Where is Apple going? Mac or iPhone?

[McGiord]

One things that has happened to many of us is that our daily usage of our Macs has been significantly reduced by time with our iPhones or iPads.
There will be to some degree no need for a Mac if the iDevices evolve to allow you to backup your content and they are powerful enough to do all that you currently can with a Mac.
Seriously 10 years ago a desktop was my main computer, after a while a portable is my main computer, and nowadays my main computer needs are done with my iPhone 4.
Several things can be done here, while Steve is alive the Mac will always exists.
To produce and design iProducts there will always be a need for a powerful Mac.

 

[*LTD*]

One things that has happened to many of us is that our daily usage of our Macs has been significantly reduced by time with our iPhones or iPads.
There will be to some degree no need for a Mac if the iDevices evolve to allow you to backup your content and they are powerful enough to do all that you currently can with a Mac.
Seriously 10 years ago a desktop was my main computer, after a while a portable is my main computer, and nowadays my main computer needs are done with my iPhone 4.
Several things can be done here, while Steve is alive the Mac will always exists.
To produce and design iProducts there will always be a need for a powerful Mac.

Soon the transition to iProducts will be complete. No more need for a Mac. iProducts are becoming rather powerful. We'll see the day (sooner than we think) when iProducts *are* the new Mac.

 

[roadbloc]

Soon the transition to iProducts will be complete. No more need for a Mac. iProducts are becoming rather powerful. We'll see the day (sooner than we think) when iProducts *are* the new Mac.

This is exactly why I've abandoned the Mac platform and moved back to Windows. I'm not having my workstation being turned into a cookie-cutter app riddled toy. I've got an iPhone for that. That, and Windows 7 is pretty awesome.

 

[janstett]

Soon the transition to iProducts will be complete. No more need for a Mac. iProducts are becoming rather powerful. We'll see the day (sooner than we think) when iProducts *are* the new Mac.

You may be right. At CES this year Motorola made a big splash with an Android laptop dock -- the phone completely powers the laptop shell.

Can we be more than 3 years away from an iPhone 6 that slips into a hollowed out Macbook Air?

iPad + keyboard is most of the way there. When they write the history books, this may be the death of the Macintosh and the "Lisa" fore-bearer of the next Apple "computer".

 

[EdbBob]

Thanks for all the answers. Keep them coming.

It's perhaps worse than I feared. Recent things I've done on my Mac include handling RED 4K film, stabilizing+lenscorrecting+stacking ud to 1000+ 18 Mpix astrophoto images and rendering 3D images of people with very complex skin shaders/radiosity. Try doing any of that on an iPad

That probably also makes me a nerd and a hardcore computer user. Even when I decided to move from Windows to Leopard, I knew that the PC was ahead of the Mac in some areas, but I valued the positive things of the Mac higher. And I still do to a certain extend. However I still need a computer, and I guess I'm not the only one. At least were I live (Denmark), the Mac has always been the preferred platform for graphic work, and recently more and more the choice of the film industry.

I love my iPhone. It's small, portable and some of the app's are really cool. But it's a phone. Likewise the iPad is great for mail/web, but it's not a computer.

It's not that I don't understand Apple's priorities, but I personally need more than a phone, and I'm afraid that the Mac might die, if it doesn't get the proper attention from Apple. Which might leave me up the creek without a paddle. I'd hate to go back to Windows and Linux lacks to many app's.

Maybe there is a market for a new competitor in the computer market. Or maybe we'll all just spend our time, checking Friendface or whatever on our iToys. And leave more advanced work to specialized mainframe supercomputers like in the "old" days...

EDBBOB

 

[anim8or]

Maybe there is a market for a new competitor in the computer market

From your last post i think i feel the same as you and working in a similar industry the way things are does worry me a little....

I quoted the above passage because it made me think... Google's Chrome OS... lets wait and see!!

 

[Winni]

I've been called a MacFanBoy. I came over from the Windows world, a few years ago, when Vista came out And I loved what I found. OSX UI rocks compared to even Win7, and I love the simplicity, Expose etc., no mallware and the design. My Mac does almost anything I want, without the need to use half of my time administering the system.

