[/caption]\n\nAs a modest aside, I'd really like to see a single-piece bluetooth keyboard and trackpad for around $100. Bonus points if it works with iOS devices in the obvious way. But then the existing glass trackpads could do this job too. (And note how that would dovetail nicely with running iOS Apps under OS X (it would be damn useful for iOS developers using the simulators too).\n\nYou know what would be really cool? Stick an accelerometer in the Magic Trackpad (or this new thing) and allow it to be a game controller for AppleTVs running iOS games.\n
Radical Macbook Pro Redesign
\nI'd like to see Apple release MacBook Pro's with no internal optical drive, and switch to SD media / USB sticks for software distribution. Multitouch and/or stylus support would be great (indeed, wouldn't it be neat to get a hybrid tablet now given the direction Apple is heading with the iPad?) but perhaps too much to hope for. (Especially since it might divert developer attention away from iOS.) Given that Apple kind of has too many laptop lines right now, the Macbook Pro 13\" and Macbook Air could merge, while the Macbook Pro 15\" fills the empty space left by removing the optical drive with battery and the Macbook Pro 17\" keeps its optical drive.\nMac Pro Lite / Headless iMac / xMac (Again. Sigh.)
\nYou can now get a bleeding edge, quad core iMac with a decent (but RAM-poor and down-clocked) GPU and a magnificent display that will be obsolete in 18 months simply because its GPU isn't upgradeable (and frustrating right now because it could so easily have a better GPU with more RAM). The only option for anyone even a little serious about 3d is to pay twice as much for a Mac Pro. This wouldn't be so bad if there were some kind of not-quite-so-huge-and-expensive Mac Pro option, e.g. a quad core non-Xeon machine with a box half-to-two-thirds the size of a Mac Pro that sold for $1200-1500. There's plenty of room for Apple margin in there (and it's not like you can't pay that kind of money for a modestly awesome PC these days).\n\nI guess the big question for Apple is whether it's leaving money on the table with its current lineup. I guess their thinking runs like this: some hypothetical buyer wants a Mac to game on or do 3d, and either ends up buying an iMac (and cursing its GPU and having to upgrade in 18 months) or a Mac Pro (and pays Apple an extra $1000 more than he/she intended) or a Windows PC.\n\nIn the first case, Apple makes about as much money as it would have if it sold a hypothetical xMac. In the second case Apple makes more money (and the buyer likely ends up being very happy in the long run). And in the third Apple makes no money and perhaps loses a current or potential customer forever. This has to be weighed against the money Apple loses to cannibalized Mac Pro sales if an xMac were an option for the folks who currently buy Mac Pros because there is no cheaper option, even though they don't need all the goodies the Mac Pro offers (overpriced server CPUs chief among them).\n\nOne possible option would be a bigger Mac Mini with a quad core CPU, 8GB RAM, an SSD and a decent (and upgradeable) GPU. It's hard to imagine Apple couldn't make serious margin on such a machine without cannibalizing Mac Pro sales (or perhaps even not caring if it did).\n\nBut it's not going to happen.\nBottom Line
\n(Edit: I've added how I did in parentheses.)\n\n\t- iOS 4.2 and 10.6.5 will probably get mentioned/announced/released (yeah this is a Mac event but iOS 4.2 is bound to 10.6.5 for printing) (no)
\n\t- 10.7 Announcement (\"Spring 2011\") (\"Summer 2011\")
\n\t- Final Cut Studio 5 Announcement (\"Early 2011\" — NAB is in April, but perhaps earlier since Apple doesn't care much about trade shows any more) (no)
\n\t- New iLife with no iDVD and iWeb replacement (yes, iDVD and iWeb in maintenance mode)
\n\t- New iWork but with disappointing feature set (no)
\n\t- New Macbook Air (yes, two)
\n\t- XCode 4 Announcement (\"Available for download today\") (no)
\n\t- Some speed bumps (no, unless you count the Macbooks Air)
\n\t- Addendum: PCWorld's wish list includes iChat support for FaceTime which I think is almost certain (yes)
\n
\nAnd I did not predict the Mac App store. (I was fooled by Apple's denial of earlier rumors, which turns out to have been a half-truth.)","$updatedAt":"2024-06-05T09:23:15.703+00:00",path:"back-to-the-mac",_created:"2024-07-09T20:30:49.679Z",id:"3407",_modified:"2024-07-09T20:30:49.679Z","$id":"3407",_path:"post/path=back-to-the-mac"}}