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Three things Apple won't do
Nothing is much of a secret about Apple events these days.
Turns out, a high percentage of the rumors and leaked images of the notebooks announced Tuesday were right on target: The price drop, the aluminum casing across the entire product line, the new unibody construction process, the black bezeled displays were all mentioned on Apple rumor sites and gadget blogs before CEO Steve Jobs took the stage Tuesday.
But, as would be expected, several of the most widely circulated pieces of speculation proved false. In brief comments after his keynote speech, Jobs did something he doesn't usually do, and clarified what isn't on his company's immediate notebook road map. Three of them are some of the most oft-repeated rumors of future Apple products. Here's why touch screens, Blu-ray, and Netbooks are not what Apple has in store for us anytime soon.
Blu-ray
Perhaps Jobs' most puzzling or awkward comment during Tuesday's event was regarding what is assumed to be the standard in high-definition packaged media. Regarding Blu-ray, Jobs described it as "a bag of hurt." He expanded, saying that he meant that not from a consumer experience perspective, but that the licensing is expensive and complex. Apple apparently plans to take a wait-and-see approach after Blu-ray has been in the market awhile.
Though Jobs clearly left some wiggle room in his answer, don't expect to see a Blu-ray drive in an Apple notebook anytime soon. If you're disappointed, blame iTunes. Apple is in the middle stages of building a video download business, and it's clear that the company wants its customers to use iTunes to watch high-definition videos, not revert to packaged media, where it can't get a slice of the revenue as it does while selling or renting digital content.
While Blu-ray is certainly the dominant high-definition format, it's still not the dominant packaged media format. DVD sales are tapering off, but still haven't completely disappeared. By the time that happens, it's assumed digital downloading for videos will become more common. In the interregnum, the major Hollywood studios are hedging their bets, some offering titles as a free download once you buy the title on disc.
But not Apple. In fact, Blu-ray's presence in an Apple computer is pretty much a moot point, according to Steve Baker, vice president of industry analysis for NPD Group.
"They're (Apple) not trying to be everything to everyone like Netflix or Blockbuster. They're going to keep trying to deliver economy around digital downloads. I still question why anybody would question or care whether they'd have Blu-ray," he said.
Touch-screen notebook
Jobs also seemingly put the kibosh on any touch-screen Mac, another rumor that rears its head every once in awhile. When asked Tuesday, Jobs said that while they've looked at touch screens for notebooks, "it hasn't made a lot of sense to us," he said.
Apple is one of the leaders in implementing touch screens in its devices--the iPhone, the iPod Touch--and using them in innovative ways. And while Jobs admitted that his company has looked into it, it's passing on making a notebook version of Hewlett-Packard's TouchSmart PC, the desktop with a touch-screen monitor.
While it would be innovative to put one in a notebook, it's not really likely from any major computer makers at this point, according to Charles Smulders, Gartner's managing vice president.
"We're seeing some vendors using touch screens, but it's typically on the desktop form factor not on a notebook," he said. HP's TouchSmart, for instance, is designed to be used in a room like the kitchen, where interactions are more brief. Long-term or all-day use generally requires input devices like a keyboard.
Netbook
And though many Apple fans were hoping for a Netbook, a cheaper, underfeatured notebook, from the company Tuesday, they'll have to wait longer. When asked about that Tuesday, Jobs said Netbooks are still a nascent market and that "we'll see how it goes."
While he certainly left some room to change his mind, he didn't sound excited about the category at all. And the company might be timid about getting into the Netbook market since its attempts at the smaller, cheaper Mac Mini weren't that well received, said Baker of NPD.
"They did a Nettop (a desktop version of a Netbook) and it wasn't particularly successful, if you think about the Mac Mini as a precursor to Nettops," he said.
On one hand, it does make sense for Apple to leave Netbooks out of its Mac lineup if just to preserve its brand image. (Just look at the reaction to Apple lowering the price of its lowest-end MacBook to $999.) Netbooks are based almost purely on price, and Apple doesn't make its product decisions on price points, but rather features.
Any lower price point would be likely be a big hit to the quality of experience Apple tries to deliver, and its margins. (While Apple is catching up in the U.S., it's still far outpaced in units shipped by HP, Dell, and Acer, which can afford a side business of making smaller, cheaper Netbooks.)
