May 18, 2006
Apple yesterday rounded out its portable lineup with the 13" widescreen MacBook, replacing both previous iBooks and the 12" PowerBook, Apple would have benefitted on the low end from a Core Solo procesor in the $799 range. Still, going widescreen will be a huge boon for the most portable of MacBooks and the black exterior — which will be the first for a Mac since the PowerBook G3s — should attract Mac businesspeople concerned that white is a bit too "consumerish." There was simply too little separating the iBook from the PowerBook in the 12" size. iSight and MagSafe will also be welcome additions.
Now the only thing Apple really needs in its portable lineup is wide-area wireless.
May 10, 2006
With Sony's pricing the focus of so much debate at E3, relatively little attention has been paid to the pricing of Nintendo's Wii and its unique (yes, even in spite of Sony's motion-sensing PS3 controller) controller. Some have speculated that Nintendo may sell Wii for under $250 — well below popular configurations of its next-generation rivals – but Nintendo is still mum on the price, for now saying only that it will deliver "more fun for less money."
Assuming that Nintendo could sell Wii for $250 profitably, I'd suggest a $299 bundle that included the casual Wii Sports game shown at its media event and a second Wii Remote controller. Part of the appeal of early consoles was how easily they facilitated family play by including a second controller. Wii Sports nicely highlights the controller's versatility and interaction model and would not cannibalize any league-licensed sports offerings from, say, EA.
Discussing this idea with friends at E3 led to the trivia question of which US console was first to ship with only one controller. I now think it was NEC's ill-fated Turbo Grafx 16. The system lacked a second bundled controller partially because it had only one controller port. For even two to play, one needed to purchase the five-player TurboTap accessory.
May 3, 2006
Apple's come a long way from the insecure militant definsiveness that characterized the days of Guy Kawasaki's EvangeList mailing list. It's switcher campaign of several years ago was generally viewed as having mixed results. Apple put a human face on the Mac vs. PC debate, but the implication that those who hadn't made the switch were somehow still putting up with inferior technology left a bad taste in many PC users' mouths.
Apple's new commercials now personify the computers themselves. The "PC" (which looks a bit like a Bill Gates who's let himself go) is generally dressed in a suit or sport jacket while the "Mac" is an unapologetic, slightly scruffy hipster. The two generally seem to get along and even hold hands in one ad. Most derision of the PC is done as the kind of playful teasing that would occur between two friends. An iLife ad shows that iPods and iTunes can work with Windows, but doesn't make the case that they work better on a Mac (and they do, due to AppleScript and iLife integration).
In any case, the friendly ribbing approach works well for Apple to take in these days when its computers can run Windows and of course is well-timed as the company takes advantage of Windows Vista's delay. Vista would address several of the PC deficiencies addressed in the commercials.
May 2, 2006
There's been much negative reaction to Nintendo's name for the console formerly code-named Revolution. It may be the company's highest-concept name ever. Apart from a fair amount of mispronunciation that Nintendo concedes that the console will receive, though, the literal name of this game is not the figurative one.
Nintendo has been hammering home that the name is consistent with the console's backward compatibility and controller design that will broaden its appeal beyond the core console "fanboy." After all, "GameCube," while perhaps not inspiring, could not have been more descriptive, and that didn't help Nintendo escape a distant third place in the home console market.
The problem has been that, far too often, Nintendo's definition of inclusion often reverts to the lowest common denominator of its kiddie core audience and those nostalgic to relive their days in it. Nintendo has proven adept at furthering its platforms' agendas with its first-party titles, such has been the case with the varied input methods of the Nintendo DS. But it also tends to fall back to the easy money of its franchises, and it will need to move beyond that to become truly inclusive.
Napster today announced a free tier of service that enables consumers to listen to a song five times before asking them to pony up for the subscription service. This will go a long way to boosting Napster's mindshare. Indeed, while much attention has been focused on which company will be the Flickr of video, Napster now has an opportunity to become a sort of Flickr for music, that is, a blog-friendly (if not yet tag-friendly) resource that enables consumers to share music in a legal way that embraces the spirit of its original namesake; this has groundbreaking promotional value.
Its new free service not only steals much of the thunder from Yahoo! Music as a source for sampling, but one-ups that service with easy Web accessibility and even Mac support. Alas, though, Napster needs to close the gap between its limited free service and its full service. Creating even one middle tier of service that lacked downloads to portable devices — useless to most of the market at this point anyway – would help reinforce the psychological groundwork that Napster is now laying with its advertising and free access, that you can enjoy access to on-demand music without having to own it.
