As yet another Macworld Expo concludes, here are my thoughts on the
four major keynote announcements last Tuesday. For other Expo news,
you can easily search for them on Google.

1) Macbook Air

Lots of people picked up on this question on the show floor - why is
there a dedicated eject key for a computer whose primary mode of
operation does not involve external or optical drives? Though half the
volume and weight, its horizontal profile is the same as other Apple
laptops. It will sell well the first couple of weeks, but if sales
drop precipitously, I'd expect a price cut in 3-4 months.

In 2000, Apple positioned the G4 Cube between the iMac and PowerMac
desktops - seems like the Macbook Air occupies a similar position
between the Macbook and the Macbook Pro. Like the Cube, the Macbook
Air has a better and compact industrial design, but has a price
premium despite being less capable than the two product lines it
straddles.

As someone said on a podcast - the Macbook Air is the perfect 4th
computer for a person with lots of money.

2) Movie Rentals

More than a thin notebook, iTunes movie rentals represents the most
significant upside potential for Apple. Like the iMac in 1997, Apple
is making a break with the past - replacing physical/optical media
with digital downloads. Movie rentals also reflects Apple's strategy
of not being first to market, and applying lessons learned from other
movie download services.

The downside risk is that Apple is leveraging an existing monopoly
position (music) to gain advantage in another (rental movies) - shades
of 1990's Microsoft strategy. However, don't expect any intervention
from a government that allowed questionable financial products to take
out the housing market.

3) iPhone/iPod

The 1.1.3 software update for iPhone and iPod touch represents the
loosening of restrictions on running third party applications - this
update does not delete user-installed applications and normalizes the
two products. The iPod touch is essentially the iPhone minus the cell
phone features. Good enough for me - I bought an 8Gb iPod touch.

4) Time capsule

This device combines an Airport Extreme (802.11n) Base Station with a
built in hard drive. The 500Gb or 1000Gb capacity will be enough to
backup all the computers on a typical home network. However, people
are anxious that Apple will not allow wireless Time Machine backups to
non-Apple hard drives and wireless routers. I think they're jumping
the gun - wait until Time Capsule ships before raising hell.

5) Miscellaneous

ASACMUG attendees included Mike Quan and family, Dick Lerner, and Alex
Morando. Tuesday events included lunch at Canton Dim Sum and dinner at
Jillians. Thursday lunch was courtesy of Dick's son George at the
Flames burger joint. We've already planned for next year - dinner will
be at Henry's Hunan. You know it's got to be good if a New York
magazine gives kudos to a San Francisco restaurant.

http://henryshunanrestaurant.com/

6) Summary

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 9 being last years' iPhone
debut, this Macworld would have to rate a 6. However,
the expected announcements for the rest of 2008 should
be better than 2007. Good times ahead for Apple.

For more details, visit my Macworld blog entries:

http://www.thesandbox.net/arm/blog/index.php/20080119_macworld-loot/

http://www.thesandbox.net/arm/blog/index.php/20080117_macworld-beeeer/