Apple’s next innovation will be, eh, MacBooks?

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There’s a lot of talk going on about Apple and what will become their next innovation. The pressure to deliver innovations get harder and harder for every year. Apple’s shareholders are very demanding and it sometimes seems like anything except miracles are regarded on as disappointments…

The buzz is about an iWatch or some new solution for TV, together with spy reports with pictures of new product details that comes from the ”next iPhone” and so on. There’s also some talk about a new, large iPad and I really hope that rumor is true.

But, we don’t hear much about the MacBooks. What will the next generation of MacBooks be like? We got a mind-blowing cylindric MacPro the autumn 2013. We also got big upgrades on iWork. It’s about time to get new models of the MacBook as well.

Horace Dediue writes:

But the bigger story is how Apple’s mobile platform has nearly reached the sales volume of Windows. In 2013 there were only 1.18 more Windows PCs than Apple devices sold. Odds are that in 2014 they will be at parity.

If you look at this graph from his blog Asymco, you can see that Macintosh (Apple’s computers) have just a small part of the amount of devices that Apple has sold.

I am sure that Apple wants to expand and gain more market shares also when it comes to computers. iPads and iPhone are fantastic devices, but most people need computers to do their work. The thing is: once someone has bought their first Apple device, they kind of want one more and then another. I think it often starts with that someone buys an iPhone.

Another trend is BYOD, Bring Your Own Device. It has been going on for a couple of years now and like Horace writes, the center for decision has moved from the IT departments to the individual user. The result is that more people are free to choose what they like and in a lot of cases it means Apple devices.

Therefore I think that the next big wave of development for Apple is not  TV-solutions or watches. I think they will start to sell a new generation of MacBooks that will be so delicious that everyone wants one. It seems like they are starting to revolutionize the MacBook in many ways and the last week we have seen evidence of a patent for flexible display device and a pressure sensitive touchpad. I think that we are getting closer to a MacBook without a keyboard… actually I started to think about that during the autumn 2010, so it’s not a new thought. Physical keyboard means more parts that can go broken. I always wear out my keyboard with my nails. It’s time for a touch board also on the MacBook.

Though, we won’t know what it will look like until we know. But I’m convinced that a new generation of MacBooks are an important part of establishing a solid market share filled with people that will use their Apple devices for work as well as private. The competitors need to work a lot smarter in order to challenge the growing success of Apple.

Same, same, but different, Mac-PC, iOS-Android… here we go again…

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A long time ago, in the 90’s, we produced and sold teaching materials covering the subjects of typography and layout, together with how to use PageMaker. We taught methods and theory at a basic, but very functional level. We had customers all over Sweden and unfortunately we had to sell to PC-users even though we barely could stand it, since we were proud Mac-users.

When the customers called us for help, the PC-users most often had questions about their hardware which was not our responsibility. Mac-users asked questions about the subjects we taught. It was so frustrating to get those phone calls from the PC-users because we really wanted everyone of our customers to get a good experience from our teaching material, but if their hardware didn’t work – what could we do about it?

Yesterday I noticed that a woman complained about an app that she has on her Android smartphone. I have the iOS version of the same app and it works fine. She claimed that the app has totally crashed twice and she was mad at the company who has made it.

There are more than 3000 different hardwares that runs Android. Compared to what, hm, maybe 10 different hardwares that run iOS. That’s why it’s a lot easier to get control over the apps for iPad or iPhone, than the Android apps. That’s why iOS apps works better. Simple as that.

If you ask me, to buy an Android smartphone is to buy more problems. It’s impossible for me to look at in another way. Yes, they do get a lot more options – but at what price? If I had the time to play around and chase faults all the day long, okay, then it wouldn’t matter, but I don’t have that time, I want my apps to work. Simple as that. Call me crazy, that’s the way I am and that’s why I keep on buying Apple products and iOS devices.