Enough sweet talk. What is going on? The last year I've only seen iPad this and iPhone that. The Mac, and the Mac software seems to be "abandoned" by Apple. The latest release of Final Cut Studio was, lets call it, minor. The servers are being shut down. Quicktime still can't manage colors/gamma right. Most of the fancy features of SnowLeo, which are sort of behind the scene, hasn't been used to improve the user experience on the Mac. True 64bit? Usb3? eSata? Proper SSD support in OSX? I could keep whining for hours.

I understand why Apple focus on the huge iPad/iPhone market, but I personally need a computer. I can't run the software I use on an iPad/iPhone.

Anyone else having the same feeling?

Best regards

EDBBOB

Well, we all could read even on Macrumors that there IS malware for OS X out in the wild, the most notorious release being the one that was hidden in the illegal copies of iWork 09 that hit the file sharing platforms. And there is also evidence of an OS X-based bot net on the Internet. So just stop pretending that everything is ah-so safe in Apple land.

You already mentioned all the relevant points in your post, but yet you fail to see the picture and do the maths. It's obvious where the journey is headed.

A one billion dollar server farm that is not yet online and millions of (strongly restricted) mobile Internet devices that have only limited local intelligence and resources and heavily rely on Internet-based (aka "cloud") services. Really, where is Apple going with this? Certainly not in the direction of powerful desktop computers.

This is exactly why I've abandoned the Mac platform and moved back to Windows. I'm not having my workstation being turned into a cookie-cutter app riddled toy. I've got an iPhone for that. That, and Windows 7 is pretty awesome.

Well, at least Microsoft still champions the desktop. I've been too long in Unix land now to develop warm feelings for Microsoft - or Apple, for that matter.

Since all "big" platforms are equally user friendly nowadays, the Open Source platforms are looking the most attractive to me now. Ubuntu 10.10 is beautiful, powerful AND truly free. There really is no need to pump my hard-earned money into huge corporations like Microsoft and Apple, so that they can turn their platforms into even more restricted digital prisons for me.

 

[ravenvii]

Way some of you talk, it seems some of you think your current Macs will *morph* into an iPhone.

W-T-F?!

It is possible that Apple is going the direction of merging iOS and OS X into one platform, and make the Mac no longer suited for professional purposes, it's in the future, and will appear in future models.

So for now, OS X is fine, and I'm sticking with it. Nothing's changed. When Apple comes out with actual hardware and OS with iOS-style restrictions, then I'll switch.

Pretty simple, no?

 

[*LTD*]

Thanks for all the answers. Keep them coming.

It's perhaps worse than I feared. Recent things I've done on my Mac include handling RED 4K film, stabilizing+lenscorrecting+stacking ud to 1000+ 18 Mpix astrophoto images and rendering 3D images of people with very complex skin shaders/radiosity. Try doing any of that on an iPad

You'll be able to, in time. The iPad of today is *not* what the iPad of tomorrow will necessarily look or function like. OS X is merging with iOS. The hardware will follow. It's all in the works.

We don't really know what a cross between a Mac and an iPhone will look like. If it'll even look like either.

Problem is, for the immediate future, we're still in-betwen two Apple platforms.

 

[Brien]

For those of you jumping to Windows: it's a stop-gap solution. We're in another transition period not unlike going from CLIs to GUIs. Give it another 10 years, nobody will be using a 'computer' anymore.

 

[torbjoern]

Mac or iPhone? The one which brings them more money. When the iPod nano got touch screen, so that the only iPods left with tactile feedback are 1) the crippled iPod shuffle with no display and only one playlist, and 2) the iPod classic which has not been updated for 1.5 years and probably will be discontinued, it became obvious to me that Apple caters to teenagers now.

 

[*LTD*]

Well, at least Microsoft still champions the desktop.

Which is their biggest problem.

It's one of the reasons Apple has them in their rearview. MS is still all about Windows and Office on boxes. It's legacy thinking.

 

[roadbloc]

For those of you jumping to Windows: it's a stop-gap solution. We're in another transition period not unlike going from CLIs to GUIs. Give it another 10 years, nobody will be using a 'computer' anymore.

