After Apple's iPod/iPhone Announcements - A Look Ahead

Steve Jobs rolled out a whole new line of iPods Wednesday including the all new iPod Touch. What's next and does this mean you and your new Mac are being neglected?

Jobs has recently described Apple as having 3 core businesses: Macs, iPods and iPhones. Today was the iPod's day. That doesn't mean Apple is losing their focus on Macs. In fact, in their latest quarterly report, Mac sales were way beyond expectations. Since I expect many MFM readers have come to the Mac after buying an iPod, any increase in iPod sales can only be good for Mac momentum.

Many think the iPod updates were overdue. It's been about a year since a minor update was made to the line of iPods, which is really long in Consumer Electronics time. In other words, iPods are not taking over the company any more than they already have. Their time in the spotlight had come, and I would expect them to get this treatment every year before the holiday buying season.

The main thing I take away from this event is that the whole Apple product line is more or less up to date now. I don't expect Steve back on any stage until Macworld in January. Yes, Leopard is coming in a month or so, but I won't be holding my breath for Steve to introduce it again. Twice was enough. We will probably see a Friday night launch date be announced in October to tap any enthusiasm for a launch party, but no Steve and probably not even any balloons.

Consider all the boxes are now checked for Apple launches in the near future. I'm not even sure Steve will have much to fill out a keynote with at the next Macworld. Perhaps some speed bumps to the Mac Pro, but that could come any time between now and then with a press release. Also, the Cinema Displays are missing iSight cameras, but there is not a lot of crying about that. If anything, I expect a 3G iPhone in January. Apple will need to get one of those out the door soon to compete in the international marketplace.

So what can we hope for? A sub-notebook or a tablet Mac would be a fun toy, but I'm not sure the market is big enough for them to make those worthwhile projects. The AppleTV might gain more features and perhaps a price cut to make it more attractive. Lastly, an Apple flat screen TV with built in AppleTV could be cool. The Home Entertainment market could really use the polish and creativity that Apple brought to the cell phone market.

Are any of these likely? I doubt it, but they are fun to think about. What do you think? Let us know in the Comments section below.

DIG DEEPER

Get lots of info about the iPod Event at iLounge.

See a QuickTime video of the announcements.

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