Re: PowerMacs and other MacWorld ideas
sounds about right...but it will be nice if it happens at all
sounds about right...but it will be nice if it happens at all
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MWSF '03 Predictions
- Thread starter Durandal7
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Re: Re: Yea...
I too have heard rumors of Apple wanting to get away from MacWorld. When you think about it, why would Apple want to give their money and publicity to a publishing company? They really don't need it. With all of their apple stores Apple has their own platform to launch their own conventions.
I'm sure in the future Apple will stay somewhat involved with MacWorld but my guess is in the next few years start looking for "AppleWorld"
As for your perdictions, I too held off on an iPod for Christmas for hopes of updates, but considering the iPods are only a year old and so far two major updates I wouldn't hold your breath.
Also, apple has just started widley marketing the iPod to other companies for resale, BestBuy, Target, etc. I think they'd be real hesitant to introduce a brand new update that would drop the value of these store's current stock for risk of alinating them.
Just my thoughts...
I too have heard rumors of Apple wanting to get away from MacWorld. When you think about it, why would Apple want to give their money and publicity to a publishing company? They really don't need it. With all of their apple stores Apple has their own platform to launch their own conventions.
I'm sure in the future Apple will stay somewhat involved with MacWorld but my guess is in the next few years start looking for "AppleWorld"
As for your perdictions, I too held off on an iPod for Christmas for hopes of updates, but considering the iPods are only a year old and so far two major updates I wouldn't hold your breath.
Also, apple has just started widley marketing the iPod to other companies for resale, BestBuy, Target, etc. I think they'd be real hesitant to introduce a brand new update that would drop the value of these store's current stock for risk of alinating them.
Just my thoughts...
Steve bows out gracefully...
The big announcement will be that Steve Jobs has chosen to bow out and pursue other interests. His reason will be that he feels he has taken Apple as far as he can. The flack he had to endure concerning the bonus he received recently will have figured prominantly in his decision. The board of directors will scramble for a new CEO. Apple will endure but pursue other ventures more inline with the current economy.
Although an updated iMac would be nice.
The big announcement will be that Steve Jobs has chosen to bow out and pursue other interests. His reason will be that he feels he has taken Apple as far as he can. The flack he had to endure concerning the bonus he received recently will have figured prominantly in his decision. The board of directors will scramble for a new CEO. Apple will endure but pursue other ventures more inline with the current economy.
Although an updated iMac would be nice.
Not on the iMac....
We aren't going to see a 19" iMac at Macworld, period. Many would argue these machines are already too expensive for the current market (no flames, please, I own one), and a larger display is the #1 way to increase the iMac's cost. It just wouldn't make sense.
The most significant hardware changes the iMac might see are: 1) slot-loading drives, and 2) an integrated Bluetooth transciever (and matching keyboard & mouse).
The 19" rumors refer to a separate studio display, likely in widescreen format. Apple's 15" display can't compete with other offerings in the market, so it will be dropped.
Another thing we won't see on the iMac: Firewire II. Yes, it'll happen eventually, but can't we all agree Apple will debut this on their pro models first? History shows us how Apple's hardware food chain works: introduce new tech on their pro (or server) line, then let it trickle down to the consumer models.
Besides, what use would an iMac possibly have for 1394b that regular Firewire can't already handle?
<sound of silence>
Right. Thought so. <g>
We aren't going to see a 19" iMac at Macworld, period. Many would argue these machines are already too expensive for the current market (no flames, please, I own one), and a larger display is the #1 way to increase the iMac's cost. It just wouldn't make sense.
The most significant hardware changes the iMac might see are: 1) slot-loading drives, and 2) an integrated Bluetooth transciever (and matching keyboard & mouse).
The 19" rumors refer to a separate studio display, likely in widescreen format. Apple's 15" display can't compete with other offerings in the market, so it will be dropped.
Another thing we won't see on the iMac: Firewire II. Yes, it'll happen eventually, but can't we all agree Apple will debut this on their pro models first? History shows us how Apple's hardware food chain works: introduce new tech on their pro (or server) line, then let it trickle down to the consumer models.
Besides, what use would an iMac possibly have for 1394b that regular Firewire can't already handle?
<sound of silence>
Right. Thought so. <g>
Re: Re: Steve bows out gracefully...
that's a really interesting article. actually, this long shot idea of Jobs bowing out does unfortunately seem not so unlikely.
bizarre.
that's a really interesting article. actually, this long shot idea of Jobs bowing out does unfortunately seem not so unlikely.
bizarre.
April? How did you come up with that? Sounds arbitrary to me.
