Laurent Kretz

My first reaction watching the keynote can be summarized like this: When I grow up, I wanna be Steve Jobs doing a keynote.
I thought about the iPod, the G4, the iPhone, the MacBook Pro, an entire audience
waiting for the announcment of the launch of a new buzz product that will kindle the entire press for months. The announcement of the iPhone being, for me, one of the best shows Steve has given so far (remember? the last moments before he spit it: “An iPod, A Phone, And A Internet Communicator. An iPod, A Phone, And A Internet …..”).

But I have been a bit disappointed tonight, when I caught up with the keynote. Here are the highlights. Steve said he had four things to say, I only really heard one …

In brief (it’s late …), a few thought:
- Time Capsule. WTF? I happen to have been investigating wireless media storage recently, and this is what Time Capsule is: a simple network hard drive. Take a Wi-Fi router with USB in, plug in a USB hard disk drive, and you got your home made “Time Capsule”. 500Gb for $169.
- Software updates for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Hmmm, isn’t that supposed to be the way anyways with Apple? Isn’t Apple also a Software company? No upgrade/update of their softs would have been a rip off, so don’t make such a deal out of it.
- Triangulation on Mobile Google Maps: working on my blackberry for the last few months. It was about time it arrived on the iPhone …
- iTunes Movie Rentals. Well this is a good idea and should have been done long time ago. But unfortunately, the story broke few months ago so no surprise. Besides, what is the difference between this and the movie channel on Time Warner Cable ? Yes you can put your movies on other devices, but good luck watching a movie on an iPod … And
what about those prices ? What is the difference and the gain to a DVD rental ? Exact same price, smaller catalog.
- All the bla bla bla: usually, the keynotes are funny, lively and geeky. Well, tonight I heard a lot of meaningless bla bla intended, I guess, for a large mainstream audience.
- The “Tiger”: did I misunderstand or did Steve Jobs call Leopard the “Tiger” in the first few minutes of the keynote ??

However …

I gotta say: the update of AppleTV is a GREAT strategic move. It means an accessible, easy to setup home media center. Buy the AppleTV, plug it to your TV and home theater and you got everything you need for a home media center for $229.

And then, the MacBook Air …. I want one ! It’s just plain simple sexy and I need one. I am a proud marketing target and victim. One note if only: there is no CD/DVD drive in the MacBook Air, and once again Apple prove their vision one step ahead - data on supports (CD, DCD) is done, finished. In less than a few years, consumers won’t need physical storage anymore, and Apple leads the dance.

Technorati Tags: apple, macworld, steve jobs keynote, macbook air, itunes movie rentals, Apple TV

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