(copyright and Property of Apple Computer Inc.)

“Hello I am a Mac, hello I am a PC.” We all know this sentence and all of us appreciate the funny shows available on Apple.com.

All of those shows reflect one particular situation in which Apple is taking the lead on the PC, and it is true. Some examples:
- dozens of Windows XP versions compared to one Jaguar or Tiger
- lots of unnecessary software installed on PC
- iLife pre-installed on mac and READY to use
- Constant drivers issues when you want to upgrade your PC…

And the list goes on and on…

Recently, my attention has been captured by something scary – a couple of new Mac applications, products, software tend to behave like they do on a PC. Nothing serious but enough to wonder if the company is facing the same issues as the PC…

1) Requested iApps update
Want to get a new iPod? You have to update your iTunes. Mac users usually do not like to switch versions, especially when they have to switch from Mac OS X.3 to X.4 or Leopard soon. iPod always require some software updates, it just becomes more obvious when people use the old OS.

2) OS Update
As mentioned before, should you want to enjoy the benefits of the new products / features, you are requested to upgrade your OS. I was recently in a shop where a customer complained because his new iPod did not work on his PowerBook on was on Mac OS X.3.

3) Safari
The best explorer on the market got the least support. The new version of Safari does not seem to be supported as much as the previous releases (especially here in Asia). Some protected websites like the banking websites do not support Safari. As Internet Explorer is no longer developed for the Mac, the Mac users have no other choice than to install the new Firefox version.

4) Airport Extreme N compatibility issues
Apple is leading the market again and introduced the ‘N’ wireless technology, with a 100Mbps speed. However, the real transfer speed does not reach 100 Mbps ….(limitation of broadband bandwidth, limitation of connection to your PC with USB for example). Even in my personal place, between an ‘N’ station and a Macbook, it took me 2 days to transfer 20 GB of data over the same server….I am not convinced this should be called customer friendly… On top of that, N technology is not standardized yet and compatibility issues appear between computers which cannot see the network.

Those issues are not serious, and will not prevent any customer from buying any Apple product. Apple is still leading in terms of technology, products, design, customer experience compared to the PC. However, we can see that when you reach new levels of technology and you want to offer more services to your customers, there is a natural trend of becoming more complex than usual.

By proposing new levels of technology and trying to continue to lead the market, Apple might lose some of its original traits. Let’s hope it would not happen and have faith.

(Property Apple Computer : Apple Store USA )

It has been almost 6 months since the iPhone exploded into the US market. It will now begin invading Europe. As for iTunes Music Store, the ‘fruit company’ decided to roll it out to the rest of the world with the same strategy : exclusive agreement with carrier / provider and exclusive features

O2 has been officially appointed for the UK market, Vodafone for Germany. Orange is expected to be announced soon.

After dropping the price from US$599 to US$399 in USA, Apple had to react quickly by proposing an attractive price for UK. Unfortunately, at 269 pounds proposed price ($569) it will not be able to thwart parallel imports. In Germany, the iPhone will be proposed at399 Euro ($553) for the 8GB version

The market and consumers were expecting Apple to update the iPhone product specifications to include 3G so that it would address European needs. Unfortunately and in my opinion not surprising that Apple did not do so. It would have been unlikely for Apple to change the specifications for a single market as its strategy was to release the product for all markets with same sets of features.

However, it is possible that future models of iPhones to be 3G enabled.

It is also not surprising that Apple decided to have one carrier per country instead of one that covered the whole of European. They are following the same strategy as iTMS, choosing the best carrier in each country. This is definitely not a good news for European consumers who travel regularly between EU nations. Nevertheless, local consumers will still benefit.

It will be interesting to see how Apple prices the iPhone in the rest of the countries. Differentiated pricing in each country will most probably please hackers and parallel importers who will chance on the opportunity to feed the frenzy in the rest of EU.

Links : Macworld

New members have been added to the iPod family and it may make some peoples’

dream a reality.

New iPod Shuffle

No major changes with exception to new colors that are more inline with their ‘metallic’ trend.

New iPod Nano

It has new colors, a thinner frame, larger screen 2”

screen size with video capabilities and cover flow for album art. The video capability is merely not a consumer need at this point . It is just a natural evolution of technical capabilities of the product. The video feature was merely a request from the market. As far as I am concerned, the new design and cover flow for album art are the drawing factor.

New iPod Classic.

Thinner, longer battery life and larger storage capacity. With an 80Gb and 160Gb capacity, they are increasing the number of songs you can make mobile. The only issue, I foresee, are laptop users. If you have a 200GB laptop with lots of pictures and content, it is unlikely that you will have enough storage for 160GB of music. Nevertheless, it is a welcome for those with desktops or a music server.

New iPod Touch

This is the one. Take the iPhone, remove the phone functionality and wala you have an iPod Touch. On top of its awesome interface and touch screen it comes with video and internet browsing capabilities. I am not kidding about the Internet browsing because it is WiFI enabled.

This is a new era for Apple. For the first time, the company is releasing a WIFi enabled product. You will be able to purchase music directly from your iPod. Previously, Apple had been focusing its strategy on computers around the so called ‘Digital Hub’. Most peripherals were connected via the computer which in turn had to be connected to Internet. This is a first for Apple. In addition, its built-in browser, Safari, provides you the same easy access to the internet as would a computer.

Unfortunately, the only drawback is its storage capacity. With only 8Gb and 16Gb version, you will have limited options to watch videos.

Hopefully in the future, we shall see a 160GB iPod Touch. In the meantime, lets enjoy what we have…

(I mean what Apple is offering us).

Learn more : apple