Last year, the flat-screen iMacs were introduced at MacWorld, and the new Power Macs were introduced about 3 weeks later, near the end of January. Apple appears to stick to a 6-month cycle for updating new products, so we will likely see new Power Macs sometime in January, not necessarily at MWSF.
Also, the Steve Jobs said that the Power Macs will no longer boot into OS 9 after January 2003. This announcement was later amended to account for education and Quark customers, and Apple announced that they will offer *one* configuration that will still boot into OS 9 after January 2003.
This would evidence that Apple intends to announce new Power Macs sometime in January, though not necessarily at MWSF.
Will they update the laptops? Not likely. They just did about a month or two ago. An update to these lines would not keep with Apples pattern of behavior with their 6 month cycle.
Will there be a 19" iMac? Not likely. Despite some people claiming that they "have to have one," a 19" screen would substantially increase the cost of the iMac, and likely without substantially increasing market demand over the 17" model. We are more likley to see a 19" studio display.
Will Apple announce a new digital lifestyle device? Possibly. There have been some murmurings of various things in this regard for months and months: an Apple branded cell-phone, a PDA, some sort of console entertainment device. With the success of the iPod, it wouldn't be out of Apple's character to do something like this.
Could I be wrong? Absolutely. But let's at least base our predictions on what Apple has done in the past as opposed to just making stuff up and telling people to expect it.
Sorcerin
Agreed. It does infer that there needs to be fairly broadish hardware product change announcements to 'require' this.
Now since I can't ever recall Apple supporting more than two different chips at once, once the IBM chip is ready, the G3 needs to be retired. Since we know that the IBM chip is coming, if its not ready but Apple's still looking for "big" annoucements, it could be the G4 upgrades of all of the current G3 machines, namely the eMac and iBooks, in anticipation of the impending top-end upgrades.
So that's my best guess. I've been personally disappointed in the last several Apple announcements, so I'm not really expecting all that much this time around - - it would take a 2GHz chip sized announcement next week to get me "really excited", and unfortunately, that's extremely unlikely.
Strategically, a G4 eMac and G4 iBook don't *absolutely need* speedbumps to position them properly. They also serve as consumption outlets for slower G4 production, so that the percentage of G4's that clock higher will increase and thus be more available for the higher end models. In theory, this should allow for a modest speedbump on the PowerMac and the iMac product lines.
On breakthroughs that are below the awareness radar, I'd put motherboard bandwidth issues on the plate. We known that there's bottlenecks in the architecture, and that the IBM chip won't really shine until these are resolved, so a possible January announcement would be a "G5 Ready" motherboard that also gets some more performance out of the current (or bumped) single or dual G4's.
And finally, in the "Dream Big" camp, they could go one step further and put the CPU back onto a daughterboard (ala 7600/8600/9600), and announce an IBM CPU upgrade kit for when the IBM chips arrive later in 2003. Such a move would let them move new PowerMac hardware out the door today, instead of allowing all of the Pro Users to sit for YA 6 months and think about converting over to PC's.
-hh
It is a G4...
Uh, the eMac is a G4 machine, the only G3s machines that Apple currently has are the iBook and Classic iMac.
And Apple at times supported many chips at once, remember the days of the LC and Mac IIs? Lots of differing 68000 series chips with and without FPUs, math co-processors and 32-bit support. Or the Power Macs of the mid 90s, when there were 601, 603, 603e, 604 and 604e chips floating around?
I do agree though that the iBok needs to be moved to the G4, but never before the PowerBook either is moved to a 'G5/970' or has no less than a 30% speed advantage plus other anemities that are an obvious improvement over the iBook. And the classic iMac needs to be 86'ed and the eMac price lowered by at least 30%, with a slim feature set mind you.
Uh, the eMac is a G4 machine, the only G3s machines that Apple currently has are the iBook and Classic iMac.
And Apple at times supported many chips at once, remember the days of the LC and Mac IIs? Lots of differing 68000 series chips with and without FPUs, math co-processors and 32-bit support. Or the Power Macs of the mid 90s, when there were 601, 603, 603e, 604 and 604e chips floating around?
I do agree though that the iBok needs to be moved to the G4, but never before the PowerBook either is moved to a 'G5/970' or has no less than a 30% speed advantage plus other anemities that are an obvious improvement over the iBook. And the classic iMac needs to be 86'ed and the eMac price lowered by at least 30%, with a slim feature set mind you.
Re: It is a G4...
Oops, you're right. The eMac's G4 upgrade didn't register on my awareness radar, as I had subconciously written it off due to its "El Cheapo Education Special" origination.
