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The Mac is Dead, Long Live iPod!
by - June 1st, 2004
The Mac is Dead, Long Live iPod!
That's the word from a lot of so-called Mac pundits concerning the news last week that Apple is creating a separate iPod division within the company. Once again, these guys must be in need of a boost in readers, because we all know that the easiest way to get those page views up is to predict the demise of Apple. The Mac Observer's Apple Death Knell Counter is evidence that a lot of "journalists" recognize this fact.
So, is Apple dumping the Mac for the iPod? Absolutely, unequivocally, no! By spinning the iPod into its own division, Apple is ensuring that iPod development will be as focused as possible to best counter the upcoming threats from companies like Sony who wish to take a piece of the iPod pie.
Why is this necessary? To see why, we should review the brief history of our favorite white (and pink, gold, silver, blue, and green) music player. The iPod was originally created to drive Mac sales in an effort to expand the digital hub. The digital hub concept is using your Mac to manage your photos, music, and movies. You use your Mac in this scenario to interface with your DV camcorder, digital camera, and MP3 player, and then use Apple's way cool apps to manage your media.
Apple didn't enter the camcorder and camera market because Sony and Canon and others had that wrapped up. However, the consensus within Apple was that no one yet had created a truly compelling MP3 player. So they created the iPod, and with it a cultural revolution.
Apple quickly noticed that a lot of people wanted an iPod who didn't have a Mac. So, they did what any savvy business would do, they attempted to leverage the iPod to increase Mac sales, which at the time was Apple's only game. If Apple was to grow, then there was only one thing to do: sell more Macs.
Did it work? To a degree. Some Windows users saw the cool industrial design of the iPod and made the Switch, but there was no mass exodus from Windows. However, there was good news even so.
The iPod was becoming so popular that it became clear that there was another way to grow Apple: sell more iPods.
From this realization came the iTunes Music Store, and iPods that worked with Windows and Mac, right out of the box. The iPod was a money maker in its own right. Where the iPod originally was a tool to sell more Macs, now the iTunes Music Store is a tool to sell more iPods.
Since the iPod's mandate is no longer to grow Mac sales, but to sell more iPods, it only makes sense to separate development and to stay focused in this new and potentially turbulent market.
More Mac sales will be a beneficial side effect of the cool new devices we will surely see from the new iPod division, but Steve Jobs knows that each product has its own target audience and must succeed on its own merits. Most importantly, each product is a money maker, and that is the bottom line.
Macs are profitable for Apple. As long as they continue to be, Apple will continue to make them. Spinning off the iPod to its own division was a measure to ensure the success of the iPod, not to get out of the Mac business, as has been suggested by many.
So, there you have it. Since this column wasn't about the impending doom of Apple, it probably won't get as many hits as a column that is; but page views be damned, Apple isn't going anywhere.
Sorry to bring you such good news.
is an Idiot. He is the co-founder of IWS Interactive, a New York (and now Houston) based development company for Macintosh. Now he spends his time writing about, developing for, and getting clients to buy Macs. Oh, yeah, and he recently had a kid. So his days are filled with taking care of little Jack, then playing with his Mac. He wouldn't have it any other way.
You can send your comments directly to Gary, or you can also post your comments below.
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Observer Comments
I haven't seen much talk about this move in relation to the law suit from the Beatle's Apple Corps. This move makes sense if it takes Apple computer out of the music biz. Is music store part of the split? Notice that it's name is not Apple Music, it's iTunes Music Store.
The only menmtion of Apple is the copyright at bottom of page.
The other thing I notice is that the free download by Snow Patrol sounds like Donovan. Everything cycles...
QuoteGuest wrote:
I haven't seen much talk about this move in relation to the law suit from the Beatle's Apple Corps. This move makes sense if it takes Apple computer out of the music biz. Is music store part of the split? Notice that it's name is not Apple Music, it's iTunes Music Store.
The only menmtion of Apple is the copyright at bottom of page.
The other thing I notice is that the free download by Snow Patrol sounds like Donovan. Everything cycles...
With a pending lawsuit hanging over your head, and already it has cost Apple millions. this maybe the motivational force to split Ipod into its own division. "Think Different"
Tue Jun 01, 2004 11:55 am Subject: Many are just frustrated
I think the reason so many people said that the Mac was going away is because the Mac part of Apple has been so silent for so many months, which is not good in the computer industry. I'm guessing the end of 2Q, at the WWDC, they will FINALLY have something new to show us in their computer line. And if the line is at all impressive, people will stop chanting the doom of the Mac. Or....at least Mac users will stop saying that anyway...
Tue Jun 01, 2004 2:11 pm Subject: Re: "Squeaky Wheel"
I disagree: the problem with the Mac lies not with Apple Management, but with PowerPC supply partners.
Right now, Apple relies on Motorola/Freescale's long-suffering G4, and IBM's G5, coming from their newly troubled Fishkill NY plant and it's poor yields. Short of these companies pulling a rabbit out of their hat, Apple would either have to seek a new PowerPC processing partner (which may take months for new chip designs to become available, and can't guarantee no problems with an untested chip), start their own microprocessor division (which couldn't have the same diversity or resources dedicated to it as Freescale, IBM, AMD or Intel could manage), switch to Intel/AMD chips (A move that could fragment an already small market into PPC and Intel, and require a migration of all software to OS X on Intel), or wait until these problems are fixed.
Right now, waiting is the best option for Apple: The Mac is still profitable, even though those profits have declined more than the business world is comfortable with. If indeed IBM has worked out the problems with the the plant that produces the G5 as they claim, Apple can simply wait through this production flaw. The risk is if IBM starts turing into another Motorola, and these delays become a permanent fixture in the G5's life-cycle.
Tue Jun 01, 2004 3:26 pm Subject: The Mac Ain't Dead
I'm in agreement with the article on the transfer of the iPod/TMS to its own division.
As far as the Mac goes, everyone was blown away with the G5 a year ago and everyone, including the IBM VP who said "3 gigs in a year", anticipated a very exciting future.
One problem cropped up, however: difficulties when IBM moved to the 90 nm chip. This stopped the planned update around Feb/Mar. People seem to think that Apple is intentionally not delivering a faster G5 or are being "silent". Most readers on these boards have read about the fab problems and the fact that yields are improving - according to IBM. We shouldn't need daily news releases from Apple to understand this.
The other concern is the fact that people are saying that the Apple/IBM relationship is dead. I tend to give IBM a lot of credit for solving problems and anticipate that things will move rather rapidly when the fab problems are ironed out. I also anticipate that there will be challenges when IBM shifts to 65 nm and changes the chip to dual cores. Probably a lot of posts on the board then about IBM being not worth the effort.
Fri Oct 22, 2004 1:38 pm Subject: Re: more spam
Fri Oct 22, 2004 4:02 pm Subject: Re: more spam
Tue Nov 23, 2004 1:00 pm Subject:
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