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Among modular designs, styles range from the traditional desktop
computer that sits beneath the monitor to a range of bitty
boxen, minitowers, towers, and even larger models intended
for use as servers.
Of all these possibilities, Apple has only one design, the swoopy,
easily handled Power Mac G4.
Many of us in the Mac user community have been lamenting the loss
of a true desktop Mac since the beige G3 gave way to the blue
one in January 1999. We have suggested that Apple resurrect the
concept for home users, business users, schools, and any other market
we can think of. Nice as the towering G4 is, Mac users should have
another option.
Think Different
That said, I have not come to praise the idea of a true desktop
Mac but to bury it. I sincerely hope this article will be every bit
as successful as last December's Forget
the Flat Panel iMac - which I consider to be directly
responsible for Apple's decision to prove me wrong and release the
Luxo Jr. - er, LCD iMac - in January.
Maybe, just maybe, I can pull off a repeat performance.
Knowing how Apple loves to prove rumor sites wrong, and despite the
fact that we don't even pretend to be dabbling in rumors, I hereby
declare irrevocable that Apple will never produce a real desktop
computer again, unless it has a built in screen.
Death to the Desktop
Let me clarify. The Power Mac G4 is not a desktop computer.
Sure, you can put it there, but the whooshing fans and
footprint make it much happier on the floor. As far as Apple is
concerned, any Mac not used on the floor should be as close to
silent as possible. Thus the fanless slot-loading
iMacs and the fan-free Cube.
A desktop computer should be able to sit on the desktop without
towering over your monitor. Whether that means it sits beneath the
monitor or beside it is less important.
Finally, here are my arguments against Apple ever producing a true
modular desktop computer ever again.
It would reduce sales of the eMac, iMac, and Power
Mac.
It would increase the market for Apple's flat panel displays,
which are never intended to be commercially successful. Not
producing a traditional desktop model reduces demand and prevents
these LCD monitors from becoming economically viable.
Apple would have to renege on the "too many wires" ads
they ran about the iMac. Oh wait, this would have no more wires
than the Power Mac G4....
Apple isn't really about choices. You have to pick the
right product from their four niches - iMacs, iBooks, Power Macs,
PowerBooks. Don't confuse consumers with two kinds of iMacs (CRT
vs. LC), eMacs, or iBooks with different screen sizes. (Xserve
doesn't even enter to picture.) Simplify, simplify, simplify.
Adding yet another desktop model would only confuse the
consumer.
People might use the new model with a non-Apple
display, as way too many graphics folk already do with the
Power Mac G4, ruining the visual aesthetic of an Apple computer,
mouse, keyboard, monitor, and speakers.
This might be inexpensive enough that Apple could consider
dropping the classic CRT iMac from their product line. The gumdrop
iMac symbolizes all that is good about Apple and should never be
phased out - just like the six-colored Apple logo.
There is no way on God's green earth that Jonathan Ive
could come up with a new desktop design. The original iMac, LCD
iMac, blue and white G3, and Cube have drained his creativity. The
eMac already proves that.
There are only a limited number of Platonic solids. The Cube
bombed in the market, and the G4 iMac only uses half of a sphere.
The Macintosh Pyramid or Dodecahedron - nah, they just
don't sound right.
Desktop computers are boring, and profits be damned, but Apple
doesn't want to produce boring computers.
It would reduce sales of iBooks and PowerBooks, since a
desktop Mac might be portable enough to tote to a LAN party.
It wouldn't look good enough on the circular transilluminated
pedestals Apple uses at Macworld Expo. (Also see point about
Jonathan Ive above.)
Seriously, there are dozens of reasons that Apple shouldn't
produce a relatively compact, moderately expandable, decently priced
modular desktop computer. But there's no technological reason for it.
There's no economic reason for it. There's no marketing reason for
it. And there probably isn't even an aesthetic reason for it - I
really believe Jonathan Ive could do it.
Call it pigheaded stubbornness (with apologies to the
porcine population), but I think that Apple wants to be perceived in
a certain way - and Steve Jobs doesn't see any type of traditional
desktop design fitting that image. Profits and stockholders be
damned. Apple is never going to pursue the huge market for desktop
Macs. It might turn them into a 10% player, and then what
happens to the world's perception of Apple as beleaguered and "Didn't
they die a few years ago?"
- Anne Onymus
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