Apple Creates new iPod and Macintosh Divisions 146
KH2002 writes "According to a New York Times/Reuters report, Apple is creating a separate division for the iPod. Apple Senior VP Hardware Engineering, Jon Rubenstein, will head the iPod division, and Executive VP of Worldwide Sales and Operations Tim Cook will lead the Mac division. The report quotes a spokesman as saying, 'This organizational refinement will focus our talent and resources even more precisely on our industry-leading Macintosh computers and the wildly successful iPod.'"
Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:4, Insightful)
It seems of late that Apple has been focusing more and more on the music side of their business (ITMS, iPod etc).
Therefore, I can see this decision going one of two ways:
I certainly hope that it's #1, and I have a hunch that it is, but it will be very interesting to see what developers over the next few years.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Interesting)
What I'm hoping will happen with the iPod division will be that they will start making their own iPod accessories. What I really want is a car head unit that has a slot that one just pops the iPod into. Current iPod adapter solutions are all crap and don't measure up to Apple design standards.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Insightful)
This is why I love my iPod so much and probably why it's so successful.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Interesting)
Dunno why you'd presume that.
Also, the new division may be responsible for other one-trick-pony devices, should Apple decide to market them.
The thing that I find the most notable about this is that Jon Rubinstein (not going to check the spelling, sorry) is the guy that everyone lauds for the iMac, the tiBook & the alBook, the cheesegrater, and the iPod's excellent design. You'll note how four out of those five items are Macintoshes and not tiny consumer electronic devices.
Was Jon a figurehead, will he still be involved in Mac hardware design, or does this mean that we'll be seeing lamer (maybe just different) design for the next generation of Mac enclosures?
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Informative)
Are you sure you're not confusing Jon Rubinstein with Jonathan Ive [bbc.co.uk]? Ive is usually credited for the design excellence you mentioned.
Wrong John (Score:4, Informative)
Johnathan Ive which has already been mentioned, is the industrial design guru that should be rightly credited with the iPod, iMac, and the toaster Cube that flopped with consumers.
Jon Rubenstein comes from NeXT and was the former Head of NeXT Hardware, developed the Apollo line of HP Workstations before joining NeXT. Upon the NeXT Hardware being shutdown Jon left and worked on the PowerPC Hardware for a subsidiary owned by Motorola.
Jon currently is and rightly so credited for the XServe and XRaid product lines with all his experience and expertise. Having Jon add to his overseeing with the iPod tells me that Apple is getting ready to produce a Professional and Consumer Electronic Lineup that ties into its Professional and Consumer Software Application base that continues to grow.
Think of digital devices that Final Cut Pro can take advantage of, to name just one obvious option. Think of video add-ons for iPod users that could attach a DVD made via DVD Studio Pro.
wrong Jon (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
I don't remember where I read this concern, but it's Johnathan Ive, not John Rubenstein, who's responsible for all the cool designs. I have to assume he stays with the Mac division, or perhaps his talents get split between the two. I can't see future Apple products without him, whether they be Macs or i
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Interesting)
Many HU's have a jack in the back which you can buy an adapter for that can connect to an ipod. You can run the wire from that jack to whatever location you want to put the iPod in. My ipod sits in the door pocket where it is nicely out of the way and hidden from theives.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Is this head unit actually going to control the iPod (and most importantly) use the iPod's output, or is it just going to use the iPod's drive as a slave storage device and play the music itself?
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Many HU's have a jack in the back which you can buy an adapter for that can connect to an ipod.
Wow.. so many people use iPods due to design alone.. so it's suprising that so many of them would recommend such an ugly ugly solution.
A car stereo with a flip-down face and a slot for the ipod is a much better solution.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Insightful)
iPods currently have a much larger profit margin than Macintoshes (which are barely above break-even).
Do you think Apple could sustain itself making only unprofitible Macs forever? (As they aren't really doing anything to increase market share.)
The long-term digital music/movies business is not a "one trick pony" -- in the future it's bound to be integrated into every cell phone, PDA, car stereo, home stereo, cable box, and television set. I guess the development of an 'iPod' division indicates that Apple is looking at the big picture and not just the trick pony.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, in the consumer market the parent poster is probably right.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
(www.archos.com)
While not wireless, they can digitize audio and video in real time from NTSC or S-video.
I have a AV 320 and like it a lot.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Sigh.
I may regret this, but I'm going to forward that link to my work address. Maybe we can bill it to AV's overhead budget instead of "mine".
Thanks. I think.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:4, Interesting)
Precisely. This is more than likely where the market pressure will be felt the most strongly.
