Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Because I have surely exceeded my Apple budget for the year and because I hate the feeling of buyer's remorse brought on by obsolescence, here is a list of products I do not want Apple to announce today at the "Let's Rock" event:
  • iPhone 3G with 32GB* memory (likelihood: low, too much work has gone into the complex operator subsidy pricing models for the 8GB and 16GB models which are still very, very new)
  • iPod nano with 32GB* memory (medium, feasible in similar enclosure at same price)
  • $199-249 iPod touch with 32GB* memory (medium, a direct move to phase out iPod classic)
  • Apple TV with DVD or Blu-ray drive (low, would kill content sales if they included an optical drive)
  • Mac mini with Blu-ray drive and Apple TV software parity (medium, would carry same price as existing models and be positioned as a PC not an Apple TV replacement)
  • A faster and cheaper MacBook Air with 2 USB ports, an Ethernet jack and more than 100GB of SSD storage (very low, since today's event is reportedly all about iPod/music/entertainment)
  • A significantly redesigned MacBook Pro enclosure at same or lower price/specs ratio (very low, see MBA comment)
  • A significantly redesigned MacBook enclosure with discrete graphics card and same or lower price/specs ratio (very low, see MBA comment)
  • A touch tablet with price/spec ratio similar to current MacBook (medium, the hottest Apple rumor since the iPhone became real but it's hard to see the value outside certain vertical business applications given how great iPhone and MacBook are)
  • Some other breakthrough product that I am too mundane to imagine (medium, always a possibility with Apple)
That said, there certainly are some announcements I would welcome:
  • Apple TV update that supports a useful subset of Dashboard/iPhone widgets and extended storage using Time Capsule and/or external hard drives (medium)
  • A 500GB or 1TB external hard drive that's designed to fit under or on top of Apple TV (low)
  • iPhone software update 2.1, where 3G connections are fast and reliable and battery life doesn't suck - and hopefully with copy/paste (medium, but probably only if needed to support the next two)
  • iTunes 8 software with smarter playlists and store recommendations based on music characteristics (high, very straightforward evolution with too many rumors not to be true)
  • iTunes music subscription via downloads a la Napster and Rhapsody and/or streaming channels a la Last.fm and Pandora (medium, the only chink in the Apple music strategy relative to competitors)
  • Some other breakthrough product that I am too mundane to imagine (medium, always a possibility with Apple)
*32GB because that's how much space I need to carry around all my music and photos with enough space left for a good mix of applications, movies, TV shows and podcasts - and any new music that I will acquire before this time next year.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

I think Microsoft just found Jerry Yang his next job...
July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s Kevin Johnson, who oversaw the bid to buy Yahoo! Inc., is leaving, adding to the challenges facing the software maker's Internet unit.

The company will conduct a search for a new online-services leader.