| Monday, January 24, 2005 |
14:58 - Too cool to resist
http://www.nixlog.com/apple/index.php
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Wow. Don't miss this graphic and analysis by Paul Nixon of how he sees the iPod and Mac lineups for Apple converging on this month's new product announcements, a nexus of low price and coolness that he believes will lead Apple to breakout numbers.
Now, I tend to think the guy's engaging in a little bit of "Revise hypothesis to fit facts; Backdate revised hypothesis; Publish" wishful thinking here. If there's one thing Mac pundits are known for, it's coming up with tenuous theories that explain any given current Apple product line as being the blindingly ingenious ideal sum total of a long-running corporate strategy—even if six months later a whole new line of products get released that throw that model into a cocked hat. I think the current lineup is at least to some extent just more of the same: new products dreamed up less than a year ago in response to some boardroom projection describing a potential hole in the market where some dollars are being left on the table. I can't help but think that even though they were announced at the same time, and even though (as I noted) almost all the announcements in the Stevenote were of extremely low-priced products that would be immediately available, the convergence so neatly illustrated by Nixon here is probably more coincidental than not.
But even so, it can't be denied that the Mac mini is something Apple hasn't really done before; it's got to represent at least a moderately ambitious shift in Apple's trajectory and its attitude toward the markets that might interest it. Who knows—maybe this is what the Steve's plan has been all along, even before the G5 existed or the iPod had been conceived or or the retail stores had opened their doors or the iMac had achieved its candy colors. (Maybe he meant for the Cube to fail all along. Yeah, that's the ticket.)
Either way, it makes for a great graphic to show anyone who thinks Apple is flailing or has an incoherent story to sell the public. At least that much is as slick as the image.
Via Kevin.
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Brian Tiemann
