Now that the interwebs are mostly over the sophmoric jokes about Apple’s latest offering, it’s time to get serious. I believe that Apple may finally be up against the wall, and if we’re not there quite yet the time is fast approaching. There’s a special level of hell a person goes through when they lose their faith in a person or thing that they truly believed in. The last time I went through this George Lucas was busily carving up my most beloved childhood fable with all the surgical skill of a blunt axe. I got older and a little more jaded and thought myself proof against such betrayals. In a way this is true, or perhaps it’s just the nature in which Apple has progressively worn me down. Oh, yes, I was a most ardent evangelist for the Macintosh operating system and hardware. I still have the very first issue of MacAddict and subscribed faithfully for years. Something happened though, and while I can’t pinpoint the exact moment, I can count the series of little straws that proverbially broke the camels back.
My love affair with Apple began in 1990. It’s true that I had used Apple machines in school before, but this was the same time I found my calling. Up to this point I had spent an inordinate amount of time in Prodigy BBS and learning the shape of the new Internet. I took a general introductory course in technical trade skills my freshman year. Drafting, electronics, and printing. Though I had a natural flair for each, it was screen printing my first T-Shirt that really sucked me in. I enjoyed the entire process but most importantly using a Mac Classic and playing with a typography tool that was like word art on steroids that sparked my true addiction. I spent the next four years learning about System 6, then 7. I graduated from the Classic to the LC and Quadra and Finally in 1994 purchased my very first Performa. Oh, the glory of HyperCard games! Before college I was already administrating an appletalk network, and ripping apart the Performa, tweaking it with every upgrade I could lay my hands on to eek out more speed, more power.
During college I adopted a number of Apple products like the short lived Newton, an educational-targeted device called the eMate, and a QuickTake 100. The Performa had gotten rebuilt, and I eventually ended up with a Powermac 7500. I bought the parts and cobbled them together. Yes folks you CAN build your own Mac; I just don’t recommend it. This, of course, was before Intel processors and OS X so there was no hackintosh. You had to find the original parts. Through PCI upgrades I kept the little guy alive well into 2000 when it finally became apparent that no amount of love was going to get OS X to run on it. By this time the Power Mac had been joined by a Power Computing clone. These were our household computers until 2002 when I bit the Windows bullet. I had started working as a phone support rep for a software company and had to learn Windows and Novell and all the evil that I once so vehemently denied. I did manage to upgrade to a Powerbook G4 and fought the good fight of dual OS’s for close to a decade. Windows was a necessity due to work and opened the door to multiplayer gaming, but my Powerbook was resolutely my computer of choice especially when it came to any freelance design work.
During the last decade, though, there has been a lot of change in the computer industry. Parts are getting smaller, faster, more powerful, and increasingly less expensive. A 64 GB SSD today costs the same as it did to upgrade my Powermac 7200 with a 8GB SCSI II. Apple is continuing its trend of innovative and intuitive gadgetry and developing a quality operating system, but here comes the rub. It started as a small compromise. The Powerbook I loved so dearly was starting to feel its age when I started cataloging more video in a day than it was used to seeing in a month of use. I needed something to keep up with my new demands, and so we picked up a mini. It was affordable and after a RAM upgrade had just enough juice to be useful. At just under $1000 it was the best I could do. Even with financing there was no way I could justify a PowerMac at three times the price. Moving to that Core2Duo processor made me realize just how tired the Powerbook was. I was hooked on the speed and multiprocessing. Not to mention OS 10.4 wasn’t supported on the laptop. I started looking for my next portable and with a great amount of frustration realized that I could get a faster more capable machine at less than half the price if I would just use Windows. Unfortunately the days of disposable income are gone, and I bought my next laptop from Dell.