Personally, I don't consider FPU's to be the same thing; YMMV.
Nevertheless, Apple has been generally good (as of late) to not have such chip design proliferation. Even so, consider the following timeline that I've gleaned from lowendmac.com:
1994 040 601
1995 040 601 603 604
1996 (601) 603 604 {604e}
1997 (604) 604e {G3}
1998 604e G3
1999 G3 G4
() = "early" in year, {} = "late" in year
IMO, the trend is obvious, although I do freely admit that there's multiple flavors of G3's & G4's underlying this as of late.
Yes, the Powerbook is a "problem" in this grand scheme idea. And a dual G4 processor configuration would be one way to solve that problem.
There's invariably going to need various tweaking. My thoughts as of late for my new hardware purchase has been leaning more and more towards an interium solution: buy the upper end eMac or iBook and wait ~18 months before going for an IBM 970 based mac. This should be around the time that if the 970 arrives on time that its due for its first update. Afterall, Apple has generally not been all that great in the first generation of their newest chips: it seems to be a "shove it in there for quick sales" and isn't as well optimized as it could be.
-hh
Oops, you're right. The eMac's G4 upgrade didn't register on my awareness radar, as I had subconciously written it off due to its "El Cheapo Education Special" origination.
Personally, I don't consider FPU's to be the same thing; YMMV.
Nevertheless, Apple has been generally good (as of late) to not have such chip design proliferation. Even so, consider the following timeline that I've gleaned from lowendmac.com:
1994 040 601
1995 040 601 603 604
1996 (601) 603 604 {604e}
1997 (604) 604e {G3}
1998 604e G3
1999 G3 G4
() = "early" in year, {} = "late" in year
IMO, the trend is obvious, although I do freely admit that there's multiple flavors of G3's & G4's underlying this as of late.
Yes, the Powerbook is a "problem" in this grand scheme idea. And a dual G4 processor configuration would be one way to solve that problem.
There's invariably going to need various tweaking. My thoughts as of late for my new hardware purchase has been leaning more and more towards an interium solution: buy the upper end eMac or iBook and wait ~18 months before going for an IBM 970 based mac. This should be around the time that if the 970 arrives on time that its due for its first update. Afterall, Apple has generally not been all that great in the first generation of their newest chips: it seems to be a "shove it in there for quick sales" and isn't as well optimized as it could be.
-hh
Re: Re: It is a G4...
Primalman said:
"I do agree though that the iBook needs to be moved to the G4, but never before the PowerBook either is moved to a 'G5/970' or has no less than a 30% speed advantage plus other anemities that are an obvious improvement over the iBook."
-hh said:
"Yes, the Powerbook is a "problem" in this grand scheme idea. And a dual G4 processor configuration would be one way to solve that problem."
MacDuffer says:
"The Powerbook is the problem"?!! Don't think so! A 1GHz with a slot-loading Superdrive kicks royal a$$, man! A single 1GHz in a tower form factor wouldn't, but as a portable, it's damned sweet! And, given the heat issues of having two processors crammed into a portable, that aint happening for a looong time, if ever.
Primalman said:
"I do agree though that the iBook needs to be moved to the G4, but never before the PowerBook either is moved to a 'G5/970' or has no less than a 30% speed advantage plus other anemities that are an obvious improvement over the iBook."
-hh said:
"Yes, the Powerbook is a "problem" in this grand scheme idea. And a dual G4 processor configuration would be one way to solve that problem."
MacDuffer says:
"The Powerbook is the problem"?!! Don't think so! A 1GHz with a slot-loading Superdrive kicks royal a$$, man! A single 1GHz in a tower form factor wouldn't, but as a portable, it's damned sweet! And, given the heat issues of having two processors crammed into a portable, that aint happening for a looong time, if ever.
Well, if there are 7457's...
... I suppose a G4 iBook is a possibility. I wouldn't expect it at MWSF, but possibly a few months later.
The way they would prevent the G4 iBook from cannibalizing the Tibook is simple: eliminate the slow-selling 14" model. That model is a problem anyway. As another poster pointed out, it's too expensive for what you get compared to the 12" model.
The 'April' estimate on the tower upgrade was based on the fact that the last tower upgrade took almost 8 months (Jan to Aug). However, if the 7457's are available, an earlier release is possible.
Re the daughtercard concept: Aren't all the CPUs in current towers on daughtercards already? My G4 cube has the CPU on a daughtercard. Still, given that the 970 is 64-bit and has a different bus design, I think a mobo swap will still be necessary.
