Apple's Next Move

Jennifer Rice at What's Your Brand Mantra? asks the question “Is Apple losing its cool?” The question arose out of a conversation with someone who wondered if Apple's move from a high-end niche product to mainstream consumer electronics (iPod & Mini) will cost it some of its cache. Jennifer thinks that if Apple remains true to its brand it can maintain its cool.

She's right.

I don't have any inside information so I'm not in any danger of being sued for this. What I do have is years of watching Apple do business and a fertile imagination. I think I know what Apple is going to do next.

Here is the pattern I have observed from Apple over many years of buying systems for myself and the people I worked for. Typically about a quarter before they come out with something new they make minor adjustments to the existing line. Usually this comes in the form of feature tweaks and price adjustments. When I bought my G4 cube, I got a $300 rebate. I knew this meant one of two things either they were about to come out with a newer better cube or they were going to discontinue the product line. I was O.K. with either outcome. I had a system that met my performance and space needs and a nice rebate check.

Today Apple has tweaked features and adjusted prices of iPods. The middle of the line, the 40GB, has been replaced with a slimmer 30GB priced $150 less than the 40. Most importantly the price of the top of the line iPod Photo has been cut from $599 to $449. This leaves a hole at the top of the price line that there is something new in the works to fill.

The question is what does Steve jobs have up his sleeve?

Here's a clue. Apple also announced the $29 iPod Camera Connector. This allows you to move photos straight from your digital camera to your iPod photo without going through a computer. I think Apple is moving the iPod toward a stand alone device - untethered from the desktop. Here is how they are going to do it.

They will take the slimmer 30GB drive and put it in the 40GB case. What will they do with all that extra space?

The AirPort Extreme Card is about half the size of a standard business card (smaller than the previous AirPort Card). With AirPort Extreme-enabled Macintosh systems, it's a snap to exchange files or play multiplayer games at data transfer rates of up to 54 megabits per second. AirPort Extreme uses a brand new wireless standard called 802.11g, which is also backward compatible with the 802.11b standard.

Add in the color screen from the iPod Photo and upgrade the software to be able to surf the iTunes Music Store. Hear a song in the bar at the airport that you really like, hop over to the iTunes store and its yours.

This would also make it compatible with AirTunes. Meaning you could walk into your home or office, the iPod would pick up your wireless network and the music plays via your stereo.

And hey, if its got a wireless card and a color screen why not throw in an iPod version of Safari?

Now that would be cool.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 05:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment