The Apple juggernaut has been going from strength to strength while Apple shares continue to defy gravity. The question is whether anything could knock Apple off stride? To offer some food for thought, here are some suggestions are the Mac Nation braces itself for Macworld.
1. 2008 turns out to be a boring year, relatively speaking, in terms of new product releases. After all, 2007 was a monster year with the launch of the iPhone; an overhauled iPod lineup, including the Touch; and, of course, the appearance of new operating system, Leopard. Not to dismiss the ultra-portable laptop being speculated about but 2008 looks to be far less exciting. (Update: You can check out the MacBook Air here.)
2. The iPod market begins to reach a saturation point. It’s only taken a few years but the iPod is now ubiquitous – if you’ve bought an MP3 player recently, chances are that it’s an iPod. The question is whether there are enough people without iPods to continue to fuel demand, and/or whether Apple can release new models that get existing iPod users to upgrade.
3. Steve Jobs’ health. Knock on wood, Jobs’ scare with pancreatic cancer has been effectively addressed. But given he’s Apple’s visionary and his heir apparent is far from clear, his ability to continue to lead Apple is a crucial issue for the company’s ongoing success.
4. A strategic mistake that causes Apple to lose focus. Robert Cringely, for example, has suggested Apple should buy Adobe – a multi-billion dollar move ($22-billion to be exact) that would certainly give Apple a wider and stronger arsenal but would consume a lot of senior management cycles to integrate. Apple could also spin its strategic wheels if it gets into the wireless business with Google.
5. Competition. While there doesn’t appear to be any viable iPod rivals on the horizon, there are suggestions Apple will face competition from companies such as Amazon, which is making a major push into the music and movie markets. Meanwhile, some of the music labels are showing signs of getting their act together while Yahoo’s Ian Rogers appears to have some innovative ideas.
6. Microsoft manages to fix Vista or upgrades XP so that Leopard loses the huge goodwill advantage is now enjoys. Of course, Microsoft has a long way to go if it wants to stage an OS comeback but you never know.
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Six Things That Could Derail the Apple Cart
The Apple juggernaut has been going from strength to strength while Apple shares continue to defy gravity. The question is whether anything could knock Apple off stride? To offer some food for thought, here are some suggestions are the Mac Nation braces itself for Macworld.
1. 2008 turns out to be a boring year, relatively speaking, in terms of new product releases. After all, 2007 was a monster year with the launch of the iPhone; an overhauled iPod lineup, including the Touch; and, of course, the appearance of new operating system, Leopard. Not to dismiss the ultra-portable laptop being speculated about but 2008 looks to be far less exciting. (Update: You can check out the MacBook Air here.)
2. The iPod market begins to reach a saturation point. It’s only taken a few years but the iPod is now ubiquitous – if you’ve bought an MP3 player recently, chances are that it’s an iPod. The question is whether there are enough people without iPods to continue to fuel demand, and/or whether Apple can release new models that get existing iPod users to upgrade.
3. Steve Jobs’ health. Knock on wood, Jobs’ scare with pancreatic cancer has been effectively addressed. But given he’s Apple’s visionary and his heir apparent is far from clear, his ability to continue to lead Apple is a crucial issue for the company’s ongoing success.
4. A strategic mistake that causes Apple to lose focus. Robert Cringely, for example, has suggested Apple should buy Adobe – a multi-billion dollar move ($22-billion to be exact) that would certainly give Apple a wider and stronger arsenal but would consume a lot of senior management cycles to integrate. Apple could also spin its strategic wheels if it gets into the wireless business with Google.
5. Competition. While there doesn’t appear to be any viable iPod rivals on the horizon, there are suggestions Apple will face competition from companies such as Amazon, which is making a major push into the music and movie markets. Meanwhile, some of the music labels are showing signs of getting their act together while Yahoo’s Ian Rogers appears to have some innovative ideas.
6. Microsoft manages to fix Vista or upgrades XP so that Leopard loses the huge goodwill advantage is now enjoys. Of course, Microsoft has a long way to go if it wants to stage an OS comeback but you never know.
Update: MacRumorsLive is liveblogging Jobs’ keynote.
Technorati Tags: Apple, Macworld, Steve Jobs