I know that’s their campaign, but look at what the campaign actually kicked off with:
- More iPad-esque laptops
- More iOS-like features in the OS
- Improvements in iTunes
I’m not saying that Apple is going to kill the entire Mac line tomorrow, but that IMHO the writing is on the wall: they’re converging on iOS-style devices as their heart-and-center of operations, and Macs are either going to move to that style or be dropped (as we see with X-serve).
Sword’s point above about Macs being 27% of their revenue is quite telling; that means 73% of their revenue came from iOS-style devices. THAT is a sea-change, and one that - from everything I can see - Apple is encouraging. From a “dollars and cents” standpoint, Apple is a phone and MP3 player company, not a computer company. That’s not meant to be derogatory, but a statement of fact - they make the lion’s share of their money right now from phones and iPods and iPads.
Macs are no longer the focus for Apple, except as a way to be a platform for their iOS-style devices, IMHO. The convergence is going to appliances and purpose-built “thin clients”, not traditional PCs.
Very well put, Puget.
It's happening throughout the consumer market, not just Apple.
Apple, as usual, is a few years ahead of the rest of the industry, pushing the changes in directions they think are most innovative, cool, and let's not forget profitable to them. They've done that as long as Jobs was at the helm -- it's what he does best. Well, that and speak in over-arching hyperbole. But he's a salesman for the future, so I guess he gets to do that.
Anyway, the big Mac Pros will continue in the industries where they shine (graphics, music, video), and the laptops will continue to morph. But the enterprise desktop will successfully resist the "convergence", because it doesn't apply to the business necessities. Obviously, these consumer-oriented developments won't touch servers either. They'll affect business execs and road warriors, but that's because they're just consumers with a suit on, in this context.
Apple knew that the conventional desktop PC at home was doomed when the iPod took off. They drove the point home with the iPad. There's no surprise here whatsoever.
Nonetheless, I'm disappointed to see Apple's rack servers go bye-bye. I thought they were really rather beautiful, but I'm a technoid, so I'm not allowed an aesthetic sense. :)
are all iPods iOS now? Or all but the shuffle? I thought that number quite high, but you may be right.