Apple is growing from all sides, its mobile business has been the engine that accelerated this grow, being the iPhone, iPod and now the iPad the cash cows that provides fresh green dollars to Apple’s bank account while the mac business has grown slowly but consistently, Macbooks and iMacs are everywhere, even in places you won’t expect to see a mac.

This growth has helped Apple get more than 10% of USA domestic computer business for the first time in years according to IDC, securing the third spot in the US PC vendor chart.

So for Apple the Mac is still relevant and for this ocasion, Apple is sending invitation for a October 20th “Back to the Mac”, an event that could shed some light about the next major version of Mac OS X and marks the end of Snow Leopard and the introduction of a whole new cat-based nickname: lion.

Lion could be a whole new Operating System that brings some iOS features back to the mac like multitouch and add more than 200,000 applications that may run freely on the desktop or inside the dashboard, this will be a revitalization of the platform together with an unified environment for easy and quick development of applications entitled to run on Macs or mobile devices.

Going back to the mac could also means providing more hardcore tools for game developers and adding new media and tools to create hardcore mobile newspapers and magazines for the iPad just using Keynote or Pages to help will accelerate the mass adoption of digital of this new kind of media in a broader market.

The reborn of Mac is due in part to Mac OS X, the power behind it and its industry-wise strength as the core, a power that has been transfered to Apple’s mobile devices with iOS and the heart of the next major revolution: AppleTV.

Apple is loosening its restrictions on the AppStore and on its way to do business, licensing DVR IP from Rovi means that every mac or iOS device could act as a wireless media hub for other iOS or non-iOS devices that accept AirPlay.

Today news is that the next major release of Final Cut Pro will be delayed to 2011 as the closer date and that new features and a complete interface overhaul could be put on hold until 2013, this news has been around since the begining of the year, Apple is putting too much resources into its mobile business and the Mac as a platform is relegated to a second class, the mac platform is still virgin, there is a enormous potential within the Mac OS X and its applications, but Apple success in the mobile business has changed its main focus, now the Mac is seen as the perfect mobile platform and not as the graphic design universe, a title that Apple keeps to its chest, but that has been losing market buzz because Apple transition from a computer market to a mobile busines.

The Mac is growing, slowly and the Halo Effect is working, but just when the Mac is poised to grow a little faster Apple launched the iPad, another mobile device that will in one way or another cannibalize the Macbook and the whole OS X for desktop and there is not sign that
a full-OS X tablet could hit the market any date soon that could help the mac desktop business to grow exponentially.

There’s nothing new in Mac OS X, not innovations that capture new users imagination, the system is taking a long vacation, there isn’t any rumor about what will be added to the next 10.7 or any new implementation that could help the whole platform expand for itself, but We are hearing about merging iOS features with the Mac OS X desktop to help mobile applications to run freely, this is nothing new and the platform is getting dust without its own innovation cycle and while Apple polishes the iOS Microsoft is adding new feature to Windows 7, those features are already inside Mac OS X and there is nothing to fear, but perception is that Windows 7 is new while Mac OS X, even with the same features, looks old and quasi-abandoned.

Apple stated that they has transformed into the bigger mobile company in the world and that’s a good thing, but at Mac OS X expense, all major implementation, new features, tweaks and more are added to iOS, the little brother.

I would like to see Mac OS X advertising elsewhere, new features that transform how We interact with computers and new and amazing applications working on Mac OS X, the mobile business is good, thank God, but I spend more time working on my Mac Pro than surfing the net with the iPad and from a business perspective Apple is not taking advantage of Mac OS X as a real and competitive OS to displace Windows in any major market, it seems that Apple is satisfied with how Mac OS X is only related to actual mac users.

Apple’s first retail store in Australia will open on George Street in Sydney on Thursday, 19 June at 5:00 p.m. Located in the heart of the city’s shopping district, the Apple Store® Sydney features two floors dedicated to Macs and iPods and a third floor entirely dedicated to service, including the world’s largest Genius Bar for free advice and personal training through Apple’s popular One to One membership.

“We are thrilled to bring the unique Apple retail experience to Australia,” said Ron Johnson, Apple’s senior vice president of Retail. “This breathtaking new store will be the ultimate place for the people of Sydney to shop, learn and be inspired.”

The Apple Store Sydney has more than 80 Macs and 60 iPods available for customers to experience hands-on, as well as an incredible range of third party products. The store’s knowledgeable staff includes more than 125 locally hired Specialists, Creatives and Geniuses who are ready to share their expertise and offer customers personalised instruction on everything from getting started with a Mac® to building their own web page, creating a podcast or making a digital movie.

