At this moment I can not browse the web without running into a Top X list, and some are fun or nice to read, but the majority of them are just made without any thought. For example, there was an article on Digg about top25 movies from 2007, but a good handful were all made and released in 2006. But ok, maybe the author meant the ones he’s seen in the last year. What I haven’t seen yet is an Apple Top 10 list of products and services they offer through their stores. So I guess here it is. Yes, I am not doing any research either. I am going to wing it, but I will try to provide some arguments why I made the pick.
The categories are Software, Services, Accessories, iPhone, iPod, Laptops, Computers, Underdogs, Failures, and Rumored.
## spoiler ## And if you think ‘damn this blog is long’ let me spoil it for you. The winners in my eyes are for handheld devices and iPod, and media experience the iPhone, no doubt. And as computer system the new 24″ iMac has no competition. ##spoiler##
Ok, I have to be honest, they do not really have a lot of products, so the list is limited to the things I would buy because of reason X. I will just try to narrow it down. Here we go.
Software
The nominations are between Mac OSX 10.5, packages like iLife/iWork, Parallels/VMWare, and Games for the Mac.
The winner could have been the games, because I think it is awesome that they’re listening to those consumers who would love to play the later games on a Mac, and now finally can. I think we will see more of this in 2008. It made an impression on me when it was announced, but they did not overwhelm me with titles of games I personally play. From the software packages VMWare could have been a winner too with their dramatic improvements and catching up to Parallels. Or iLife with the improved integration with .Mac, the value for money can not be neglected and if you don’t own either iSoftware packages you should get your copy now. But the winner here is Leopard.
Mac OSX 10.5 is the winner in the software category. It surprised everybody that they used OSX on the iPhone, on the Apple TV, and of course the 64bit version on all the Mac computers. Why I picked it is because of the native 64bit support out of the box. UNIX certified, an utterly complete package. One version for everybody, with the exception of their server software. Great value for money and with touchscreen being big in 2008, it will only get better. The UI is smoother, cleaner, beautiful images and icons, and I keep getting impressed how pleasant it is to use it.
Services
The nominations are between AppleCare and .Mac, buying online at Starbucks and iTunes, Customer support in stores, phone, and instore and online training.
From all the computer store support or help desk you can get for any system I have to admit that I have never been so much impressed as with the customer support from Apple. But it still just doesn’t cut it. There are too many stories about up-selling, exhausted staff, and weird repair stories gone bad. But, when you call in or go into a store you still get generally so much more better support because they know what they are talking about. The stores look great and the genius bar and online workshops and all that stuff is impressive. It is not a winner because I think this is how it should be for every store. This should not ‘stand out’, and therefor does not qualify in my book as something to reward them for. They just set the standard others should follow. If you want to be treated like a king you have to purchase an AppleCare which is quite expansive, so again .. this should be an affordable service for consumers and it doesn’t stand out. Not a winner either. I am however very impressed with the new .Mac they introduced. And I was very much surprised that you can use your iPhone in the Starbucks and buy from iTunes. I am also very impressed with how iTunes works as a product. It’s more and more a media-hub, and I really like that idea. Choosing a winner here is kind of hard. We’re talking services here.
The winner in the services category is iTunes. And I would almost have picked .Mac if it wasn’t for the simple fact that I use iTunes 24/7 and have no .Mac account. iTunes has won because I use it constantly. It’s my media hub. It lets me sync my iPod, or any other device from Apple I plug into it such as the iPhone, Apple TV or with Connect360 even my Xbox360. It is a single program for both the Mac and the PC and it works very well. It has beautiful cover art and with the use of SmartFolders you can make great playlists. It directly integrates with the online iTunes Store. Buying music is so easy. And it doesn’t stop there. You can get music, tv episodes, movies and ringtones, games for the iPod, podcasts, and more. Each section has unique great features. Such as ‘complete your album’ or ‘season pass’.
Another reason why they win is because they ‘get it’. The music industry obviously does not. They are trying to protect their business model so much they are so afraid of even considering changing it. Piracy is not an issue, it’s a way of life. People do not want to pay a million bucks in a store for a little disc that plays for 35 minutes with 10 songs. They want to get 2 of those songs in their computer, and get them on demand. They want to bring their music with them. This means if you listen to your music library and click on iTunes store, and find the song, pay $0,89 for it and have it. 320/DRMfree EMI music has won my heart and I spend hundreds of dollars on great music. I bought an iPod and I will buy more in the future. I support this model, and Apple found a way to make deals that both the music industry and Apple make money on, a lot of money, while the consumer pays less, gets more, and on demand. And can take it with them in wonderful little devices. I only believe in 2008 and beyond we will see dramatic changes in this industry (for both music and tv/movies). iTunes has received frequent updates that only improved the software, without cluttering it’s interface, and it’s a great one in all solution for all your media. And it’s free.