But while Jobs' comments Tuesday don't sound too promising, he certainly left plenty of room to change his mind. After all, he's right about Netbooks being very new. And while they're selling relatively well right now, there's not a lot of innovation in the sector. As the market matures, there's plenty of room for Apple to jump in, according to Smulders.
"It's such an early developing market; there's a long way to go before the optimum form factor and user experience is delivered," he said.
For complete coverage of the Apple notebook news, see "Apple polishes up its MacBook line."
Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who writes about consumer electronics and PCs, mostly as chief correspondent for Crave. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur. E-mail Erica.
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I think they did a good bit more than that. A great deal of innovation and quality went into the new line.
If companies in the business of making Blu Ray players don't expect them to be a viable product for very long, it makes sense that Apple would wait before doing something that adds cost to their product.
Personally I haven't used physical media to watch movies or tv, or listen to music for at least 2 years.
but then again, these things aren't considered interesting by most outside of the Mac community and those few creatives who use windows.
Hows that koolaid taste? is it grape or strawberry??
As much as Jobs says the word, im not sure he actually knows what it means.
That said, macbooks look damn sexy in aluminum...
Howsabout a reality check before quoting "experts"?
"We're seeing some vendors using touch screens, but it's typically on the desktop form factor not on a notebook," he said. HP's TouchSmart, for instance, is designed to be used in a room like the kitchen, where interactions are more brief. Long-term or all-day use generally requires input devices like a keyboard.
Hasn't the dude heard about, ahem, Tablet PCs? You know, those laptops with pens and touchscreens, as well as keyboards and touchpads?
http://reviews.cnet.com/tablet-pcs/?filter=503179_5551474_&tag=mncol
Many come with combo digitizers that respond both to pen and finger (indeed, with multitouch, too).
Of course, a lot of them sell for under $1000 so you won't see Apple play in that business, but to say nobody does them is factually incorrect. Just ask HP, Fujitsu, Gateway, and the dozens of asian vendors doing touch-screen Tablet PCs.
Jobs does a plenty good job of reality distortion all on his own, he doesn't really need outside assistance justifying how he runs his empire. The simple reality is that touchscreens add to the manufacturing cost without allowing for a proportiornally large markup and hence have a smaller profit margin than Apple likes. Unless Apple can charge 300% of the touchscreen cost they're not doing it. Period.
That simple.
End of story.
Steve is being arrogant again. It is like saying "3g takes to much from the battery that's we dont have it on Iphone and then launching next year iPhones with 3g .
Steve wants our money as much as he can and thinks we are fools who cant see it.
'There has been a mac tablet for years. It's called the Modbook, look it up."
This product is not made by Apple and is irrelevant to the situation. It's a hacked product and very much an unsupported niche item.
No, Axiotron is a premier apple developer and licensed by apple to make tablets. It is very relevant and shows that apple has little interest in making tablet pc's, do to the low demand for them. Go to Axiotron's site and learn how to read.
"Axiotron?s innovative design and manufacturing process integrates an Apple® MacBook® computer*, state-of-the-art Wacom® pen-enabled digitizer technology and Axiotron's own proprietary hardware and software components into a complete tablet solution, the Axiotron Modbook."
Sounds like a hacked MacBook to me... Frankenstein anyone?
I can't take an Axiotron to an Apple store for service. That makes it a clone, even if it's approved by Apple.
The real problem with touch-screen NOTEBOOKS (not tablets) is that the user experience would SUCK. your arm weighs too much, and some crazy hybrid of full multi-touch and also mouse/keyboard would be confusing and crazy.
Apple isn't about pricing, it's about full-features, high-quality and COHERENT and SUPERIOR user experience.
If Apple could sell a Tablet in volume, and preserve it's current (or similar) margin - then I am sure it would. Unfortunately, Tablet's are for an unprofitable niche.
To the other commenters to this posting;
I don't see why Steve is arrogant for not giving you what you want. I think the market cap of Apple (current market problems aside) are the measure of whether Steve has made the right choices.
"Tablet pcs are great". Really, for what ? They were a novelty when they came out - and have a few narrow niches where they excel - but for most PC use (office apps, email, web) they lose their novelty really fast.
I called Steve arrogant not because he is not giving me what I want. ( By the way how do you know that I want a touch screen computer from APple? ) He is arrogant because he always undervalues everything that Apple does not produce . ( Now touch screen , 1 year ago it was 3G on the cell phones ) But he is lucky because apple users are divided in two parts , first one is the minority rational Apple users and second one is the APple nazis.
iPhone is not 300% priced. You can get a pay as you go for 349 and Samsung Omnia was close to 400 pounds .