Every Apple® retail store offers customers great ways to get the most out of their Mac and iPod®, such as free advice at the Genius Bar, popular in-store workshops and special programs for kids. Customers can also book a free appointment with a Personal Shopper to get expert buying advice or help selecting the perfect gift for everyone on their list. The hands-on Apple retail store experience gives customers a chance to test-drive Apple’s entire product line including the all-new MacBook Air™, the world’s thinnest notebook, as well as the widescreen iPod touch.

The Apple Store Sydney also brings Pro Labs to Australia, offering free, in-depth training on Apple’s professional creative applications for digital photography, music production and video editing including Final Cut Pro®.

Nearly 350 million people have visited Apple retail stores since they opened in May 2001. Apple now operates 215 retail stores in six countries including Australia, the US, UK, Japan, Canada and Italy.

The Apple Store Sydney is located at 367 George Street, one block North of the Queen Victoria Building.

Apple could help EA develop a game Dashboard where you can load a subsystem (based on linux) and play whenever you want, this dashboard will have all the drivers, settings, tweaks for performance and opengl as the main power. The dashboard will only load when you insert a CD, DVD or click it for any X game and will unload when you quit the game, freeing memory and resources.

Read: A Dedicated Game Machine and OS

This is the Apple time and should takes advantages of it, Apple should creates a gaming platform, not a console and a good start is to helps EA develop the unified games platform, where Apple will take full advantages, because Apple is the last place where games publishers look develop any decent game.

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whataboutmac.com

Imagine this: a Game Subset (like Dashboard, but just for Games) where only system resources and features are loaded to make games run extremely fast turning your mac into a new Desktop Game Platform. The actual system will be unloaded and its place will be taken by the Game Subset (Game Dashboard) with Accelerated Graphic Engines, OpenGL drivers, GPU Engines and why not an emulator for DirectX.

Connectix proved that it is possible to emulate games in mac and with today technology and Apple hardware expertise it is easier to achieve with better results and in a short time, what is missing is a real game decision from Apple to bring more games to the platform.

If Apple really wants to cover all the bases in home entertaining, it must start thinking about TV or Computer Games. Games represent a very lucrative business and a can be an extension of the Apple Home invasion.

The first one is: The Xbox could suffers if it is true, then Microsoft won’t have a good games on its own, Halo was the only game that really attracted fans to the Xbox.

The second one, and this is what I believe is the true about this news, is that Microsoft isn’t making enough money on the Xbox even with the Halo franchise, so somebody inside recommended to drop this news and make everybody believes it, I think they want to start making games for Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo, searching for a profit. It would be IMPOSSIBLE for a Microsoft unit to make games for Playstation or Nintendo, it will tell analysts in Wall Street that they are losing more money than reported and could look as a desperated move.

Third one, if Bungie is running away from Microsoft, I suppose that we are going to see more mac games and maybe Apple decided to jump on the game.

Please this news can’t be taken seriously until Microsoft announces it officially.

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whataboutmac

1) Business
Apple has decided to go for the personal experience, the computer’s user, letting in a retard place its business stratety while providing decent tools, but not enough to have a fight with Microsoft, in this area Microsoft has a vast experience and it is not ready to let others take its space. So Apple should refocus, spend more time with businesses and let them know that Apple is here to support them with innovative tools and service.

Microsoft 3 rounds, Apple knocked out.

2) OS X vs Vista
I put my bet on Apple if Steve goes to war. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft has a enormous user base, but with Vista they don’t provide any better experience than with Windows XP, users are angry about Vista performance and the amount of money to spend updating pc to make Vist runs. Apple has the advantage here, with Leopard and Macs running Intel processors Apple can make an invisible layer that let you start your Windows applications running Bootcamp without even notice it and bring the best of both world, Mac OS X and Vista, for people that need them.

Apple 12 rounds, Microsoft 12, Apple won by an edge, the big M corner is unhappy with the decision.

3) Home Entertaining
While Microsoft provides a bunch of solutions (Xbox, Zune, Media Center), none of them are recognise as revolutionaries and there is a big chance for Apple to bring its power to the scene. Apple has wireless television with the AppleTV that in conjunction with Itunes Store let you watch your tv programs; Frontrow, a decent way to have all your media in just one place; the Ipod has become the most important piece in the entertaining universe, it can be hooked everywhere from jukebox, home stereos, cars and so on. So to compete with Microsoft, Apple needs to make bigger effort to bring more games to the mac, creating a Imac for games or buying a game producer. Microsoft has the advantage here, while the xbox is losing money every quarter, there is a huge library of games for windows, so if users can’t have a game console, they can play in their Windows Machine, in this area the mac lags behind maybe because only in recent days Apple has realized that games are importants, I hope that those coming games arent’ Ipod only.

Without a content division that provides Apple fresh media and the reality that you can’t record TV programs with your AppleTV will place Apple in second place when competing with all the solutions from Microsoft.

Microsoft 7 rounds, Apple knocked out.

