Secret Weapon Labs

Things Apple will never do…

So I’m reading an article in the August ‘05 issue of Fast Company last night which is discussing the death of the iPod, almost as if it is a foregone conclusion. The author, John J. Sviokla, proposes the idea that because of the technology and music marketplace ecosystem and the fact that Apple holds so much (if not all) of its technology with respect to the iPod ‘close to the vest’ and has closed it off to outsiders e.g. Microsoft’s WMA format and Yahoo’s Music Unlimited service. I understand the writers argument and I generally agree with his arguments but in this particular case, I think he fails to see deeper into the fact that the iPod has become a cultural icon, and I’ll leave it at that.

I digress somewhat, but nonetheless I mulled over his article repeatedly in my mind, even when I was mindlessly unwinding by killing radioactive alien headcrabs in a Half-Life 2 campaign, on the new Gateway I just acquired. I ended up reminiscing on a particular [insert it here, if you remember] MacWorld conference where Steve Jobs was talking about computers, games, and Apple’s decision to support OpenGL in both hardware and software. His point was this: people buy computers most especially for games, and one treadmill for real-world computer performance is often displayed in games due to the intense computational power that can be needed. This point was made some years ago and I think Apple hoped that OpenGL would take more momentum away from DirectX, but it did not.

Now follow me here…

Here is Apple some years later realizing that:

• Their high-end hardware sales are languishing due to cannibalization by the general growth in mobile computing popularity
• Microsoft isn’t stepping away from gaming in any way and is only getting more entrenched
• Games are one of the strongest reminders (other than say Photoshop) that “Damn, my computer really is slow…”
• Companies like Valve just aren’t bringing the high-end games like Half-Life 2 to the platform. Doom 3 maybe, and Warcraft definitely. But there are so many HUGE game launches that don’t include Macs, even as an afterthought. (DirectX being one of the predominant reasons)
• And, they’re tired of IBM for whatever reasons
• In addition, they have engineered OS X to be able to run on any kind of processor to be more forward-thinking and have a platform that is resilient to whatever technological hiccups that may come.

Encompassed in all this is the decision to allow a Mac to dual-boot into Windows. So potentially, users/gamers could have a sweet gaming machine which they can plug in to a 30″ Cinema Display and then actually reboot and use the same computer for everything else as most Mac users are so happily aware. Effectively, Apple would not be beating Microsoft but joining them and at the same time undercutting Dell, Gateway, Alienware, etc.

I’m probably not the first person to realize this outside of Apple but it’s a brilliant strategic move which I think will only help Apple empower and maintain its position in the technology ecosystem. Coupled with a digital music player that they could allow WMA’s to play on, if they decided to, at a moments notice and you have a VERY interesting prospect of where Apple may be going.
Am I crazy or does this make sense to anyone else?