Monday, January 17, 2005

Apple v. Google: A Matter of Timing

There is an interesting article over on eweekly about the battle for control of you media, and the way you access store and play it, in your home.

This may not seam obvious at 1st but Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, Baseline is thinking ahead in his peace. He makes this interesting comment

"What I saw was the future of Apple Computer: A device that fits anywhere in the home and hooks up to any screen that can handle digital input."

I can see where he and apple are going with the mini mac. Let's face it not every on has a degree in Applied Computer Technology. Most people can not even set the clock on there VCR how do you expect them to be able to understand the abstract ideas which make their PC work on a daily basis.

The very nature of a PC means it appeals to those of us who like to know how things work, But more over those of us who like to have the illusion of control. Every last option on your PC is customizable. I have seen many PC's that you would not even know where running windows due to likes of window blinds.

This complicated interface and the input method of the PC is the very thing that drives the creative types to buy Mac's in the 1st place. When we look at the world we are split into two groups.

Look at the picture below what do you see?



Those that look at the picture and see a landscape with some triangle's stuck on the top of it. See the world in fact's. You proberley use a PC (for the time being).

Then there are those that see the image and think of motion and energy and such things.

These are the people who apple are after these are there version of early adopters people turned off by the seemingly endless options available in the PC market. Tired of having to get the local 7 year old know it all in, just to turn the thing on.

They have one major advantage there is no one to represent the competition. After all who markets PC's? Every one and any one it's a divided front, with no clear cut vision no one product.

This is where apple can make headway into the market all it has to do is to convert some of those ipod sales into media center sales, and they will be well on there way to market domination.

Although really if you want to get the lion's share of the market. I can see big things for device that will except any video and play it on your TV. From home movies to videos downloaded of the internet. People don't want to watch movies or much else on there PC screen when they can play them on there TV.

In this case, the product, already delivered, is iLife, Apple's pretty "seamless" software suite that allows the average person to manage huge digital playlists of music, create and sculpt large libraries of digital photos, develop and edit digital movies, and even build professional sounding songs from scratch.
Now if some one could make something like this for the PC they would have customers beating down there door. Although I have never used ilife my self just from this one paragraph it has got me excited about the thought of being able to organize all my media and find it with easy. Definitely one to watch for future developments.

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