4) Digital Music and Video Players
Not much to say here, Microsoft with all its monopoly power and partners around the world didn’t practice for this fight and end up backstabbing them (partners) with the launc of its music player (zune), so there a whole universe of Digital Music Players based on an abandoned Playforsure Platform. Meanwhile the Ipod keeps flying high and Apple polishes every once in a while letting the competition in the dust. So it is difficult to fight a Heavyweight with Amateurs techniques. Microsoft has not chance here…

Apple 2 rounds, Microsoft knocked out.

This is an illustration of how I see things, these ideas can be wrong, you have the right to let me know where I am mistaking here, but these are my considerations by now, I will add your recommendations in the second part when I pitch the Mobile strategies of Microsoft and Apple and other businesses advantages of weaknesses of these giants.

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whataboutmac.com

Apple destroyed two things with this announcement:
1. Buying song wirelessy, it is done with the Itunes Wifi Store, in the past this was a verizon advantage, now it is an apple one.
2. Apple competition suggests that nobody will buy a $600 phone, with the new price apple responds, but at the same time double the capacity.

The strategy followed with the ipod was obligatory and easier to achieve, drop the phone from the iphone and gives zune a run for its money, because one of the real advantages of zune was a wifi mp3 player.

In the past Apple has let slipped good oportunity because of the lack of game plan or interest in home entertaining, Bungie with a good mac game called Marathon and Oni, this little company turn out to be the maker of the ultra famous Halo Franchise, was acquired by Microsoft and became a hardcore game maker.

Remember Myst, wow, what a damn game, I used to spent the whole night playing it, the Tomb Raider serie was a good mac game, but now Mac gamers are abandoned in the dark. I am playing Tomb Raider Anniversary, Dark Messiah and Far Cry all of them work perfectly in my Imac 20″ running Bootcamp.

Maybe Apple does not need a bloody game, but something has to be done in this area, Nintendo has proved that you can sell family games in tons, without a super duper console or losing too much money in the process.

There has been some kind of progress, recently EA has commited to port some of its games, Apple itself introduced games in the ipod platform, maybe soon in the iphone, rumours has been rampant about Apple porting some of Nintendo games, but the reality is that now that all Mac computers run Windows and there is not reason to port or make games to the mac, because is easier to make mac users run their games in Windows.

Remedy:
First thing Apple should do is to turn the game button ON, create a game unit inside Apple.
Buy, rent or create a new Game Engine, license it to game creators
Build a new mac, basically a mac mini for Games, with a better graphic card, more hard drive and more memory.
Create a game section in itunes.
Buy those classic mac games and port them to ipod, iphone and to leopard.
Buy the remaining of Sega or buy Nintendo
Buy Aspir.
Create some wireless remote.

Please Apple does something, we need games.

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whataboutmac.com

But if you really want to know more about Apple future, just watch the opposite side of some of Microsoft attempts to control the world… Microsoft and Apple has battled for decades, with Winodws Microsoft won the money and the perception (of being a good company) of millions of users worldwide, by creating systems and features attached to Windows (Watches, Cell phones, PDAs, Remote Controls, Entertaining Systems for home and cars), See the approach? Control everything at the same time, adding features but not pleasure.

Apple is doing the same thing, in reverse, adding pleasure to each product and everything it touches, from the ipod to the iphone, you just feel that the person that packaged those products are from heaven. Delicated and well delivered products. This is what you buy, pleasure…. And pleasure is the power behind a well designed and conceived car (Ferrari, Porsche, you name them).

Enters the Icar
Rumours are starting to circulate about a joint venture between Apple and Volkswagen that will create an Icar. A well designed and market, full of features and pleasure created to a market that understand that you just need a well mixed combination of features to have Pleasure to use the product. If it is true and not just a joint venture to supply a entertaining system for the Volky, prepare to see a minimalist and “make me proud to use” icar, it won’t fly or have a navegation system that drives you to the supermarket, but it will be a joy to use and paint green the face of your friends.

Apple future

Apart from Operating Systems the future products from both companies overlap:
Microsoft has Home invasion strategy, Xbox, Media Center, Apple has the Itv.

Microsoft has a Car Entertaining and Navegation system used by BMW (joked by Ozzy Osbourne) and some American car makers. Apple has a big present in the automobile industry with almost all new models bringing ipod connectivity to its audio entertaining system and now “Icar”, we don’t know yet what it is yet.

Apple has the Ipod and a billion+ dollars business around it, Microsoft has zune and a flunked strategy.

Apple has the itunes store and itunes music application, Microsoft created a business around zune and xbox to compete with Apple in the download space.

Microsoft has Windows Mobile operating system for phone and pda, Apple has Mac OS X.

See the path? Apple is fighting Microsoft slowly and everything started when Steve returned to Apple, this is the second coming, the definitive one. Don’t turn the youtube channel.

My bet: Apple wins in 12 rounds, but wins.