And I know about Modbook and it's name tells us it is mod not the original product from Apple. Some people might create laptop batteries running on hydrogen for Sony which lasts for 2 days but it does not mean Sony has laptops with long battery life.
what i predict happening is that apple will introduce a tablet sometime in the next year or so, and then everyone will call it innovative and new. including all the apple fans who said tablets were pointless to begin with. Kind of like how the iphones suddenly made smart phones an object of consumer envy.
Second, not sure what you mean about Apple "turning-back" to education. I've lived in three states and have had kids in 5 different school districts--and they all had iMacs in the classroom. I also come from a family with parents that spent their entire careers in education (both classroom and administration) and in 30 years never saw my dad use anything but a Mac for work. As far as I can tell, graphic design and education are two areas that Apple never lost it.
Otherwise, you win with your family history in academia. I was only the adopted child of a Navy-man who cared enough to work, as my Dad, after leaving American Steel in the 1960's struggled in Powhatan to make Chalkboards and ends meet. I do hold a Music Industry, Business/Engineering degree, to which I guess I should say thanks to Apple Computer, that is, Apple Music Co. now since you could hardly recognize the Education, I mean, Music markets they (he) are credited and paid to dominate. So, you think the desktop is still the future?
Congrats to you sir.
I know I wouldn't use it and it's not like it would be an option, so we would all have to pay for it.
As for AAPL's take on BD...I agree with the author of this article: BD like DVD before it is competition for video downloads on iTMS. BD support, even more so than FM radio--does not generate revenue for iTMS. Apple is loathe to back things that deprive their download cash cow of its sales livelihood.
As for Blu-ray, Apple already has DD (Digital Distribution) system and it already has HD videos. Not much, not really Full HD, yet something much cheaper and more accessible.
Also never forget that Apple - in stark contrast with others - was never hunting for lower end of market. As long as Jobs at steering wheel, their elegant and expensive ware would be elegant, expensive and would sell. But beware of "Apple after Jobs."
I know of several people who would buy an updated Mac Mini in a heartbeat if it were updated, or at least if the price were adjusted accordingly. However, with Apple's current model of business you would have to be either desperate or ignorant to purchase a Mac Mini now. Especially when every single day carries the possibility of Apple updating the thing you would have spent over $600 dollars on basically two year old technology.
So, don't be so quick to assume that weak sales of the Mac Mini means there is no demand, it is much more likely that it is because of Apple's update policy (I.E. extreme secrecy and no gradual price adjustments) and their utter contempt for the segment.
My mini is connected to a 42" plasma flatscreen and it is a fantastic media PC. Unlike the AppleTV, it can play any media file, download torrents and store a vast library of data on it's external firewire HD.
Anyone who digs on the mini doesn't have one. Now maybe if Apple jammed a gigantic heat sink with a turbo prop fan on it into the mini - that might make the naysayers happy.
If you don't watch movies on your laptop, no worries. If you do and you've upgraded to blu-ray.... now we have a problem. The real question is, how many customers buying these in the next 12 months are going to care.
The mini has had 'n' for a while. The core 2 duos are plenty fast for 1080i/p.
I have 1TB of external storage attached via USB (also PLENTY FAST FOR MEDIA STREAMING) and it shares video with any screen in the house. what's the big deal?
I think people were expecting too much, too fast with the laptops - you can only make things so small. The air is a sign of things to come but they won't integrate that into the other laptops until they can make it perfect.
I'm looking to upgrade my mac in the next 8 months and based on what I saw I'm probably just going to stick with what I have until the next iteration, hopefully, addresses some of these problems. No hapatic feedback for the trackpad 'buttons'? A chiclet keyboard with less than stellar responsiveness? A glossy screen so I end up staring back at my own ugly mug when I'm trying to code? No. Its just not working for me. Design is important but it has to meet functional demands.
I think the design does look good, but no matte option is a bad move. Shanx24 is also right about the low number of ports. That means an extra expense of getting a USB hub for any devices you need to keep plugged in. The MBP can be a good desktop replacement, but with the lack of ports it's limited.
iPhone = $199 + $70/month x 24mo = $1680 for a grand total of $1879 not including taxes, overages, etc.
Not a good comparison at all.
That's a fair comparison.
Then again, we have to take what Bill Gates says about using Vista (or you can use linux)