What is Apple upto?
Hello to everyone and a belated Happy New Year. The recently concluded Macworld has created fire in the news industry. Everyone is talking about the iPhone and Steve Jobs's stellar keynote performance. I simple couldn't resist the urge to blog about it and here goes my two cents.
Things have not been the same for Apple since the success of iPod. It sees better opportunities in new territories compared to the PC market. This year's Macworld keynote by Steve Jobs was a clear indication of that, where not a single technology on Mac was presented. In the next 3 to 4 years, I suspect Apple to get rid of the Mac hardware business and open up the Mac OSX operating systems to PC vendors like Dell and HP. That is a pretty bold statement, but before that can happen, existing businesses like Apple TV and iPhone need to turn into cashcows. The iPod / iTunes businesses have already proven to be a cashcow. Many have tried to repeat the Apple success story in the music business, but none have come even close. In the next two years I see Apple coming out with many high and low end cellphones that would be bought by people like crazy. Once the iPhone business is established Apple will try to get it's media center business steady, which will take atleast 3 years starting from the day it is released. The success of these businesses will result in Mac not being as profitable for Apple as it used to be, which would result in Apple axing it.
I think the porting of OSX to the Intel platform was the most brilliant move by Apple. It gives Apple the oppurtunity to open it's operating system to PC makers any time it wants. The biggest hurdle though is getting the device drivers ready, which is not an easy task. One of the major reasons for Linux's failure to be accepted mainstream is device drivers. What Apple will ultimately do will depend on a lot of factors, but the company surely has some very strong cards that it is holding very close to it's chest leaving us only to speculate.