Macworld ‘08 Hype
Published by Yoni • January 13th, 2008
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Why Macworld ‘08 won’t shock the world
With Macworld approaching, the pundits are out in full force with their predictions; A 3G iPhone, an ultra slim Macbook, a tablet with touch technology, iTunes movie rentals. And at the same time, analysts are putting in their 2 cents, expressing concerns that Apple won’t be able to top last years iPhone announcement. Some are even boldy proclaiming that the Mac faithful should be preparing for a Macworld letdown this year. And what do all of these journalists, gabbers, bloggers, and fan-boys have in common?
They’re all missing the big picture.
Apple’s Success Over The Years
The reason Apple has been so successful over the past few years is that it has adopted a strategy of releasing advanced and innovative products that it slowly but surely adds value to. Introducing a product that instantly becomes a smash hit, such as the iPhone, is not what typically happens at Macworld, and a look back at some of Apple’s more successful products shows that slow and steady does in fact win the race.
Even when Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, critics and users yawned at the prospect of yet another expensive MP3 player on the market. Even Apple fanboys expressed ambivalence about the iPod. But Apple methodically tweaked the user interface. It came out with new models, it increased capacity, it increased battery life, it added photos, and the list goes on and on. Then in 2003, it launched the iTunes music store which, at the time, only housed a meager 200,000 songs. By 2004, however, three years after the initial release of the iPod, Apple’s white earbuds were everywhere. And that my friends, is how Apple works. It doesn’t go for the hail-mary on first and 10. Instead, it slowly and methodically marches down the field, continuously improving and upgrading its product line.
This strategy can also be seen in the context of Mac OS X. Instead of releasing one mammoth update every 4 years, Apple has been continuously releasing new versions of its OS at an average interval of 1.5 years. When the initial OSX came out there wasn’t much there to drool over. But by continuously enhancing and adding intuitive features, Mac OS X has evolved into a solid and advanced OS, as evidenced by Leopard. Similar incremental improvements can be seen across its product line from its iLife software suite to its iMac computer models. With this in mind, predicting the future success of Apple based on one Macworld Expo is completely shortsighted as Apple understands that game changing software and hardware isn’t created overnight. Is it any surprise that companies who introduce “revolutionary” products that were seemingly engineered and pushed out the door in three months never make a blip on the technology radar?
Expectations are high, maybe a bit too high
Critics and fan-boys should not feel let down if Apple doesn’t bring down the house this week. Instead, they should be excited about some new announcements and products that may not necessarily be game changing in and of themselves, but are part of a larger plan that will fundamentally improve the way we all use computers and technology. Undoubtedly, whatever Steve Jobs happens to announce at Macworld will come under scrutiny by those who might criticize the specs or price of new products, or the rationale of whatever business deal is announced. This criticism, however, is often levied by those who can’t see down the field 100 yards.
As Macworld approaches, don’t expect a new tablet device with touch screen capabilities that will to turn wine into water, but rather some new business initiatives that will push the envelope, along with product upgrades and introductions that when looked at from a distance, are part of a larger plan that can in fact revolutionize the way we use technology. That is reason enough to get excited.
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Yoni is a business / tax attorney from the windy city. Yoni is also a gadget enthusiast who enjoys writing in the third person.
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Quick question, out of curiosity. What, then, is the point of Macworld? I’m new to the whole world of Apple, and really didn’t know they even had an annual expo.
So, if their strategy is to consistently provide systematic improvements, why hold a huge expo? It seems contrary to their overall strategy.
Pat
Macworld is an even every year where new products, updates and plans for the coming year are announced, it is generally a motivating experience for Mac users and Apple users, even some non-closed minded PC users benefit slightly.
A huge expo is held so that a connection is made between the CEO/Apple and the people, demonstrations and special events are held within the week.
Obviously, if you hate Apple it isn’t that interesting, and you may even resent it. Personally, I use Mac, so I am looking forward to what may be announced, but I’m not getting hopes up.
It’s an expo that announces all the new things Apple is releasing. This is where all their new products and improvements are released. Once you’ve spent a little while with Apple and their products, it’s easier to understand why someone would want to watch the expo, or even why it exists.
If you don’t like Apple’s products, though, you’re most likely not going to understand.
Well, I love apple’s products. And I’m excited to hear about what they announce.
I’m speaking strictly from a strategic viewpoint. Is it safe/a good idea to create so much buzz about a product, when they know that 6 months down the road, they’re going to change it/update it to make it better?
