In Defe e of A le%26#039 A ouncments

A le doe 't need me to defend them, and this post i 't going to be a typical A le fa oy defe e. Some of myfellow bloggers (namely Jan, Damien, and C.K.) wereunimpre ed by the mini-Stevenote yesterday, and I was right there with them. Now, after taking some time to digestjust what was introduced I am far from disa ointed (though I won't be getting a $99 iPod case).

If you take atface value the products a ounced yesterday no doubt you would be bummed that there wa 't more 'stuff,' even thoughA le never claimed that this was going to be a boffo a ouncement. However, if you look at the story that the productstell, then things begin to make a little more se e.

As I see it A le was telling two stories yesterday:Intel and iPod acce ories. Let's looks at each of them in turn.

The Switch to Intel

As of yesterday, as Steve pointed out, 50% of A le's computer product line has made the tra ition to Intel,and in le than 60 days. This is amazing, and I am quite puzzled by people who say, 'Well the new Mac mini i 't thatmuch different.' It has an Intel chip in it, for goodne sake.

Part of the blame for this attitude towardsthe switch can be attributed to A le's great handling of it. They have made a co cious decision not to introduce newstyles of Macs to mark the Intel tra ition. What does this mean? If you put an Intel Mac mini next to a Power PC Macmini most people won't be able to tell the difference (though the IR port is a dead give away). Why do this? Becausethe manufacturer of the chip shouldn't matter to the everyday user. A Mac is a Mac whether it is ru ing on a G5, aCore Duo, or a Dorito. However, by making this tra ition look so easy (when in fact it i 't from an engineering pointof view) A le is encouraging people to say, 'WHAT?! Nothing is new with the Mac mini... well other than Front Row and acomplete change in system architecture.. but other than that nothing!'

The big yawn that the Intel Mac miniproduced (unjustly I think) just proves that A le is managing the Intel tra ition much better than anyone thoughtpo ible.

A le's entry into the iPod economy

The iPod Hi-Fi is le of a product and more a signal to the Belki and theGriffin Technologies of the world. A le is saying, "There is a billion dollar iPod economy out there that wecreated and we want a piece of the action.' If I were in charge of iPod products for any third party company I would bevery nervous about this.

This serious interest in iPod acce ories was, of course, first seen at Macworldwere A le a ounced their new remote control/radio receiver for the iPod. That product, and the Hi-Fi, take advantageof A le's control over the iPod to make interaction between the iPod and the acce ory exceedingly smooth. With asoftware update A le added a ecial menu item for the Hi-Fi on every iPod that is compatible with the product (andthat has a screen). No other vendor can a ure that their products will work as well with the iPod, and I am sure theyaren't ha y about it.

I expect to see more iPod acce ories from A le in the coming months, and I expectthat they will sell well (based on the fact that A le is making them and not some company the average Joe may not haveheard of) and they will make A le a tidy sum of money.

Conclusion

So, as you cansee, even though there wa 't an iPod video with touch screen controls, or feature length films in iTunes, thisa ouncement certainly was interesting.