By Jo Best, 7 October 2008 16:37
COMMENT
A few years back no one expected Apple to unveil a mobile phone. So what will be next for the Mac maker? Jo Best looks into her crystal ballÂ…
Apple made its latest big move into new territories last year with the launch of the now ubiquitous iPhone, expanding beyond the desktop and into the choppy waters of mobile.
What ought to be Apple's next leap of faith? Here are a few ideas for where Apple should go next.
Handheld gaming console
Now Apple's an established mobile phone brand, why not go the whole hog by taking the games-and-mobile functionality of the iPhone into the world of gaming proper with a dedicated Apple branded console, Ã la DS Lite or PSP with an N-Gage type device that people might actually buy?
While the iPhone SDK has opened up the possibility for developers to bring games to the Apple mobile, the offerings released for the iPhone to date haven't been the stuff of gamers' dreams. A dedicated device could persuade the gaming big boys to get on board and bring their users with them.
What better way to woo the big-spending gamer market than with a dedicated handheld gaming device?
Tablet
Rumours of the Apple tablet have been doing the rounds for some years, fanned by the occasional patent filing from Cupertino which seems to suggest such a device is on the way.
Surely it wouldn't be too much of a leap for Apple to consider bringing this rumour to reality. When Apple got into the touchscreen game with the iPhone, it introduced a whole host of nice touchscreen touches - the ability to zoom in on an image by moving your fingers to either corner of the screen, for example - making a full screen tablet is an appealing prospect for Mac users.
Apple's also proved that thin is in with the MacBook Air - and dieting skills could rather cleverly be brought in to turn tablets into the lightweight devices users always hoped they'd be.
iPhone nano
The iPhone earned its cachet with geeks and the average Joe alike by following the Apple 'reassuringly expensive' model - it speaks volumes about the device that a developer created an application intended purely to show off the wealth of the iPhone user that downloaded it.
While the strategy has worked a treat so far - sales of the iPhone are reckoned to be in the five million ballpark - it's only a tiny fraction of the potential mobile market out there for Apple's picking.
Good sense would dictate that the iPhone's future development will follow the historical path of the iPod's. After the first geek-love inducing, big-storage packing model, Apple debuted the nano, a smaller, less flashy item for those not weighed down by a massive wallet.
An iPhone nano might even go down better as consumers trim back their electronics spending.
The device called for here is a smaller, less feature-heavy device, with less storage and a daintier screen size. Admittedly, that would almost necessitate a removal of the touchscreen element that makes the iPhone so appealing to its users, but by the time such a device would be brought to market, the iPhone brand should be strong enough to sweep up would-be buyers into the type of frenzy that could make them forget that nagging feeling of touchscreen jealousy.
Netbook
Who doesn't love a good netbook at the moment? HP, Lenovo, LG, Samsung - the list of vendors scrambling onto the bandwagon goes on.
Apple, however, has resisted so far - but for how much longer? With many of the netbooks on the market at the moment bearing a distinct resemblance to the white plastic of Apple's traditional design, it would seem an obvious step for Apple to take on its rivals at their own game.
Apple, after all, has indicated it's not scared of the portable PC - its Mac Minis have been part of its hardware line-up for years and the One Laptop Per Child project could have had its XO machines running on Mac OS X if it had opted to take the closed source route.
With the company reporting its best ever quarter for Mac sales, it's time for the company to take on the low-cost, ultra portable market or remain a hardware also-ran.
Mac OS X for any machine
The last time Apple thought about opening up its software, it came up with Boot Camp - a method of running Windows on a Mac, a move that prompted wags to praise a combination that brought together the affordability of Mac hardware with the reliability of Windows software.
Surely what Joe Public is craving is the opposite combo: Mac software without the associated ties of a Cupertino branded machine. Yet, Apple hardware and software remain as inseparable as Doctor Who and the Tardis.
