MacKen's Profile

While I like Pages 06 I still spend a lot of time in Word. The first thing I do when installing Word on a computer is to se up customized toolbars and getting rid of the standard ones. That way I have everything I need and it's exactly where I expect it to be. Auto correct is another important feature for me. For example, I use qqq for Australia and qqqw for Australian. Hopefully Pages 08 includes this feature.

Shortages of the iPhone is a no brainer. It's going to be tight when the iPhone is released and really tight when the holiday shopping season rolls around. "Little Miss Princess" wants one for Christmas and Mom & Dad are going to be calling around the country to find one. While there might be a good supply in the Sep/Oct time frame I believe it will be January before there is a stable supply, unless you buy directly from Apple. But, of course, that assumes there is no second model released. A year ago the rumors were for a flash memory version first, followed 6 months later with a HD version. That would stir the pot up again.

1. There has never been a worse time! With Mac sales growing 3 to 5 times faster than PCs it would be difficult to justify throwing away this very profitable growth. 2. The only people that care what Dell wants are the 8,000 that are being laid off. With horrid (for me) customer support from India there is no better company around to screw up OS X's reputation. 3. Design does matter as the iPod and iPhone clearly show. We're also talking about the integration of both hardware and software design. 4. Actually I think they will make less money. The real profit will always be on the hardware side and it is that side that pays for OS X development. Now that might change if Apple was to put OS X on the market at the same price points as Vista - but then Mac users would be really screwed because Leopard would not be available to us at $129 retail. Yep, I guess that Apple would be happy with a $499 price for a full version with all of the security controls to avoid pirated copies. We, however, would not. 6. Look at Mac's sales increases year over year. It's profitable, Apple has a lot of cash in the bank and they are able to provide first rate customer service to users who actually buy the hardware. I guess that if OS X was available on PCs Apple could provide customer service to those users from India, who would be happy to take care of the cheap PC world for part of the increased price of OS X. 7. It's better for the consumer for Apple to stick with the Mac/OS X route. Again, look at a need to change price points if OS X is set free, huge problems with customer service levels for Bubba who buys a cheap PC with crap parts, etc. While you may want a cheaper alternative to Macs you sure are not going to want the misery it would bring - like support from India. You also need to take a look at how Mac sales have paid for OS X development and how far that has brought the OS. Compared to the position where Apple was before Steve J returned (when Apple did license their OS to other hardware makers) the OS X/Mac combination has been a winner. I would hate to see that end, but maybe we'll see it after Steve J retires.

The first sigh of success for the iPhone will be the lines of people forming outside the Apple Store (and ATT stores) on the day it is released. It will probably take until noon for stocks to be gone as three will be the ATT agreement to fill out and activation time. The next indicator will be the length of time that it takes a week+ long backorder to develop. If the iPhone is released on a Monday I would expect that backorder to develop by Friday. Apple will probably catch up on the backorder within a month, but holiday sales will boom, making it very difficult to find one to buy as a gift. I'd say buy in late Nov if you want to give one as a gift. Then MWSF will hit and a second version will be released - if it wasn't released for the holiday buying season. My bet is a HD version will be next and the original will get a bump in memory. There will be another huge boost when ATT starts lowering the price with a 2 year contract. While nothing is guaranteed I believe that the iPhone progression will be somewhat similar to the iPod, even if it is at a lower volume level.

If you have a problem at 24 think how it is at 62! I was lucky in that I started off with Nokia phones on an Australian carrier. It didn't have screwed up menu designed by yo-yos at a carrier. It did have the one, easy to find feature that is handy for business travel - an alarm clock. Most important was that it was easy to find on the menu and easy to set. Text messaging? In the time it takes to prepare a text message most people could simply make a short phone call - and get an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) automatically included. I believe that the iPhone may have some features that you don't want - but only because it will be cheaper to include them than to build a line without them. A camera for sure, but you won't be required to use it, or the other features. But I have a feeling that it will include a little something that Apple dreams up that will catch your attention and, sadly, you will find yourself acting like a younger generation again . . .

I've been using iGlasses for a while and love it - a great product at a great price and they continue to upgrade it. Well worth investing in while the price is cheap.

I don't think Apple would hesitate to hire various developers who show them something very good and, more important, who would like to work for Apple. A lot of developers probably enjoy working their at their own pace at home or in an office they have set up the way they want. I also like the idea of Apple paying for some rights to the code when appropriate. Saves development time for Apple and rewards the developer - who might then go onto another great OS X app. A lot of times, however, we tend to think that Apple has taken Company X's idea when there are actually multiple apps out there doing the same thing. The app I'm most interested in right now is Parallels. I would love to see Apple pick up some of their shares in order to prevent MS from buying them out and screwing up the app.