Sony & Apple partnership/joint venture

[archie4oz]

And that is Apple's dilemma because the interest in specialized computers (which Macs are to some extent) is diminishing.

I have to disagree with you on this. If anything, "specialized" computers aren't diminishing, they're increasing. Of course this depends on how you define a "specialized" computer. I tend to think along the lines of a CNC machine an XPRI editing station, not a Mac which is pretty much a general purpose computer. Take a look at the area of form factors. People are becoming less concerned on whether a computer comes in a big case for that "just-in-case" (no pun intended) expansion, and becoming more concerned how their computer fits into their lifestyle. The same applies to OS's. People aren't as concerned with their OS as they once were. As long as you can get online, chat, email, and handle all the documents you have and expect, most people are pretty content. As it is, MacOS X and Linux can easily accomplish the above. Hell for a while you could find PC's with Linux pre-installed with Linux in Walmart...

Plus with PDAs and Cellphones becomeing more pervasive computing devices, thus taking more attention away from whether your computer is "standard" or not.

The thing with apple is they're great at making simple products that interface really well. The thing apple should be doing is an interface/marketing/branding company. They can then have product manufacturers come to them, offer them their products and apple then doesn't their magic and makes them great.

Unfortunately for you, Apple is a lousy advertising agency (which is why they hire one).

The iPod is hella slick, the problem is Apple hardware is apparent and so is their pricing. Apple knows how to make a good brand, a slick interface and market a product fairly well, they don't know how to really make a good product.

So what is it? They know how to make a slick product or they don't? You're contradicting yourself here. Besides in order for the brand to work, you have to have a cool, catchy product to sell it. If Apple doesn't make it, then who will? And what if that "other" company doesn't come through? Then what?

OS X is a perfect example great interface wicked product that basically someone else made.

MacOS X is more than just an interface... Besides, who made it then? Considering I'm an old skool NeXTie I'd sure like to know...

Apple needs to realise it's strengths rather than trying to do it all and fail miserably. Steve Jobs is a bad CEO in my opinion, he doesn't know what's best for the company, they need a person who's not a greedy controlling bastard and can see the strengths of Apple and capitalise on them.

Hahaha! You're joking right? Greedy? He hardly pulls any salary from Apple (it comes from Pixar) and the jet was the Board's idea... Controlling sure... Apple needs a strong hand at the tiller (something it's lacked in the past under previous management, especially with such a weak, innactive board).

But last time I checked (some months before), people are complaining no software controls were available, I know Apple has the ADC connector that can also be used on PCs. But the software controls are not yet there for PC, not available even on OS 9 (please correct me if I am wrong).

Well I used to have the old LG-based 22" DVI one before the ADC ones (both which do work in OS 9). But I have a friend that uses the 23" ADC screen on his PC (actually uses it between his PC and his Cube), and he has no problems working on Windows. The only real control there is to adjust is brightness. On OS X is available from the control panel and of course the keyboard. You can adjust that in Windows from Control Panel/Display/Settings/Advanced/Color. The only thing is that you won't see any POST because it's displayed at a rez that the display doens't support...

If there would be no Steve Jobs, Apple would have gone the way of Commodore a long time ago. Steve Jobs is not a good CEO if you take normal CEO's as a reference, but for Apple, he's just perfect.

Agreed...

The problem that Apple faces is that once it steps out of the niche it is in now you can be sure that M$ will pull Office from Mac OS and start spending resources actively figthting OS X like it is doing with Linux and have done with other OSes in the past.

That's something you'd have to ask the MS MBU. Office v.X does pretty good for them so it's not something they worry about. If anything, pulling support will likely cause an even more key commercial software developer to likely go and back a open source initiative that would cause bigger headaches for MS than OS X's share numbers bumping up a few points. They're dropping support for IE, but that's fine since it's a POS, and there's several better browsers on OS X now...

 

[Ozymandis]

If there would be no Steve Jobs, Apple would have gone the way of Commodore a long time ago. Steve Jobs is not a good CEO if you take normal CEO's as a reference, but for Apple, he's just perfect.

Fredi

Judging by their declining marketshare, it doesn't seem like Apple will be in the PC market for much longer. I question how much actual good Jobs has done for them.

 

[archie4oz]

Unfortunately it's actually going up... Which in itself is pretty impressive since it doens't compete in several sectors which are rapid growth. It's more of a case of the market growing into different sectors which skews the share numbers away from them...

 

[Deepak]

Apple is instead revolutioning other areas....online mp3 selling...is that imusic...I can't remember?

 

[cthellis42]

Hell for a while you could find PC's with Linux pre-installed with Linux in Walmart...

For a while? It's still whiling. (They have almost the exact same computer (20 GB more in the hard drive) with Windows XP Home for $110 more.) Making a bit less noise over their Linux-based OS computers, but they still have a bunch around. (SuSE as well.)

 

[Ozymandis]

Unfortunately it's actually going up... Which in itself is pretty impressive since it doens't compete in several sectors which are rapid growth. It's more of a case of the market growing into different sectors which skews the share numbers away from them...

You can't mean Mac marketshare in desktop PCs, which last I heard was around 2 percent?

 

[cthellis42]

It's not like desktops are all there is, though. Laptops outperformed desktops for the first time, and their growth there outpaced industry growth. The Xserve gave them a great server entry, and that doesn't seem like it will only pick up when they get the G5 version out. The desktops themselves have a nice sprucing up as well, so I assume we'll see more growth there, too.

Oh, they're not going to be LARGE by any means, but they're not rapidly declining, nor in a position to evaporate. Everyone has been predicting Mac's doom since the 80's. It's a harmless enough hobby, I guess, but always wrong.

 

[cybamerc]

archie4oz:

> Of course this depends on how you define a "specialized" computer.

Certainly. It was poorly formulated. What I mean is that there is a tendency to move away from specialized solutions when a more generalized alternative exists. For instance graphical workstations are being replaced PCs by with consumer parts. Super computers today mostly consist of large clusters of consumer PCs/CPUs.

There's a much larger focus on price to performance ratios today and unlike 10 years ago there's really nothing you can't do with consumer products.

Now, I'm certainly not arguing that a Mac isn't a consumer product but an x86 based PC offers more flexibility and better performance for significantly less. Eventhough Macs have dropped in price they are still more expensive than a comparable PC. Now that wouldn't matter so much if the software people use Macs for ran better on Macs than PC but with Adobe shifting its focus away from Macs and towards PC the difference isn't as significant as it used be. And with XPress losing marketshare to InDesign, well... let's face it - most Macs are sold for print work.

This is why you see Apple marketing its own software so aggressively but it also has the effect of turning other developers away from the platform. They simply feel they are incapable of competing with Apple and there isn't much to be made to begin with in the limited market Mac market.

> Office v.X does pretty good for them so it's not something they worry about.

Of course not. They don't see Apple as a threat. If Apple was to go directly up against M$ with OS X and its own office suite I'm quite sure M$ would change its stance.