A platform that's locked down is a strategy that's worked for Apple so far in brand building, but it's one that's confined the company to a niche. A fat and profitable niche but a niche nonetheless - by opening up the Mac OS X platform to other manufacturers, there's a huge growth bump to be had.
Comments
There are 9 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
One of the most ignorant pieces I have read about Apple for some time. Either Jo doesn't understand Apple's business model or she hasn't read up on Apple's history and the lessons the company took from it.
I could sum the article in one sentence:
"What Microsoft does Apple must do."
Jo, go back and start again.
2. anonymous
No on all counts:
Handheld gaming console: it's called the iPod touch.
Tablet: that's a form factor that hasn't set the world on fire, because the best position for input is parallel to the ground, and the best position for a display is perpendicular, and a tablet can't do both. A foldable tablet that doubles as a laptop might work. There probably isn't a large enough market to cover the cost of developing a tablet that would get a large enough market share to be worthwhile
iPhone nano: possible, but not necessary, because iPhone production costs will come down as the quantity increases.
Netbook: Same answer as the tablet.
OS X for other hardware: No chance of this happening. Apple is a hardware company that makes an OS. Licensing OS X to other manufacturers puts Apple in the position of competing with itself.
3. anonymous
Tying Macs to OS X doesn't lock anything down. There is no need for every PC manufacturer to have the same OS. That's just Microsoft-think. Each manufacturer could have its own. The easy way would be to pair up with a Linux distro, as HP is contemplating.
Tying an OS to hardware doesn't lock anything down, as long as you don't pull the Microsoft trick of using proprietary protocols. OS X only uses standard protocols and formats.
4. anonymous
Agree that the iphone nano and games console ideas Jo raises have some merit but the inclusion of the points we both seem to agree have zero value seriously undermines the credibility of the article or its author.
Jo, Apple makes "systems" - a hardware/software ecosystem if you like. You simply cannot ignore the fundamental business model here. Whether Apple is right or wrong in its approach is a far more compelling discussion (and there are many arguments for and against this, none of which you set out).
Given MS's current struggles, arguing that Apple should do a Microsoft and sell tablets (which are a proven failure for the very valid reasons that my esteemed fellow commentator has argued) and a software-only OS solution sounds like the sort of thing Apple should absolutely NOT be doing. Consumers are, as Apple's most recent numbers prove, not particularly fussed about choice - they want value. If that means spending money further up the IT food chain in order to obtain a more compelling experience, then so be it. I am deliberately excluding Linux users and hardcore gamers from that category - they stick to what they know and love (for good reason). What we're dealing with here is the "floating user" - there are more of these than you or me.
5. Bagpuss
With the Western worlds recession now starting to bite I would expect the next products to open into new territories for Apple, territories that would be more appropriate for the times. Perhaps we will see the iPen, refillable, iPad , ruled and unruled, and for the even more economy minded the iPencil - made from recycled economies.
6. George
I liked the article. My bet is on a tablet or a netbook with an iphone-like multi-touch interface and a bigger screen obviously.
The iPhone and Touch are terrible for games, the acelerator is not an easy control and the touch screen is not responsive enough, you need buttons!
Gaming has never been an Apple forte and I don't see that changing any time soon.
7. anonymous
I agree with the comments above, this article shows that Jo doesn't understand Apple's approach to markets, history or consumer technology.
Very poor article - Silicon should know better than to publish under researched work such as this.
8. Paul
It’s an acronym - so it’s TARDIS.
9. anonymous
I liked the article, but then that's because I haven't bought into the Apple Dream/Nightmare. I like to own stuff that I buy (Hence my not buying an Iphone tied to a provider) and like to know that it's not going to cost me an arm and a leg when it goes wrong (don't try to pretend that Apple stuff never goes wrong). For me Apple products are still too expensive and Apple as a company are still too paranoid for me to do business with. I like a company that when they issue bug fixes, are honest enough to tell you what they fix, and a company that doesn't try to take as much money as possible off me. This article works for me.