On a blog without a name

So. Apple has finally given the consumers what they think they want, and as cool a product as no doubt all the blogs will say it is, it could well turn out to be one of the disastrous decisions in history. It is certainly brave.

First things first: Apple Computers is now, legally, Apple Inc.

The other change in the keynote at Mac world was a series of absences:

1. No iLife update.
   
2. No iWork update.
   
3. No Demo of OS 10.5.
   
4. No new desktop machines.
   
5. No new laptops.
   
6. Most significantly, no ‘one more thing‘.
   

Apple has put all of its metaphorical eggs into the basket of producing its own smart phone, which will, of course, be a truly wonderful piece of kit. It beats any current handheld or telephone, of that one can be almost sure.

Yet to do it, it has clearly had to divert a huge amount of developer (hardware and software) time into the creation of its new product, an iPod with phone and data.

And it is a product that people will not want nearly as much as they think they do, despite some absolutely wonderful innovations and great design.

It is expensive, and actually using any of its new features will be even more so. Apple is competing in a world where the paper diary is a negligible cost, telephones are being given away two at a time, voice contracts are expensive, data contracts are prohibitively so. It makes this iPod/phone hard to justify. The iPod part itself will even struggle to compete, limited as it is to the capacities of the lower end of the iPod range.

$500-$600, plus (let’s say) twelve months of a $60 ‘phone bill buys you some very shiny stuff, probably things that will - ultimately - be more fun, more useful, and better value than a telephone.

Worst of all, Apple has diverted so many resources into a product that still isn’t shipping. In fact, on a day when apple might well have been expected (on previous form) to have released a piece of hardware and two items of software, they have nothing to ship.

If they had released Leopard (OS 10.5) today, they might have stolen Vista’s thunder, and certainly would have seen a purchase by a large percentage of their user base.

This product is not going to be of much interest to the corporate market, and I wonder how many consumers will really be able to afford an expensive luxury. This product competes with the Blackberry and the Zune, not the core of the IT market.

The name change truly signifies a shift in Apple’s focus. And it is not a wise one.