What It Means No. 2: Consumer electronics vendors, whether they like it or not, will have to contend with a resurgent Apple and an omnipresent Steve Jobs. The company scored in the top five most-recognized consumer brands in Forrester's 2003 Tech Brand Scorecard — with numbers that have continued to improve.
What It Means No. 3: Watch for Apple to take its music strategy (elegant integration of the personal device, desktop management software, and online music store) into new spaces. Still cameras and video cameras would be obvious markets to attack. Making mobile phones easier to use and highly integrated with the desktop could be a big win for Apple. iSync with Bluetooth would finally make it dead simple to switch phones without trashing address books.
What It Means No. 4: Linux + Apple? Somehow, you know that Jobs won't be able to resist this one. If Jobs and team point their considerable innovation and creativity back toward desktop applications, they could blow a lot of new thinking into the market. Call it "iWorks" — an integrated desktop suite based on Linux. Apple would feature iWorks first on the Mac and then make it available on Intel machines. This would mean that 5% of desktops would have Linux desktops right out of the chute — a great start for the first serious Linux-based Microsoft Office fighter. This one's a stretch, given that Mac is based on open BSD, not Linux. But if the opportunity becomes compelling, I'll bet Jobs will move. All that can be said is inspirational maverick,that steve is.
|
Sadagopan's Weblog on Emerging Technologies, Trends,Thoughts, Ideas & Cyberworld "All views expressed are my personal views are not related in any way to my employer"