... I suppose a G4 iBook is a possibility. I wouldn't expect it at MWSF, but possibly a few months later.
The way they would prevent the G4 iBook from cannibalizing the Tibook is simple: eliminate the slow-selling 14" model. That model is a problem anyway. As another poster pointed out, it's too expensive for what you get compared to the 12" model.
The 'April' estimate on the tower upgrade was based on the fact that the last tower upgrade took almost 8 months (Jan to Aug). However, if the 7457's are available, an earlier release is possible.
Re the daughtercard concept: Aren't all the CPUs in current towers on daughtercards already? My G4 cube has the CPU on a daughtercard. Still, given that the 970 is 64-bit and has a different bus design, I think a mobo swap will still be necessary.
woz is the high tech computer visionary and steve jobs is high tech's first marketing visionary
at this point it is doubtful anything big and revolutionary in high tech or computers will ever come along so the marketing is the more important part at this stage in computers so steve job's type of thinking is better for apple right now
...unless the woz has something as technically visionary as another personal computer or something on that level...but i doubt it
the woz would have to find a cure for cancer or make the perfect human clone or have an idea that BIG for apple to take him as CEO
and the woz is not a financial type to take the helm of a company...but since apple has lost 2/3 of its cash reserve and had its market share (cpu magazine) get cut by 3/4, jobs is not exactly a numbers man either
maybe someone like larry ellison or a mike dell type could be apple's next ceo
jobs is a great short term person...marketing apple inc in the early days from garage to thousands of employees and coming in in 97 and saving the company and forging a lasting peace with microsoft, which was needed
Jonathan Ive? Apple needs Dell or Ellison like a hole in the head....Anyway, SJ won't leave during the year he's touted as being so great for Apple. I hope.
yeah, him too
we all know steve jobs is not going to stay at the helm of apple forever
even bill gates stepped down from his ceo position at microsoft
you can say that again!
any mac, $999 g3 ibook all the way thru dual G4 tower, and you will see why we macheads love our machines so much
january brings high expectations every year
Re: Re: Re: It is a G4...
Non Sequetor.
The "problem" I was referring to was the cannibalization of Powerbook sales if the iBook is moved up too far in performance.
This not a "performance" problem, but a "price-performance" issue. Case in point: would most consumers rather have a 1GHz w/SD for $3K in a Powerbook, or the same in an iBook for $2K?
My point is merely to observe that an iBook bump puts pressure to move the Powerbook up as well, to prevent cannibalization of sales. And if you don't have many options to bump up the Powerbook, you're in a bind - - the Powerbook holds the iBook back, and that's a problem, is it not?
I don't disagree, but under the assumption that you have a faster iBook that you want to move into production, I'd be slightly slower in knocking DP's completely off the table for possible consideration. Other than a single step speedbump, what other options does Apple really have available for the Powerbook?
-hh
Non Sequetor.
The "problem" I was referring to was the cannibalization of Powerbook sales if the iBook is moved up too far in performance.
This not a "performance" problem, but a "price-performance" issue. Case in point: would most consumers rather have a 1GHz w/SD for $3K in a Powerbook, or the same in an iBook for $2K?
My point is merely to observe that an iBook bump puts pressure to move the Powerbook up as well, to prevent cannibalization of sales. And if you don't have many options to bump up the Powerbook, you're in a bind - - the Powerbook holds the iBook back, and that's a problem, is it not?
I don't disagree, but under the assumption that you have a faster iBook that you want to move into production, I'd be slightly slower in knocking DP's completely off the table for possible consideration. Other than a single step speedbump, what other options does Apple really have available for the Powerbook?
-hh
Re: Re: Re: Re: It is a G4...
It sure is. And Apple is in a real pickle with processors. THAT's the darned problem. And, I agree that SOMETHING has to be done to make a bigger distinction between i and TiBooks WITHOUT havig to use the G3, but duallies are hot hot hot! Applee is in a real jam ("pickle", "jam"... I gotta go eat!).
Things will get better this year, when that new IBM processor comes out. Until then, we'll be squirming in our seats!
It sure is. And Apple is in a real pickle with processors. THAT's the darned problem. And, I agree that SOMETHING has to be done to make a bigger distinction between i and TiBooks WITHOUT havig to use the G3, but duallies are hot hot hot! Applee is in a real jam ("pickle", "jam"... I gotta go eat!).
Things will get better this year, when that new IBM processor comes out. Until then, we'll be squirming in our seats!
Well cheer up, because according to MacBidouille there are new Powerbooks on the way at MWSF.....