Our team has built an app that among other things, allows our producers to preview acquired video (we're talking way upstream of rough cuts, btw.)
The biggest feature request is to be able to access the app from home, which is doable as long as you've got pipe and can VPN in.
Your average Executive Producer isn't going to be doing that.
A handheld video device can create some new challenges (especially from a security standpoint) but they are all solvable -- a device that required me to authenticate with my SecureID would be sweet...
If you have an A/V out then you're outputting to a DLT projector and a 5:1 home theater system if you so choose... can you imagine a player that you could dock to your TiVo, transfer files, and carry around with you?
Of course, in the consumer market the parent poster is probably right.
ehh..... I dunno.
I didn't really see the point in carrying around 5,000 mp3s with me until I bought my iPod. Now I'm looking at buying a second one just to make my home folder machine portable :-)
An avPod would sell like crazy: especially to all of the Volvo/Audi driving soccer parents who are making movies every time their darling baby angel blinks and putting them up on their .Mac web pages.
I'd go buy one today. I've got over 20 GB of music videos that I would love to be able to carry around in a small form factor and plug into my home theater as easily as I can with my iPod.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
yeah right, next thing you'll be telling me is that people dont want to play games and take pictures with their phones and would rather actually hear the people they are talking to!
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
I've never seen anybody in public actually using a camera phone as a camera. It's a gimmick. Sure, a few people might use it as a camera, but I doubt it's regularly. Camera phones probably did well in test marketing because people thought they were novel/cool. But once the novelty wears off, the camera will probably see little use.
Do you own/use a camera phone as a camera? Know anybody that does regularl
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1, Flamebait)
Please stop suggesting things. (I never asked for suggestions.) I've already looked into all of them and they all suck.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
However, for the people who don't want to wait for good wireless solution, read above...
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
While I doubt that they're exclusively my needs (I really think such a product would sell much better than, say this [ipodlounge.com]), my answer is: yep, exactly. And I'm not going to compromise what I want and accept anything less. I'd rather do without than have a half-assed solution. Sorry your standards aren't as high.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
Just like they work closely with the Windows division for the same features...
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Informative)
It is coming...... [vwvortex.com]
This will be the first, others will come after....
Perhaps even an iPod changer for those who want more than 40 GB....
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:4, Interesting)
The right solution is to make the iPod slip into a slot for it, preferably with the slot in the head unit itself behind the fold-down faceplate.
I'm entitled to want what I want.
All I can do is hope that somebody gets it right.Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Insightful)
I know I've been holding off for a Rev B G5 mainly because I want a dual chip machine, and though the Dual 1.8 is the best price/perfomance ratio at the moment, it's still going on 6 or 7 months old. I have no urgent, pressing need for a G5, so holding off for the next speedbump makes sense to me.
Creating a separate iPod/music division away from the Mac line is a fantastic idea, and will allow more concentration on their respecetive products.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Interesting)
Quite a normal computer industry phenomenon, and nothing to worry about.
I'm typing this on a dual 1.8 G5. Nice machine.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
This coupled with their wonkey pricing-strategy pretty much scares both customers and resellers alike.
If customers could walk in to a local store, feel and try the machine before they buy it, and then be pretty sure that it wouldn't be 2 weeks before apple decides to launch the next upgraded mac pushing all the others down one notc
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
The best neologism I've ever read, probably...
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Interesting)
If I can get one even after they come out; I expect the demand to be far greater than the supply for quite a while.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple has filed for trademarks over three more cat names (Lynx, Cougar, and Leopard), which good through 2007 at their current OS release rate, *and* they have said that they are going to slow down their operating system release rate. I believe that their Mac hardware division is also profitable on most lines independent of their iPods.
Taking these two things into account I find it *highly* unlikely that there is *any* plan to kill off the Mac.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Insightful)
There was one business mag that suggested that Apple should spin off the iPod and iTMS into a separate company and issue an IPO for it. It would net Apple lots of cash, and it could isolate Apple from the eventual decline of the iPod.
This does make some sense, as it is hard to envision Apple keeping the iPod as a high profit margin device for more than 5 years or so. I don't know about you, but I kind of expect the functionality of my iPod, my Palm, and my cell phone to converge by then. I suspect that Apple hopes that by the time that happens, they will have a large share of the legal downloads market, and that sales for iTMS will be large enough to produce a good profit, even with the razor thin margins they have now.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know about you, but I kind of expect the functionality of my iPod, my Palm, and my cell phone to converge by then.
