Report from Seybold (long)
Hi everyone. I was at Seybold, just got back to the office. Most of the things that happened have been posted. I thought I'd comment on what I haven't seen or heard anywhere else yet:
The consumer product available in the Fall: The context of this was quite ambiguous. Jobs talked a little about the lack of a low end offering. Then he talked about how Apple is an incredible consumer brand, but that Apple hasn't released a single consumer product in x years (I forget what x equalled). He said this would be remedied in the Fall. Now, this could simply be a sub $1k, which is what everyone is reporting. But it could also be the AMP or something like that, which is much more of a consumer device than a computer. In the Q&A following, the Seybold guy asked Jobs about Columbus. There was long pause. So the guy repeated his question. Jobs' first response was "Yes, it's real." Then he went on to crack the jokes about it being an anti-gravity device, etc. Again, the "it's real" comment is ambiguous: it could be part of the jokes, or it could be a clue for those listening carefully.
Quicktime3: The way Jobs intro'd this was quite interesting. He compared it with Postscript. There was even a quote on one of the screens that read: Quicktime is to digital imaging as Postscript was to printing (or something like that). This tells me that Steve wants to exact royalties for Quicktime use, the same way Adobe did for Postscript. That could be a very significant revenue stream.
Apple Studio Display: Very cool looking. I walked right up to it. I still don't know why anyone would want what is essentially a $2k 17" monitor, but Steve is right in saying that flat-panel is the way of the future. I have a product specs sheet for the thing. Apple's 17" CRT monitor weighs 49 lbs (23 kg). The studio display weighs 5 lbs (2.3 kg).
Rhapsody: The Seybold guy asked why Rhapsody seems to have disappeared. Jobs said to expect to hear a lot about Rhapsody at the WWDC in May.
The Internet: The Seybold guy asked about Apple's Internet strategy, and implied that Apple didn't have one. Steve responded by dividing the Internet into two, client and server. He then talked about server, and admitted that Apple doesn't play in that space. He talked a little about NT and Sun, and made an interesting remark about how Sun does very well. It seemed to my ears that he was implying that Apple would be in that space soon, and would approach it the way Sun does. This was all unspoken. Then Steve talked about the client side, and said that MacOS has a disproportionate share of the client Internet user base.
Cross Platform: The first 1/2 of the show was devoted to four Apple technologies: Colorsync, Quicktime, Webobjects, and Applescript. With the exception of Applescript, all of these were positioned as cross-platform. Every time they came up on screen they were accompanied by both a MacOS logo and a Windows logo. The point was drilled home.
If I can think of anything else, I'll let you know.
All in all, it seemed very much like the November 10 announcement. Nothing earth-shattering, but a bunch of very solid announcements that indicate Apple has identified the most important technologies and is executing very well on them.
rhet0ric |
