits.”
“The big change in computing has not been a growing Mac vs. declining PC. It has been a huge surge in mobile device use vs. a decline in PC use overall. This data is visible in many ways. Browsing data shows mobile overtook PC use this year,” Dediu writes. “All the data is consistent: mobile use has swept PC use aside.”
“I bring this contrast up because I believe it is what focuses the minds at Apple. For them it’s pretty clear where the puck is going,” Dediu writes. “And so what do you with the Mac? To answer this we have to ask what exactly is the purpose of the Mac in the age of the Mobile device?”
“It cannot take on the role of being the future. That belongs to the touch screen devices. It will not morph into a touch device any more than a teen’s parent will become cool by putting on skinny jeans,” Dediu writes. “What it will do is become better at what it is hired to do.”
Tons more with the usual pretty and informative graphs – highly recommended – in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The Touch Bar – which will come to all Macs eventually – is a paradigm shift in personal computing UI. It is truly groundbreaking. We can’t wait for the virtual, morphing, taptic engine-equipped keyboards!
SEE ALSO:
Apple to launch new MacBooks with E-Ink dynamic keyboards in 2018 – October 19, 2016