Convergence is over-rated. Each of these devices serves a different purpose and requires a different form factor. Look at your current gadgets, they're probably more or less ideal in terms of form factor. How comfortable would it be to write on your cell phone's screen? How would you like to hold your Palm up to your ear for an extended period of time? And once you have a single device, how do you turn up your music player a bit while talking on the phone, and then quickly jot down a number?
But integration between the devices would certainly be nice. A cell phone sending a signal to turn down an iPod might be nice. A Palm that can shunt little-used programs off to an iPod would be handy.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
I hate the lumpy pockets and moments of confusion (was that the phone or my iPod?) inherent in dragging around multiple devices. There's also the greater risk of losing them when they drop out of your pocket, something that's happened to me with dismaying frequency.
I presently use a T-Mobile Sidekick, which is a combination phone, PDA and web browsing device, and it works great except whe
mobiles and music (Score:2, Insightful)
I think integrating a phone into something like an ipod would be a great idea in some respects and just annoying in others.
I'd love to stop getting weird looks in the street while im listening to my pod and my phone rings and i dont hear it
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm thinking along the lines of having a 'convergent device' in my pocket (no, I'm not just happy to see you), with wireless technology feeding images to me through glasses or similar technology, with voice recognition, hand gesture recognition, etc (perhaps built into the glasses).
"Search engine. How do I get to Target from here?"
[Device looks up mapquest directions, map displays on HUD w/directions]
"Phone. Call Dave Jones."
[Phone dials, microphone and earphones are built into your glasses.]
"Calendar. Remind me. December 7, 1941 12PM. A date that will live in something something..."
[Calendar alarm is added to your schedule.]
"Take a memo. Subject: Convergent devices. Here are some more ideas for convergent device user interfaces..."
[New memo is created.]
"Camera. Pic."
[Camera built into glasses takes a picture.]
"Music. Shuffle. Dave Matthews Band."
[Device starts playing music, channeled to your earphones built into the glasses.]
Only problem with this thing is everyone will be wearing glasses. It's either that or implants.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:1)
I'd be happy with seeing more implants around
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Uncomfortable, but still more comfortable than trying to fit another item in my pockets along with my my glasses, keys, wallet and phone. I would rather carry around one device with a subideal "form factor" than seven that are each individually well-designed.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:3, Interesting)
Ah, but I doubt you'd be carrying around seven devices. There are, perhaps, two or three ideal form factors:
Palm: Comfortable to hold flat in the hand and operate with a pen or finger. Large screen. Examples: PDA, GPS, a calculator. By all means, merge them all into one and have a super PDA.
Ear: Comfortable to hold up to your ear for an extended period of time, which requires a smaller (or at least less wide) screen. The only thing I can really think of that fits into this category is a cell phone, whic
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
{puzzled}
Friend: Can you hear me now?
You: Yeah, hang on a sec while I adjust my music volume.
Friend: Can you hear me now?
You: What?
Not even teenagers are that mixed up.
Also, if your iPod was your phone, I bet it would automatically pause the music while you were on a call.
Seriously, that's a good point about multitasking issues. But bad example. {smile}
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
Ever been on hold for an hour? :)
But yeah, I could have picked a better example.
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
The Return of the Newton? (Score:2)
Re:Better focus or Mac to be axed? (Score:2)
What's he doing with the iPod, away from computer hardware?
It's easy to read too much into this one, but superficially you can't make it sound good.
If next we hear Avie's running customer support, then it's serious!
Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:1)
There's no incentive; Heck, iTunes just got WMA->ACC support. I'm sure with a little work Apple can just as easily support Ogg in the same way, by automatically converting Ogg->ACC in iTunes.
I bet you wouldn't be happy though ^^
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:5, Interesting)
It would be relatively trivial for apple to implement support for other codecs, given that their code doesn't look like dogshit. I'm pretty sure it's not a technical decision, but rather a purely political one.
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:2)
You mean supporting Ogg in iTunes + Quicktime + iPod will get them more sales over the cost of the initial outlay in development, testing, and integration testing?
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:5, Insightful)
First, the iPod only supports a limited number of formats, and iTunes should only natively support the same formats as the iPod. This is for a combination of ease of use, user perception, and technical reasons.
Second, there is no reason for them to put any effort into supporting it. They have AAC, which for the bitrates most people use is equivalent to or superior to Ogg. The consumer doesn't care how "free" Ogg is when Apple is willing to cover things with AAC and mp3.
