Spotlight on Reason
It has got to be spectacular. There is reasonable consensus on that across the rumor-mills. Early indications revolve around ‘brick’, an ambitious design based on aluminium ingots shaped by Apple’s design boffins into something truly pretty, and built by experts with water-jets and lasers. There, however, are the few who already offer machines manufactured following such cutting-edge methods wondering out loud if its inevitable downside could be worth it - cost. That there is the crux of the matter.
There is a bit of an economic situation developing around the world, increasingly threatening to reach pandemic proportions. Money in short supply is the main symptom, and prudence and thrift the only treatment-plans. Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba have reacted swiftly with the increasingly charming mini-PC ‘netbooks’ - cheap to own and operate, and built for purpose. Intel is channeling impressive effort into its Atom processor-series and peripheral paraphernalia. Ubuntu looks ready to do everything one could reasonably hope to, short of connecting to a corporate network-served bank of printers.
Apple has not responded. Sadly, they seem blind to their own backyard-bully - anti-monopoly monopoly status. Macintosh operating system, despite being compliant with Intel architecture and associated standards is still illegal on anything other than rather expensive hardware prepared by Apple themselves. One could cobble up a Hackintosh, but, not within the safe envelope of legality. There is the comparatively cheap Mac Mini, but only if you BYOKBMM and dish out ample money for the privilege in the process. Apple has not bothered with Blu-ray yet. In short, there has been no mass-market Macintosh machine of great appeal, yet. To anyone with financial sniffles, Windows-based offerings from Dell, HP, Lenovo and Toshiba offer affordable familiarity, bloatware and all. Their Ubuntu-based offerings, I dare say, are risk-free acts of near-perfection. With erosion of competitive differentiation in functional appeal, features, utility and performance, the much higher costs of anything Apple have little or no defence. It’s time for Apple to act and do so decisively.
This is what I hope to see announced on October 14th, a Spotlight on Reason:
1. The stunning new design and manufacturing process, so it’s clear Apple haven’t lost their mojo
2. Prices cut across the range, so it’s clear Apple understands the real world
3. Mac Mini which can be a true living-room computer and multi-media station
4. Blu-ray on Macs
5. Macbooks with Bluetooth-connected detachable keyboards and HDMI / DVI connected detachable screens, and
6. Restrictions-free Macintosh operating system that can be installed on all recent Intel-architected machines
As for me, just (6) will bring a lot to cheer about and a fresh love for all things Mac. For Apple, you’ve lost that loving feeling…