They said that when the laptop was born. I didnt believe it then and I don't believe it now. There will always be a use for computers.

 

[Apple OC]

For those of you jumping to Windows: it's a stop-gap solution. We're in another transition period not unlike going from CLIs to GUIs. Give it another 10 years, nobody will be using a 'computer' anymore.

Computers are going to be here for quite a while ... and I thought this picture was from the 80s

 

[ravenvii]

They said that when the laptop was born. I didnt believe it then and I don't believe it now. There will always be a use for computers.

Uh, laptops *are* computers, even in the context of your comment.

What, exactly, do you mean? If you meant laptops versus desktops, I don't think it is really comparable with desktop GUI versus touch GUI. There are no "transition" from desktops to laptops - they are simply different form factors of basically the same thing.

 

[McGiord]

they are simply different form factors of basically the same thing.

that's what she said

 

[McGiord]

another opinion:
http://www.cultofmac.com/why-ios-an...earn-from-each-other-opinion/80645#more-80645

 

[EdbBob]

I've been using computers since 1979. "I've seen things you people wouldn't believe..."

Back in the early 80's the Commodore 64 was a huge success. Not because it was the greatest computer, but because it had all the games. A lot of people bought a 64, and after messing around with Basic for a while, they started using it for what it was intended: An Atari killer. It's like with a popular night club. They can serve diluted drinks, have a lousy dj and rude security. If everybody else is going there, that's where you go friday night. Because none of the early home computers were compatible, there was this "snap" effect of more and more people deciding on the 64, making it even more attractive to others. Both users and developers.

Then came the PC clones, and the anarchy that brought. Remember when IBM realized that they made a major mistake by making the PC architecture open? They tried to use their status to dictate a new computer with a new OS (PS2+OS/2). But they underestimated the C64-effect. Everybody started buying Taiwan clones, which were extremely cheap, and IBM compatible. Who cared about GUI's, when your games still ran DOS?

The gaming industry gave rise to another demand. More power! More GPU/CPU, more memory, larger screens, quicker HDD's etc. At that time I worked on Silicon Graphics workstations, and I watched them being overtaken by Nvidia and PC's. SGI gave up, and the PC went ahead. And I started using Nvidia and Intel, instead of SGI. A lot cheaper, and way faster...

Then I started building multiprocessor PC's, eagerly awaiting PC software that could handle the CPU's. When Intel and AMD started mass producing 4 or more core CPU's, I thought that the consumer market finally realized that the road to faster computers, wasn't clock frequency, but parallel computing. All this time I was using computers for heavy applications, and when I watched people I knew, and their needs (mail/web), I found it puzzling, that Moore's law kept on going. But then again, don't underestimate the power of gamers.

The "Back2Mac" event, brought me little hope. Lion seems to be first step towards turning OSX into IOS. Personally, I would rather see another route, but I'm aware, that I'm not really the main target of Apple.

The computer industry is guided/forced by the demand of the public. The consumers. Not Nasa or the film industry. The iToys are perfectly suited for that market, and another spot-on by Steve Jobs. I've enjoyed the ride so far. I've seen cheaper and better hardware, and following along better software. All driven, not by my nerdy needs, but the average consumers. So far so good. But I'm scared for the future of the computer. Maybe they will turn into special high end (high price) devices, for research and wealthy nerds. Or maybe the iPad 2017 will feature 3D holographic projector, 256 core CPU, mind controlled UI, a huge SSD raid, and all that stuff. All demanded by WOW and Quake27...

Best regards EDBBOB

 

[mammadon]

which company does not exist to satisfy consumer demand? That's the whole point of entering into a market, and seeking to make a profit from it.

I don't think Apple will completely discard the Mac section of its business, as there still is demand for desktops and laptops. But the iPhone/iPad has heightened the profile of the company to a higher degree, and Jobs is not dumb enough (who would be? lol) to let that slip. Having said that, I think the global demand for desktops will fall, especially with more advanced smartphones/tablets, and portable netbooks/laptops. For basic Internet/social networking, or office apps, nobody needs a powerful desktop as such. A netbook or laptop can suffice for these uses, and most people use computers for these uses. I reckon largely designers, or people using heavy apps in general, will be the main market for desktops.