Pat
I completely agree with your assesment of the long-term startegy of incremental improvements to existing product as the right measure of Apple. You could also argue that the iPhone is an improvemet on the iPod but I don’t see it as incremental. Products like the iPhone are the kinds of thing that we get spoiled by and want more of and have a somewhat unreasonable expectation of seeing again. However what other products measure up to the iPod or iPhone? How many years was it between these product announcements? If we take these two milestones as any kind of indicator then a year is not a long enough interval. Again I agree that the real Apple success story is in the long term incremental changes that build on a solid foundation of knowledge and success gained in small updates but the flashy announcements are what we hope for.
Pat,
I don’t think Macworld is Apple’s event. I think it is organized by the magazine with the same name, and Jobs uses the expo keynote to introduce new products.
MacWord Expo has been going on since 1985. I have attended 3 shows and those were over 10 years ago. It is only in very recent history that truely ground breaking news came from the keynote. The show was just that, a trade show.
When Steve started using the keynote as his “stage” to the world he began to “wow” the croud with news or new gadgets. The first time I remember the financial community jumping on the Apple bandwagon was at the 1997 Expo in Boston. When Steve returned to Apple as “iCEO” and gave a keynote that presented him in charge and making plans, the markets took off. There were ups and downs since then, but that is really the birth of the keynote as we know it today.
The keynote has really grown as an important venue for product intros or business deal intros. I for one always hope for something fantactic, but I am also realistic when it comes to the keynote.
In any event, Apple is still hot. The iPod works and works well. With iTunes, it is “fall off a log easy”. Those geeks that complain about iPod’s “closed” architecture must have a lot of free time to waste. I like iTunes and iPods because they work and are easy to use. That is why Apple is a winner.
Those “geeks”? I think that snooty attitude is why mac fanboys attract so much negative attention. It’s an MP3 player, don’t be smug.
I think that iWork is probably the best example of this trend among all of Apple’s endeavors, even in comparison to iLife. Pages was not much better than TextEdit when it first came out, and I couldn’t find much use for it, but the latest version has become a real replacement for Microsoft Word, equal in status to Mellel.
I’m glad to discover that I’m not the only long-time Mac user who wasn’t wowed by the iPod. I’ve been using Macs since 1983 and buying Macs since 1990, but it wasn’t until 2004 that I even bought an iPod, even though I already had thousands of songs on my computer years before then.
I’m sure that I’ll wait until the iPhone takes on Palm-like functions before I’ll splurge on such a purchase, as I’m not much of a phone user and am satisfied with the RAZR. I would really like to read and search PDF and word processor files on a handheld device, taking the scriptures to church on an iPhone with quick access to any verse rather than lugging so many books around every Sunday. Editing word processor documents would also be a great benefit.
Palm’s small storage capacity rendered its platform useless to me about 7 years ago, so I don’t even use one, but having an internal hard disk as large as my iPod would make handheld document reading and searching possible. I guess I’d be happy if the iPod could do that eventually, which should be really easy to incorporate.
It’ll be big. Apple has changed and evolved. It will be big.
You’re not mistaken, but somehow I think we can trace that to the PC notion that Apple is the Anti-Christ. Thus, wine to water. It’s a stretch, I know.
You are not mistaken Petter. Good catch!
>When the initial OSX came out there wasn’t much there to drool over.
WTF… Did you just start using the Mac?
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[...] wrote on his blog today why MacWorld ‘08 won’t shock the World. His reasonings are for the most part [...]
I don’t have a Mac or any Apple products, but the event does generate a certain buzz and even I find it mildly exciting to see what they will come up with each year. The diehard Apple fans are really sick making though, stop going on and on about how great Apple are, it is really sick making.
[...] But of course the big thing this week is MacWorld 2008. Everybody and their mother knows what that’s about. But…if you think about it, is it really that important? [...]
I have worked only quite a few macs now, and all I can say is that they may look good, but they die. PCs have software issues, Macs have hardware issues. Which one of them is worse? You can reload everything on a PC and just lose time, but parts for the Mac can add up. For example, every so-called mac-geek out there knows about the random shutdown problem. Many of users have complained about it and apple STILL doesn’t know what happened. Don’t get me wrong, I love the ipod, I like the idea of the iphone. Their computers are great for graphics, music, etc. but when I keep seeing the same problem over and over…