They have the Apple Lossless instead of FLAC, and they support the most common format--mp3. Why on earth would they want to confuse things for newbies and people like my mother by adding another format and thus another choice?
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:1)
perhaps only a few use it, but perhaps again they would be more tempted to swtich to osx and/or ipod if they could still use what they wanted - and would tell their friends etc...
i switched to os x and love it, but it does grate me ever so often when i just dont have the choice over *every little thing* like you do in linux, and even often windoze...
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:2)
It would have to be added to the iPod as well as iTunes (for a variety of reasons) and it would need to be implemented, documented, and tested with a variety of different configurations.
>perhaps only a few use it, but perhaps again they would be
>more tempted to swtich to osx and/or ipod if they could still
>use what they wanted - and would tell their friends etc...
Basic economics here.
Would they sell enough macs to make up the difference? Factoring
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:5, Funny)
See, for me it's support of Sun Audio (AU), IMA ADPCM and PSION sound formats (see details of these here [spies.com])
How dare Apple mock my insistence on using these obscure^H^H^H^H^H^H^H highly reputable formats!
Sun Audio (AU), IMA ADPCM and PSION sound format (Score:2)
Users of Ogg often do so of space- and quality reasons, and I guess most of us don't want to use a lossless codec for our listening music for space reasons, and we don't want to transcode, for quality reasons.
Re:Maybe now we'll get ogg support? (Score:2)
Actually, there might be people at Apple familiar with that format, given that, as far as I know, it was invented by NeXT, not Sun, and adopted by Sun later.
I've got a fantastic idea (Score:5, Funny)
For goodness sakes, it's not a troll.. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:For goodness sakes, it's not a troll.. (Score:2)
OGG Vorbis: supported natively in:
- Linux
- Maybe 5-10 obscure, inferior portable MP3 players.
Supported with an easy add-on in:
- Mac OS X
- Windows
MPEG-4 AAC: better sound quality than Vorbis; supported natively, right now, in:
- Mac OS X
- iPod
- maybe 5-10 obscure and inferior portable MP3 players.
Supported with an easy add-on in:
- Windows (Winamp, iTunes, you name it)
- Linux (VLC, and I'm assuming lots of other apps too).
Since if you're on
Re:For goodness sakes, it's not a troll.. (Score:2)
As for the patent issue, it might not matter so much
Need or want? (Score:2)
It's also convenient to rip your CDs and encode to MP3 [google.com], if you don't like AAC. It's not anyone's fault but your own if you let your philosophy limit your choice in music players. MP3 may be slightly inferior to OGG, but RAR is better than ZIP too, and though I love RAR, I use ZIP when I want maximum compatibility. My music is
Re:Need or want? (Score:2)
Thanks, but no thanks (Score:4, Insightful)
moof.
Have you seen the dashboards in Motion? (Score:5, Interesting)
Jeff Raskin [sourceforge.net] can take a hike as far as I'm concerned.
Apple should still be listening to Tog [asktog.com] he has some good ideas.
Re:Have you seen the dashboards in Motion? (Score:1)
Finally (Score:2, Insightful)
Possible motive: (Score:5, Interesting)
Divisions....Divisions (Score:2, Funny)
If they spin of iPod and ITMS (Score:4, Insightful)
difficult to seperate iTunes and Apple (Score:3, Insightful)
I think it would be very bad for iTunes to become separated from Apple.
I'm hoping instead that the iPod division will focus on more devices like a car stereo and a home theater system that builds on the iPod design and GUI.
How will this affect us? (Score:4, Insightful)
And what affect, if any, will this change have on the concept of the iPod causing people to switch to Apple?
So where is the confirmation? (Score:1)
iPod, iStereo, OGG, and my $.02 (Score:1)
Cringley's insightful column (Score:2)
Re:Industry Leading? (Score:2, Informative)
Multimedia work?
They're at the forefront of plenty of areas that they've been aggressively targetting for years. ~~~~
Re:Industry Leading? (Score:2)
Re:Industry Leading? (Score:2)
Civil engineers who work on fluid flow and pipes for city infrastructure use different tools than the ones who design skyscrapers.
Re:Industry Leading? (Score:2)
Re:Industry Leading? (Score:2)
The Mac totally owns the multi billion dollar printing industry. Yes, there are some places that use windows...but they are VERY far and few between.
But the Mac totally and completly is the giant in the printing industry. And now is getting to the point where they are in the movie industry also...with Shake and Final Cut Pro which are used on many types of movies.
Re:Whatever shall they call the iPod division? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Site is slow: article text (Score:2, Insightful)
Boy, that's a surprise.