 

[EdbBob]

which company does not exist to satisfy consumer demand? That's the whole point of entering into a market, and seeking to make a profit from it.

I don't think Apple will completely discard the Mac section of its business, as there still is demand for desktops and laptops. But the iPhone/iPad has heightened the profile of the company to a higher degree, and Jobs is not dumb enough (who would be? lol) to let that slip. Having said that, I think the global demand for desktops will fall, especially with more advanced smartphones/tablets, and portable netbooks/laptops. For basic Internet/social networking, or office apps, nobody needs a powerful desktop as such. A netbook or laptop can suffice for these uses, and most people use computers for these uses. I reckon largely designers, or people using heavy apps in general, will be the main market for desktops.

Some companies concentrate more on profit, than satisfying consumer demand. I'm not saying Apple has done that (yet), but I agree on your point about falling global demands for desktops.

I tried to spend big bucks on a laptop, a Dell XPS, which was my last PC. Boy, that was ugly! And after a glimpse I realized how slow and limited it was. Heavy as well. Noisy and hot! That was about the best laptop money could by back then, and when I got my first 24" iMac it blew away the XPS in every single way. I don't have the need to cary more around than I can have on my iPhone. I just need power! But I'm a nerd, and I think I realize today, that the future brings more Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Skype etc. on iToys. That is what people use their private computers for, and they are not as nerdy as most of the people at this forum including me. Fair enough. An iPad is cheaper than a MacBook, and if you're not using it for work, it's fine (except the Flash thing, you know...). It might even run office app's.

So will Apple abandon the Mac? The iToys are both hardware and software. I think even SJ has expressed that Apple live on both, but I can't really see why they should cling on to the desktop. And not really the laptop either. The docking with a keyboard for the iPad is IMO the first step towards the death of the laptop. Even though their market share towards MS increased, the big market shares are in smartphones and tablets. Not in servers (gone), and in the foreseeable future not in desktops. My prophecy is that the Mac could be history in five years. I hope they make an excellent iPad then.

 

[McGiord]

I still believe that while Steve is still in the business the Mac will continue to be in the main product portfolio.
For true Mac nostalgia, here is good read:
http://www.macworld.com/article/156945/2011/01/macplus25.html

 

[maflynn]

I still believe that while Steve is still in the business the Mac will continue to be in the main product portfolio.
For true Mac nostalgia, here is good read:
http://www.macworld.com/article/156945/2011/01/macplus25.html

They will but I don't believe they'll be expending too much resources improving the line, just look at how slow the update cycle of the Mac Pro has been

 

[janstett]

They will but I don't believe they'll be expending too much resources improving the line, just look at how slow the update cycle of the Mac Pro has been

This. The Mini languished for years, the Mac Pro gets very few refreshes and has video cards generations behind the PC, there is no mid-tower Mac, many products still use C2D, XServe got canned. Final Cut is on the verge of collapse. Apple hasn't even adopted recent technology like Blu-Ray, USB3, HDMI, and eSata; remember the days when Apple pioneered new technolgoy?

Apple is an iToy company targeting teenagers as one poster so aptly said. Any Macs being sold are based on fashion and inertia of past innovation.

 

[0098386]

This is what worries me too. I adore those new iMacs, can't wait till they release the updates this year... I'll be the first in line. Such a gorgeous display.

Problem is nobody else makes such a nice all-in-one, mid range computer. If Apple take their real computers the way of iOS devices then I'll have to go back to home built PCs.

If they pursue this toy market and Microsoft sticks in the desktop game - guess where those high-end users are going? It's legacy and it's virtually unchanged since the 90's (monitor, case, keyboard, mouse, powerful hardware and freedom) because it just works.

 

[EdbBob]

For true Mac nostalgia, here is good read:
http://www.macworld.com/article/156945/2011/01/macplus25.html

Thanks! for true computer nostalgia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UfOIfuYJT8

Episode #1-12 are all there!

"The Computer Programme was a TV series originally broadcast by the BBC (on BBC2) in 1982. The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show them what they were capable of"

They actually tried to teach the british public to code Basic, as a "better be prepared for the unknown computer future" project, initiated by the british goverment!