Please don’t misunderstand. I really love the Mac and OS X. For me there is nothing better for audio/video production and the plethora of multimedia apps I like to use. We still have the Mini and iPods around the house, and I salivate just as much for an Apple press conference as the next fanboy. As I mentioned, though, something is different. The first disturbing trend is how much a premium Apple sets for the hardware. Generally they have reneged and lowered the price such as with the initial iPhone release, though this isn’t always the case. I argued the point in an earlier post. It’s especially noticeable if you customize a new Mac in the Apple store online. While jumping from a 2.66 to the 2.93 Xeon for $400 seems steep, that’s the going rate for the Nahelem series. But why does it cost $100 to go from 640GB to 1TB? Though this seems a pittance of $0.28/GB, I can buy a comparable TB drive for less and ADD to the existing 640GB. The same goes for RAM. Add 3GB for $150? For the same price I can replace it with faster RAM or almost triple the amount. I’m unwilling to believe the components of much higher quality than other PC manufacturers. So why do we need to pay so much for a motherboard and chasis?
I’ve heard it argued that what we’re really paying for is the value added software. While including iLife is great for the new Mac owner, I’ve already gone beyond the need for those basic apps and can find free apps that do the same for me. So scrap that $80, and I’m still in for a hefty fee. The OS itself is $129 for a full license so somewhere there’s about $1000+ floating around unaccounted for. I think this has been the major turn off for the majority of users who might switch to a Mac. Certainly you can go through the trouble of cobbling together a hackintosh, but you’re unsupported by Apple should you need support beyond what the, albeit knowledgeable, community can offer. I can’t argue that Apple has been profitable with it’s current business model, but I don’t believe it can last in the long term. Once upon a time, the most prominent apps for designers were available only for the Mac. When the playground opened to the Windows environment, Apple lost a lot of potential business from freelance professionals and small businesses who found they could get by using Windows. With the recent release of Windows 7 I feel like the gap between the two platforms has narrowed even more. I’m quite happy with Windows 7,\; I still love OS X, but I don’t know that it’s enough anymore to pay the hardware premium.
What do I propose? Apple needs to look at their business in two ways and possibly consider reorganizing similar to Microsoft. The first is to do away with manufacturing laptop and desktop hardware. I realize the importance that the proprietary control has been to the stability of OS X, but there are lots of smart folks out there who have already reverse engineered you code to create 3rd party drivers for components. Hire them! You get the benefit of programmers who are already doing the work necessary to port OS X to compatibility with a broader range of products. Save on manufacturing costs and open your operating system to a MUCH wider user base. Bringing more focus and money to the operating system should allow room to foster the growth of applications like iWork, Final Cut, and Aperture. Linux is going to gain ground because of its availability. Then again, desktop computing may be on its last legs with the advent of so many connected devices and the ability to do almost all things through web apps. Positioning OS X as a system powerful enough to support video production and intensive applications but also flexible enough to become a hand based system would be a dream come true.
Meanwhile it’s fair to say that the mobile platform is booming. iPods and iPhones have become the standard by which others are judged. This doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement. Microsoft just released their newest mobile OS and Android is gaining steadily. Now Intel and Nokia are joining forces to create a mobile linux platform. This is where the next battle for supremacy will be fought and Apple has a head start, but one that could quickly become overtaken. Apple has ignored the netbook debacle for better or worse, but it is obvious from the release of the iPad that a subcompact solution cannot be ignored. There is a growing demand for a device that blends ultra-portability with an interface that is intuitive and easy. People want access to data on their own terms, and this will be the trend that marks the next decade.
This is an oversimplified solution perhaps, but I don’t think it’s unfeasible. I know that I’m ignoring a lot of potential issues, but I really believe that we’re at a critical point in the development of technology and someone will emerge as the leader to shape things to come. Apple is already poised to be that leader, but it could be anyone else just as easily. Perhaps it’s the fan-boy in me that recalls the Jolly Roger hanging from Cupertino cubicle walls and what that symbolized for me as the corporate culture at Apple. To fly in the face of convention and rebel against the antiquated model of business as usual. There are shareholders apple must appease to be sure, but if managed correctly I believe there is an even greater revenue source untapped for the company. Perhaps this is just the ranting of a disgruntled consumer, but dammit I believed in Apple. Just as I believe now that if Apple truly loves their OS they need to let go of their control and open up to a broader market.
