Editorials
Year Of the Mac: 2003
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This is the first annual Year of the Mac article. It covers what will happen to the MAc during the next year.
2002 was a great year for the Mac. The new iMac's were a smashing success, Jaguar was and still is hot, the Switch ads are working to bring people in and are working to change our image. A few years ago I got teased every time I said I used a Mac. Now, people ask if it's one of those cool ones on TV. Or if I can make DVD's. Now it's actually cool to have a Mac (from the perspective of an average PC user). I know several people who converted this year, and are loving it.2003 is going to be a huge year for the Mac. Here's what I think will happen:
1) The Switch campaign will last through 2003. I bet there will be a few more celebrity ads but a lot more good ol' normal people ads.
2) The iPod will own the music player industry. Now that there is a Windows version, nothing is stopping it. Look for more imitations but no one will settle for anything but the iPod. I have a feeling this will pad Apple's financial's for at least 2 quarters.
3) OS X will make big strides. Believe it or not but there are a lot of people still using OS 9. They will switch over due to software makers switching over. It's going to be another hot year for OS X books and training software.
4) We're going to see another iApp in 2003. Don't know what yet, but the digital hub is not yet complete. Of course iChat, iCal, and iSync will receive much needed updates.
5) MacOS X 10.3 (code named Panther) will tempt even more IT professionals who want to be able to run their favorite Unix goodies and still be able to run Office and other programs from the GUI side of computing. OS X is already making many a geek converts, but 10.3 will convert them in droves. Apple needs to market OS X more towards geeks, some of who think it's a kids OS because of the simplistic nature. I'd like to see a commercial on Tech TV covering Terminal.app, and some of the nifty Utilities that ship with X.
6) Apple's flat panels will dip in price quite a bit. The big end of the year rebates were a test. I'd expect to see the 17" down to the 600-700 range and the Cinema displays follow suit proportionately. In a perfect world I'd like to see Apple monitors be able to work with PC's, but that's not going to happen. If Steve Jobs was more of a business man than a revolutionary we'd see a lot more Apple Displays around.
7) Cocoa software is starting to mature and will only get better in 03. Programmers are getting more advanced every day and some of the new software coming out is just amazing. Photo To Movie for instance is revolutionary (and so freaking cheap). Other examples of great Cocoa software are: NetNewsWire, iPulse, Chimera, Adium and LaunchBar. A lot of the great programming is coming from free or shareware programmers. The big apps from Adobe and Macromedia won't be written in Cocoa for a long time, but until then the small guys are more than enough to keep us happy. Expect a huge year for cheap or free Cocoa software. Don't forget to be generous to the programmers... If they have a tip jar don't hold back. Brian's Freeloader Friday column will keep you abreast of what's new.
8) Apple stock will be above $20 a share at this time next year.Not great, but it will be up for the year.
That's it. This looks to be one hell of a year for the Macintosh!
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