The last time Apple introduced new products was
at MacWorld Tokyo back in February. The Pismo and iBook SE were introduced
then, as well as the speed bumped G4s. We waited
and bought a Pismo. A lot of people waited, it seems, because the Pismo
is on fire as far as sales go.
But that was almost three months ago - and the next Expo is still
two months away. Now the natives are getting restless, as they do every
year at this time. To quiet us down, Apple made iMovie a free download.
But this won't keep many quiet for long, especially those, like me, who
don't do DV.
Recently there have been some articles on the Mac web about where
Apple is headed, what we (the consumer base) want from Apple, and
speculation on dual processor G4s and desktop iMacs and all kinds of
things. People want the Mac Palm, if there is such a thing, an iBook
Duo, and glowing keyboards on PowerBooks. The longer Apple goes without
introducing new products, the louder the clamor becomes - and the more
far-fetched the product speculation gets. I think it is silly, at least
on one level.
I have to tell you this. No, I must. We got a Pismo (have I already
mentioned that?) and absolutely love the thing. It is my first
PowerBook and, even with the G4 I have, the Pismo has become my Mac of
choice. I gave the G4 to my wife, in fact. I was so excited getting
it.
And yet within a few days after it was released and I got mine,
someone on the Mac Web had an article on the next PowerBook and
what it needs. For a moment, but only a brief moment, I felt like my
brand new Pismo wasn't enough. And then I thought, "Don't these people
ever give up? Can't they appreciate what is before their eyes?" It
seemed patently ridiculous to me. But that's another story, and one
many have written on. I want to look at it from a different
perspective.
Consider just the current offerings from Apple. Apple is small
company, relatively speaking. Sure, it has three billion in the bank
and continually increasing sales. But once you get down to it, it has
three G4s (or one in three different speeds), two PowerBooks (or one in
two different speeds), three iMacs (iMac, iMac DV, iMac DV SE), and two
iBooks (I am also setting aside color variations, but see below). That
is a grand total of ten computers. Apple servers are just variations on
these themes.
Ten. That is not a lot, considering the millions of potential and
actual customers out there. Moreover, Apple is brushing in very broad
strokes with a hairline brush. It has only two products lines, Pro and
"i" (consumer). There are five Pro models and five consumer models.
This is a very small product line for such broad consumer categories.
(There are permutations, additions, and variations, like monitors,
AirPort cards, and base stations.) Categories such as small business,
corporate, SOHO, and others are supposed to be captured by this simple
two-fold categorization. Indeed, it might be that an iMac is a good
SOHO machine. But under the label "consumer," it might not be noticed
as such.
Now simply adding colors will not do it. They are still the same
machines no matter how you paint them; it actually appears that Apple
has more products than it really does because of color variation. As I
said, simply adding colors won't meet the demand. A blueberry iBook is
still an iBook; a tangerine iBook is still an iBook; and a graphite
iBook is still an iBook. Same with iMacs. New colors may placate us for
a while, but we will still suffer from "new productitis" because colors
are just bandages for gapping injuries. We will still bleed
profusely.
When it comes to software, well . . . AppleWorks 6, OS 9, HyperCard,
AppleScript, QuickTime, iMovie (free!), Final Cut Pro, AirPort 1.1
(which is more of a system extension), Mac OS X Server, AppleShare IP,
WebOjects, and that is about it. FileMaker, a subsidiary of Apple, has
five products by itself. (Yes, I realize that there are 25,000 software
titles out there, but that is not my point.) And of course we have
iTools now and the whole net strategy. Again, that's about it, the rest
are just add ons, and it ain't very much. No wonder the natives are
restless.
When we look at the hardware and software offerings, there is not
that much there, relatively speaking. Apple is, to say the least, a
targeted and focused company. It doesn't want to do it all. I just hope
that Apple's focus doesn't become myopia.
There are things Apple could be doing. When they got focused during
the turn around they dropped Emailer, a great program we need back.
HyperCard lays dormant for all intents and purposes. AppleWorks 6 could
be more robust, in my opinion. Beyond these, there are software
companies which have greater resources that can do the rest.
As for hardware, we all know that Apple is a hardware company first
and foremost. They have a legacy and have produced many great machines.
Just look around LEM for the list.
Do we really want Apple branded cell-phones? An Apple Palm would be
nice, as long as it's different - I mean really different - from
Palm products. (AirPort might be the clue here.) Otherwise, I can paste
an Apple logo to my Palm and save the money.
As Apple grows its customer base and sells more Macs, the disparity
between products offered and customer expectations will broaden even
more. The two, in fact, stand in inverse proportion:
The larger the
customer base the smaller the product line seems to that
base. There will simply be more variety in a larger customer base,
which will make the small variety of products more apparent. As the
base grows, so do the needs, expectations, and wishes of that base.
The more customers a company has, the more likely some customers
will grow dissatisfied and restless. The chance for this is even higher
if new products are fewer and farther between (how one measures this, I
don't know). But Apple refuses to give in, it seems, or drags its feet
doing so. I'll return to this in a moment.
But there is another variable at work here. Apple's customer base
is, to put mildly, fanatical. It is, generally, loud and vocal,
perfectionistic, demanding, and knowledgeable. We love Apple product.
As with anything people love, we can't get enough. This adds fuel to
the fire. We must keep our heads about us here.
So we have these opposing forces facing off. Sometimes I wonder,
though. Technology is not something developed overnight. It takes a lot
of testing, R & D, money, and time to develop new products. I don't
mean new Macs, necessarily. The pieces are in place, and new ones can
be developed more quickly than they used to be. But items such as
FireWire and USB are still new, and conflicts are bound to arise.
Software takes time to develop. AirPort is very new, though it works
great. A Mac Palm introduces all kinds of engineering questions, such
as what kind of display to use, integration with existing products
(which Palm has done a good job of doing), trying to fit AirPort into
one, and many other decisions. Better they do it right than get it to
us quick. We have lived through that, and the sometimes buggy G4 is one
product that made many Mac buyers beta testers, according to some.
I don't want to be a beta tester for a Mac Palm.
I don't think it is just a matter of quality versus quantity. It is
not that simple. It is possible that Apple could have fifty products
all of high quality and three of poor quality. We know that quality is
tops on Apple's mind: "Our goal is to make the best computers in the
world," says Steve Jobs. A lofty and admirable goal. But his own
perfectionism sometimes seems to slow down development and release.
This has its up-side and down-side, obviously. Consumers are left in
the lurch, and that is when the natives get restless.
We'll see at the next Expo what Apple has in store. The only things
that could get my attention are machines and software I don't have but
need. I have a G4 and a Pismo. I have AirPort. I have AppleWorks 6. I
have a Palm IIIe. I am pretty well set and happy with my products. This
native isn't very restless anyway. Besides, if Apple followed all the
suggestions for products and ideas I see on the Mac Web, well . . .
maybe Apple wouldn't be Apple anymore.
