Five years ago, I wrote a column
on this same topic. We thought perhaps that a revisit would be in
order 5 years on. But before the update, let's revisit the 2003
article's "5 It Could Do Better" section to see if Steve & Co.
took my advice:
- Virtual PC: I wrote that Apple should create its own Windows
emulator in response to Microsoft's purchase of Connectix and its
Virtual PC product. Apple's switch to Intel chips in the intervening
period caused this market to flourish with products from Parallels,
CodeWeaver, VMWare, as well as Apple's own Boot Camp. It's comforting
to know that the folks in Cupertino cherish my advice so much as to go
all-out the way they obviously have to act on it. You're welcome.
- Bring back the G3 CRT iMac: I lamented the death of what was
then Apple's lowest-priced Mac. Two years later, Apple did heed the
call to bring back a low-cost Mac, the Mac mini, just not an
all-in-one.
- Build a Tablet PC: My advice may have fallen on deaf ears at
1 Infinite Loop, but Axiotron picked up the ball and ran with it. The
Modbook is an amazing feat of
engineering.
- Apple should aggressively pursue regaining its dominance in the
education market, which it had recently lost to Dell:
Mission accomplished.
- Buy Palm in order to own the handheld market: They decided
to own the handheld market by developing the iPhone and iPod touch
instead. Same result, so I feel vindicated.
Is it a coincidence that Apple is successful far beyond what we
could have imagined five years ago, and they (or others) have
(more or less) implemented all five of my open-letter suggestions from
that time? In my humble opinion, it is not. (If Apple wanted to reward
me with some profit-sharing, I would not fail to cash the check.)
Now, 5 Things Apple Is Doing Right in 2008 - and 5 They Could Do
Better
5 Things Apple Is Doing Right
- Evolution of the iPod. Apple hit a home run with this one.
Back in 2003, we were on the second-generation iPod. Since then, we
have seen not only the introduction of the iPod mini, nano, and
shuffle, but multiple generations of each. I'm sure I'll get email on
this one, but I would argue that the most important product in the line
is the shuffle. Why? In a rarity for Apple, the iPod shuffle was and is
pretty much the lowest-priced "real" portable music player available.
This exposed an Apple product to a market that had previously been
ignored by the company, that being the lower-end. And the product was
fully compatible with iTunes. Market penetration (saturation?) can only
be a good thing.
- The iPhone. If the continued march of the iPod was a home
run, the iPhone is a grand slam, expanding Apple's market segments even
more. Like all Apple products, its genius is its simplicity: It just
works the way you think it should. The iPod touch is a nice complement
for those who want the PDA functionality without the phone and/or can't
get (or don't want) AT&T cellular service. And did I mention that
they're also fully functional iPods. The recent release of the iPhone
Software Development Kit will undoubtedly result in a multitude of
third-party applications that will make an even more compelling case
for the iPhone.
- MacBook Air. The
world's thinnest notebook is an engineering marvel. As soon as I
got my hands on one, I went out and bought my own - something I never
do. This truly lightweight and portable Mac will lighten the road
warrior's load significantly.
- iTunes everywhere. I am using "iTunes" as a generic catchall
for all of Apple's media offerings. The
iTunes Store now offers movies, TV shows, podcasts, and even movie
rentals. Apple TV is the long-awaited appliance that brings the Mac
into the living room. Plus it can all be directed to most iPods (see #1
above).
- Momentum. In a word, Apple has it - and they are
capitalizing on it with aplomb. Rather than resting on their laurels,
Apple follows up each success with a new push. The sales figures, and,
yes, the (drum roll, please) market share, reflect it. As the Mac
installed base expands, so does the software available. The larger the
market, the greater the potential for sales, and the more likely
developers are to write for the platform. In
February, Macs accounted for 14% of all personal computers shipped
in the US, up from 9% in February 2007. The
latest figures I could find for installed base, through the 3rd
calendar quarter of 2007, puts Apple at 8.1%. In all ways, Apple is
moving up.
5 Things Apple Could Do Better
Make no mistake, Apple is riding higher than they have in decades.
However, there is still room for improvement, to wit:
- Get an Enterprise Strategy. In a word, Apple doesn't have
one and admits it. The Xserve
and Mac OS X Server can hang with any hardware-software combo in the
enterprise. Perhaps Apple should, maybe, tell a few people about this
and see if word of mouth will take hold. That is better than anything
else they seem to be doing. The Xserve RAID, a fine product pretty much
neglected since its introduction, was discontinued on 19 February 2008
and replaced with Promise VTrak E-Class RAID Subsystem. I'm not saying
Apple has to mortgage the farm to make a pitch to the enterprise, just
put together a small, highly skilled team and target some key
corporations to get a foot in the door. Once you do this, momentum will
kick in (see #5 above).
- Diversify Their Subnotebook Offering. The MacBook Air is
great, but for their next move, Apple could shrink a notebook the other
way: around the periphery instead of flattening it. I believe each
model would find its own niche. Flat and lightweight is great, but some
travelers are not so much interested in the thickness as they are in
having a full-featured Mac just slightly larger than a PDA.
- Security. Apple does not seem to be doing much in the way of
fighting viruses and malware. Fortunately, there is little of either
targeting Macs right now. The Mac is an inherently more stable and
secure system than Windows, so it's not likely to ever have the rampant
problems of that platform, but you can be certain that as the installed
base of Macs increases, they will become a more tempting target for the
hacker and criminal communities.
- Release a Midrange Modular Mac. A gaping hole in Apple's
product line is the lack of a midrange modular, expandable Mac. Give
home users a tower that is reasonable priced. Few of us want or need
(or want to pay for) a Mac Pro.
Something with the computing power of the iMac, but without a
built-in monitor and with room to add expansion cards, change display
adapters, change/add hard drives and optical drives, etc.
- Get a Succession Plan for Steve. What would happen to Apple
if something happened to Steve Jobs? I don't know and don't want to
find out. Jobs is a bigger and more integral part of Apple than, say,
Bill Gates is to Microsoft. If Gates left Microsoft, who could run a
company that cranks out bloated, buggy, overpriced software three years
behind schedule? Heck, I could do that, along with half of America.
Running Apple is a bit more complicated. It requires finesse, vision,
and creativity. I know I couldn't do it, and I can't think of anyone
right off who could. You see the problem. I'm sure Apple has a
succession plan in place, and I wish I knew what it was. They are not
likely to make such a plan public (nor should they), but just thinking
about the prospect of a Steve-less Apple makes me a bit uneasy.
