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The first signs of the death of final cut pro 7…. :(
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[Bill Davis] “Explain to me how iCloud is a play to sell hardware.”
You buy hardware to run software. The cloud is “software.”
I’m using that as an analogy, because iCloud isn’t a product you buy. It’s feature that you get when you buy an iDevice or a MacBook Air, kinda like Face Time or Expose — only insanely sexier and more powerful. “It’s iCloud, and it comes free with every Apple iWhatever.” They’ll find a way to fit Lion in there too, but hey – more software to sell hardware.
“The cloud” will move MacBook Airs and new iDevices in the same way that iTunes moved iPods, the App store sells iPhones, and FCP used to move Mac Pros.
Software sells hardware. The cloud is “software.”
Now, you can say that any device can have access to the cloud through free apps like Dropbox, which actually works better than iDisk in almost every way — true, but irrelevant. That’s like saying any phone can make calls, so why buy an iPhone.
Actually, why buy an iPhone if you want to actually make calls? Hahahaha!
Kidding aside, you buy an iPhone to run SOFTWARE. You buy an iPhone to run apps. Apps aren’t confusing! They’re AWESOME!
To review: Apple will not be talking about the cloud as technology. They will sell it as Apple-branded integration of everything you own and do, and people will trample your granny to buy as many Apple devices that “run the cloud” as they can carry.
“Android? What the f does Google know about the cloud? Cheeky astards, always trying to steal Apple’s ideas!”
People here keep saying the cloud is nonsense. I prefer to think of it as a way for Apple to manufacture money out of thin air.
Watch and learn. The cloud is a feature that’s included FREE with Air/iPhone/iPod/iPad/iMac, i infinitum. The cloud will sell more Apple-branded hardware than any software they have ever released.
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I guess the first stage of grief really is denial!
Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
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I think it’s anger then denial followed by bargaining, depression and then, finally, acceptance.
bigpine
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Hmmm, that sounds a lot like this forum for the last 3 months. Go figure!
Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv -
Interesting.
But if iCloud is a play to “sell hardware” it’s an odd model – because isn’t access to its virtues pretty much identical whether you’re accessing it from an $8000 desktop tower or a $229 iPod touch?
I thought the point of traditional “hardware driving software” was at least partially built around the concept that in order to run a powerful and professional app, you were forced to the top of the price pyramid to buy a professional class hardware box.
That noted, Tim, I agree with everything else in your post.
And I think my quibble is addressed by the reality that as long as “iCloud” makes people feel good about being an Apple brand consumer, it will do it’s job.
Brand perception and loyalty being, as it is, the ultimate goal of modern commerce.
“Before speaking out ask yourself whether your words are true, whether they are respectful and whether they are needed in our civil discussions.”-Justice O’Connor
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[Bill Davis] “But if iCloud is a play to “sell hardware” it’s an odd model – because isn’t access to its virtues pretty much identical whether you’re accessing it from an $8000 desktop tower or a $229 iPod touch?
Not if you’re selling 100,000 $399 phones for every $8000 tower. 🙂
I made that number up, but credible analysts have been poking around iPhone 5 sales of 110 million units in its first year, with approx 17 million in the first quarter….so maybe I’m not far off, either.
I thought the point of traditional “hardware driving software” was at least partially built around the concept that in order to run a powerful and professional app, you were forced to the top of the price pyramid to buy a professional class hardware box.”
The pyramid model may work everywhere BUT the computer business.
The biggest computer company in the world is publicly considering spinning off its actual computer business to focus (focus?) on the cloud, and the second biggest computer company got there by dropping the word “computer” from their name.
I’m oversimplifying of course. The world will always need heavy processing power and local storage in one box, and Apple will be in that business until they’re not. But that business has a ceiling. The iDevice+app business kinda doesn’t.
Apple still believes in Macs, no doubt about it. Last quarter was the best quarter for Mac sales in Apple’s history, up 22% YoY. Best-selling Mac? The MacBook Air, of course. The one that runs the cloud.
🙂
You and me, we may never spend as much on iDevices and apps for the rest of our lives to equal what we spent on Mac Pros. But we’re old and rich. (Hahaha!) There are millions of people who’ve bought two or three iDevices who will never buy a Mac, or who buy multiple iDevices and a couple of MacBook Airs and an iMac who will never buy a Mac Pro.
It has always been a truism that you can make more money selling a lot of cheap things than a handful of expensive ones — but hardly anyone has actually done it.
The big thing to keep in mind is that Apple isn’t going to use Tim Cook and glorified PowerPoint to sell the cloud. They’re going to use iPhone 5 and Peter Coyote. Game over.
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As you said ” it had to die to make room for something new…”
Perhaps the new thing is Adobe, not Apple.
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