The Begining of the End?
[I started this after Macworld of 2007, I thought it would be good to bring it back]
Before you read this, please read this.
Eric Burns makes an interesting note about the MACWorld keynote. There really wasn’t anything about…I don’t know…Macintosh computers? Seriously, at the conference that was the unveiling of so many major computer releases (Original TiBook in January of 2001?), and is supposed to be about the Mac, where were the computer announcements? Where was the…you know…Mac? Gone.
Computers were an afterthought. And apparently, computers aren’t the big thing at Apple either. They dropped “Computer” from their company name. They’re Apple Inc, now. Apple Computers is dead.
Stop to think about that for a second. Has that sunk in yet? It’s ok, I’ll wait a bit longer.
That’s right, Apple Computer, the company that changed how we look at computers, who’s machines my generation grew up using in schools, no longer exsists. This is now Apple Inc. Maker of the IPod, the IPhone and the company that runs the iTunes Music Store.
Without much fanfare, Apple has smoothly turned themselves into a consumer electronics company. They are like a sleeker, hipper Sony. They make computers, but it isn’t their primary business anymore.
One could say the writing has been on the wall for a while. Increased pushing of the iPod at various conventions; the major shift in revenue and profit no longer coming from the computer devision. Even Apple’s pulling out of the PowerPC camp and using Intel for it’s computers (and then making it easy to install Windows on them). It feels in a way like Apple is now just putting up a token fight, but they are more concerned with other areas.
I wonder when the iPod went from a device to try and get people hooked into Apple’s computers, to the device that was the flagship for the company. I wonder what kind of computer announcements Apple will make in the future. What is the future of the Mac OS?
