Archive for September 7th, 2006
MacNN today posted a fairly in-depth summary of a new patent application filed by Apple computer with the US Patent and Trademark Office in March 2006 for a “Multi-functional hand-held deviceâ€. This patent makes reference to technologies first identified in previous patent applications for “Proximity detector in handheld deviceâ€, a “Virtual Scroll-Wheel Interface†and “Display actuators for electronic devicesâ€. While no doubt most of the patents Apple applies for never see the light of day, the fact that the same technologies from earlier patent applications are being mentioned in this new filing indicates at the very least that someone at Apple is running with these concepts.
Is it a wide-screen video iPod, an iPhone, Apple Newton resurrected or a combination of the three? There’s no way to know for sure, but all this information certainly does make the wait for Tuesday, Sept. 12 that much harder. While I doubt we’ll see any out of this world mobile chameleon device being announced, it’s still nice to hope for what fantastic Star Trek-ish device Apple has up it’s sleeves.
Adding fuel to the speculation is the fact that Apple released updated iMac and Mac mini computers this week with little fanfare. Products that most tech pundits were expecting Apple to unveil at their special event next week. Sure, faster processors don’t warrant any special event these days, but the new 24″ high-end HD capable iMac certainly would tie in nicely with the movie download service everyone is expecting Apple to unveil. I mean they only had to hold off on the announcement for an extra week. So what gives? Not announcing the new iMacs at the “It’s Showtime†event can mean only one thing: That there are more exciting things to announce and they don’t want to eat up precious time talking about a new iMac, as drool-worthy as it may be.
I don’t know about you, but I’m really hoping Apple announces an iPhone. But if I had to bet money on it, I’d guess we’ll see an event focused on movies, which means iTMS movie downloads (most likely for $14.99 and $9.99 a pop), new iPod nano’s in an aluminum scratch resistent enclosure, updated iPod video with a small chance of a bigger screen video model, and the piece to resistance: a new AirPort Express with Video, or similar set-top box for streaming your iTMS video downloads from your computer to your TV in the living room. This is where I’m setting my expectations, and I think that I’m setting relatively low. Anything above and beyond will be icing on the cake. Better keep some space on the ‘ol credit card just in case…
[3:58 pm Update: MacNN has posted an article about another related Apple patent application submitted in April 2006 for a “Hand held electronic device with multiple touch sensing devicesâ€. Hopefully in time more pieces of the puzzle will come into place. Of course, the puzzle will be solved if and when Apple formally announces new products that are designed around any/all of this technology.]
September 7th, 2006
Most Mac enthusiasts were relieved when Apple launched it’s Get a Mac TV campaign a few months back, but we weren’t holding our breath that it would last, given Apple’s past Mac advertising efforts. The ads have been received quite well among the Mac faithful, and have certainly ruffled some feathers in the Windows world. Apple added more spots to the lineup, each one targeting one feature or benefit. A great way to communicate the Mac’s benefits without information overload. Let the masses learn about the Mac one feature or benefit at a time and eventually people will start to wake up.
The Get A Mac TV ads were actually phase 2 of their marketing campaign, phase 1 being the opening of Apple Stores across the United States and later expansion to other countries such as Japan, UK, and Canada. Now numbering 160 stores and growing, this strategy is geared towards giving people an excellent consumer experience and the opportunity to test drive Apple’s products in a relaxed no-pressure environment. The TV spots have played a strong role in boosting brand awareness and driving traffic into Apple Stores.
Well now it looks like Apple is following up on this successful strategy with some informative print advertising. A 14-page brochure has been spotted attached to a 3 full page ad in Entertainment Weekly magazine. In it, Apple hilights the most popular iLife applications (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, GarageBand), as well as a couple of Mac OS X features (iChat, Dashboard) and Microsoft Office. The brochure closes by showcasing the Macintosh consumer lineup (iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro and Mac mini). You can see scanned images of the entire brochure on Flickr.
This is an excellent follow-up to the TV ad campaign, because it is more product focused rather than branding/symbolic in nature, as the TV spots are. By making it a brochure that can be removed from the magazine, potential customers can pull it out and save it for later or pass it on to a friend. I think these brochures will get far more views than they would if they were simply full-page ads. Assuming Apple runs these print ads in a wide range of popular publications, I think they’ll go far to finally bridge the gap between the branding/imagery of the TV spots and the hand-on experience of the Apple Store. These brochures dangle a bit more of a carrot to pique the interest of consumers enough to get them to visit the apple website or stop in at their local Apple Store.
I am curious why Apple has chosen to avoid mentioning Windows compatibility in the 14-page brochure though. While I don’t think Apple should be focusing too much of it’s marketing message on luring people to the Mac platform with the intention of using it for Windows, they have mentioned it in their TV spot titled Touché. Following that up with a page on their brochure with a screenshot of Windows XP running in virtual machine window with Mac OS X apps wouldn’t be such a bad idea, would it?
Critique aside, Apple’s Mac marketing strategy is now coming into focus and seems to be close to firing on all cylinders for the upcoming holiday season. It will be interesting to see how much thunder Apple can steal from Microsoft Windows Vista before it launches. There has never been such a great opportunity to steal market share as there is now, especially given that Windows Vista will drive most Windows customers to buy new hardware in order to keep up with the latest version. Many of those customers may just decide to spend that money on a new Mac instead.
September 7th, 2006
c|net news has posted an article discussing the likelihood that Windows Vista will have a negative impact on the performance of the Internet due to it’s adoption of the IPv6 protocol.
“If you adopt Vista, your DNS traffic is going to double,” Mockapetris said in an interview. With many DNS servers already running close to capacity, this can have serious consequences, he said. “You’re going to see brownouts. All of a sudden, it is going to be mud season on the Internet, where things will just be kind of slow and gooey.”
Others quoted in the article disagree, citing DNS’s robustness, and predicting that Vista will have little to no impact at all.
IPv6 is an upgrade to the current IPv4 internet address standard, which allows for far more addresses–crucial in this day and age where everything from cell phones to handheld video games will be connected to the internet. In all fairness to Microsoft, IPv6 is not a new technology standard. It’s been around for years, and is necessary for the continued adoption and growth of the Internet. Mac OS X has had IPv6 support for years now (since version 10.2 Jaguar, released in 2002), and no one has complained about it.
The Internet is not a static product. It’s like a living, breathing organism, always evolving, growing and repairing itself. Sure, there may be some DNS servers that are close to being maxed out, but they will be upgrades if/when the need arises. Not to mention that Windows Vista isn’t not going to take the market by storm. If Windows XP’s adoption rate is anything to go by, it’s going to take years for even a quarter of the Windows installations to be upgraded to Windows Vista. That gives the Internet a lot of time to react. If DNS servers start failing due to increased adoption of Vista, that won’t be Microsoft’s fault, it’ll be the fault of server owners who didn’t properly monitor their equipment and failed to be pro-active in adding additional capacity.
As for Microsoft, I applaud their decision to finally include IPv6 support in Windows Vista (assuming it doesn’t get cut like many other cool features). My question is, what took them so long?
September 7th, 2006