Out of the Box

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.

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.

From U3, –the company supported by SanDisk and msystems hoping to replace hard drives with tiny flash-based key fobs that we move effortlessly from computer to computer — comes news that it is expanding support in Japan. I've been somewhat surprised that Microsoft hasn't done more to embrace this initiative as it's an interesting new usage model and way to add value to Windows applications. While the phenomenon is in its infancy, there's no similar architecture around Mac OS or Linux. I'm sure Microsoft would rather that all of its applications already be purchased on whatever PC you use, but this is one of those cases where the company has to put on its platform developer hat.

Microsoft is better served by having people move their applications around this way than having them get their word processors from Google or Michael Robertson.

Of Apple's three main transitions (the other two being PowerPC and Mac OS X), the switch to Intel has been going the smoothest. Just this week, we've seen Aperture 1.1, a new Firefox release, and an update to the WMV plug-in for QuickTime all arrive with Intel-native code. And via Boot Camp, Apple has opened its Intel-based computers to a few Windows programs that can take advantage of Intel processors as well. It's ironic, if not embarrassing, that the fastest version of Photoshop you can run on a MacBook Pro is available by booting into Windows, However, the path to a "Universal binary" when using Apple's development tools doesn't seem too rocky.

Prediction: Leopard may be a feline, but it will run like a dog on PowerPC.

Reg Hardware breaks news of a T-Mobile Sidekick-inspired high-resolution, low-cost, fully loaded UMPC that Averatec plas to offer in the fall. Well, it won't be all those things at the same time, but that's ok. A $600 price point would go a long way toward helping consumers overlook the lack of a killer application for this platform.

The concept drawings Averatec's offering has a dedicated keyboard, which is generally good. However, I don't think the typing while standing usage scenario will prove very popular. Flat surfaces are plentiful, and having to type more than a sentence of two on a device as heavy as the UMPC s just palnful. I learned that a while back.

In other news, the Samsung Q1 bundle that will go for about $1,400 in Korea — with its wrap case that includes a detached keyboard — brings back memories of a Newton 2000/2100 package that appeared near the end of the line for Apple's uber-PDA.

Charles Cooper at CNet, after an abbreviated history of Apple’s Windows outreach efforts that is similar to one I detailed a few months ago, writes that Boot Camp is a gimmick. I join him in decrying Wall Street’s overreaction. However, he then seems to validate Apple’s reasoning, that is, that Boot Camp is essentially a bridge to allow tire-kickers to run Windows apps or at least postpone painful data conversion. That sounds like something that has real value, not a gimmick.

My colleague Steve Baker also points out that not everyone — and certainly not every Mac user — has a full copy of Windows XP lying around. Macs make for pretty expensive PCs especially after the $200 Microsoft tithe. He argues that Boot Camp will appeal to the lunatic fringe of Apple zealots that can’t stand the notion of buying PCs, and that perhaps that’s how Apple will expand market share. Read the rest of this entry »

At CTIA, Palm was handing out T-shirts celebrating its tenth anniversary that read "Ten years. One vision." But an "anniversary" connotes too much monogamy for Palm, which has had more of a polyamorous past — independent startup, US Robotics ownership, 3Com ownership, independent company (again), PalmOne (after merging with Handsprng), and Palm, Inc. one more time.

Ten years. One vision. Six corporate identities.

Palm executives had their sense of humor intact about the company's storied past as well, noting that it has received presents from its printing company for all the changes to its letterhead over the years.

Yesterday, Apple announced and released the public beta of Boot Camp, a boot manager and set of drivers that enable Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP (Vista s not yet supported). I'll discuss the trade-off between dual-booting and virtualization another time, but one advantage of enabling XP to run natively on Apple hardware is that Windows games will be able to utilize accelerated graphics hardware. In other words, Mac owners will be able to play most PC games at native Windows speeds.

Apple's stance is that what is good for the Mac is good for Mac developers, and the company has an interesting theory that this capability will show game developers just how many Mac gamers are out there. But I still don't think that that will help the fundamental economics of the Mac game market. The translators and publishers of titles that appear first on Windows like Aspyr Media and MacPlay and are going to feel some at least some short-term pain, pain that could be prolonged if Microsoft continues stepping up efforts to evangelize Windows gaming.

To hear Microsoft tell it, Windows Vista's much publicized delay is not really the company's fault. After all, the operating system will ship this year to business customers and Microsoft says that it could have supported some of their PC customers, but chose to delay shipment to enable all of their PC customers time to prepare for the hot December (read: consumer) selling season. As a CNet interview with Microsoft's Brad Goldberg, the Microsoft executive notes:

The feedback we got from OEM (original equipment manufacturer) partners, retailers, channel partners and others was pretty consistent. They were asking us for visibility around our ability to deliver broadly for consumers at the holiday season. They said the thing that would have been hardest and most challenging would have been getting to a point close to the holiday and either scaling back availability to the point where people wouldn't have the supply to meet demand, or that we would have to alter some plans after they had made investments. So, this decision was really made based on very consistent feedback we got from the industry about how to think about our release timing.

However, the conference call where Jim Allchin announced Vista's delay did not paint a picture of such consistency. Allchin says that Microsoft could have shipped for some OEMs but did not in order to provide a more universal quality standard. So, it leads one to think that the largest consumer-focused OEMs could have put the kibosh on Vista getting out the door this holiday season, and the one with the largest, most globally complex business at this point is certainly HP.

BBC News reports today on Apple's reaction to the French legislature's vote in favor of a law that would require online music sellers to allow interoperability with any music device and let consumers transcode purchased songs by circumventing any protections. What a contrast it is to see a government enact what is essentially an "anti-DMCA." According to the article:

The French government said the law was drawn up to ensure no single company dominated the fast growing music download market.

Apple's enigmatic response asserted that "legal music sales will plummet" but that "iPod sales will likely increase." I don't necessarily agree with the latter assessment and certainly disagree with the former. How would more freedom of choice in online music stores encourage more piracy than is already occurring? And it's common knowledge that most songs on iPods today are not purchased from any online music store. As I argued last April, consumers value choice in music, not music stores.

Napster and Rhapsody may posture that unlocking the iPod market would be key to their success, but most of the action surrounding Real Networks' Harmony technology took place in the courts and the press, not on consumers' iPods. Besides, the WMA crowd really wants to to pursue subscriptions and I don't think the law could force Apple to support such a business model as such music isn't "purchased."