And I will probably write about EMI in another blog.
Accessories
The nominations for the category accessories are the Airport Extreme, Apple Keyboard, Apple Bluetooth Headset
Last year I was complaining that I wanted a new router, but didn’t get the Airport Extreme Router because it had 100mbit ports, and just three of them, and it had g, and not n for wifi. But they were updating all their hardware to gbit and n-wifi. They’ve now changed this, but .. I already bought a cheap linksys router. A little bit of goodness, a little bit too late. When my linksys router dies I will go for this Apple router and maybe it has potential to win next year. Another reason why it didn’t win is because it looks the same as the Mac Mini, and it looks the same as the Apple TV, but all three can’t get stacked (well, they can), because all three are a different size. I would love to have a stack / cube of Mac in my living room. From bottom to top: Mac Mini, Mac Mini External HD, Apple TV, Airport Extreme. A cool media hub in the living room that still looks good. What also did not win is the bluetooth headset. It looks very cool, very slick., very small and professional for both consumer and professional. But it doesn’t cut it to the winner, the keyboard.
The winner in the Accessories category is the new aluminum Apple Keyboard. It comes both wired and wireless and looks amazing. It types amazing and looks very professional. The wireless one is very cool for the living room and easy to put away. Want to surprise your friend with an affordable apple gift? Get this keyboard if they don’t have one. I needed a bit of convincing, but it’s simply awesome. And with the pure lack of the Apple Cinema Display updates (Macworld 2008 hopefully) the keyboard is currently the winner for accessories.
iPhone
The nominations for this category .. eh .. is the iPhone. I guess.
Ok, maybe a bit of a cheat, but I have my reasons. On the Apple site you can ‘Shop for Mac’, and separately they have ‘Shop for iPod’, and ‘Shop for iPhone’. Didn’t Steve say ‘this is the iPod ever’, so why isn’t it in the iPod category? Ok, maybe they want to give it a more prominent and easy to find location. They make a load of money on the iPhone with that contract vs a 80 bucks iPod shuffle. Maybe it implies that 2008 will offer multiple iPhones. But this blog is not about the future, but about the 2007 iPhone.
The iPhone is not the winner, because .. they charged a load of money from the first day, for both the phone and the contract (which is two years by the way). It’s also not a winner, because it still is not available in a lot of countries, such as the Netherlands. I had my mind on one for last November, but instead of the iPhone I’ve now got a dedicated web server (see one of my other blog posts about this). And I’ve purchased an iPod instead. More reasons why the iPhone is not the winner is because they are not allowing third party applications, brick customized (unlocked) iPhones. And because it is missing a lot of business features that the other smart-phones have. More about the iPhone in the next few categories.
The winner in the iPhone category is the iPhone. There is no doubt this is the most sexy device you can get from Apple that will turn heads and that’s from the first generation on. Because despite the above disappointments there is hope. They are already offering a web directory for applications for the iPhone, there are rumors they will open it up a bit more at upcoming Macworld. And Apple really impressed me that they’ve dropped their initial price by a full $200. And they are expanding the countries where you can buy one, including the true winner here:
The winner in the iPhone category is the iPhone in France. The only country in 2007 where you can buy an iPhone (through official channels) and unlocking it without the potential of having a brick, and in all honesty, Orange does this really, not Apple, but I am sure Apple does not mind – each sale is one step closer owning that certain percentage of the mobile phone industry they are after. Thank you Apple for not going ‘screw that, let’s not release in France’. The iPhone is the only iPhone at this point, but the unlocked one makes it a must have and hopefully 32GB or more and 3G in 2008/2009 will keep it a winner each year.
iPod
The nominations for the iPod category are the iPhone, the iPod Touch, the iPod Shuffle and the iPod Classic. And the reason I didn’t pick the iPod nano is because the new one is pretty cool, but not as nice (in my personal opinion) as the previous generation. Which is why I bought the Shuffle and I love it. I was really impressed with it. But for the music lover, it just doesn’t cut it. So it won’t win. Then there’s the iPod classic in 160gb for the real music lover who needs that type of storage. And the new black and grey aluminum looks amazing. A very cool device. Go to an Apple store and hold it in your hand, it will be much more impressive then the computer generated picture on the web site. The reason it doesn’t win is because the iPod is for tv/movies too now, and despite the great storage you can’t compare it against the iPod Touch of iPhone’s landscape widescreen video experience. The reason the iPod Touch isn’t a winner is because it sits in between the iPod Classic experience and the iPhone experience. You have it and feel you need more space. And you have it and you feel you’ve undercut yourself and in your heart you really wanted the iPhone. If I am looking at my own wallet and thinking, which iPod would I buy? I’d buy the iPod Classic and consider it great value for money. And it’s a great mobile backup device too. But it isn’t the winner.
The iPhone is the clear winner in the best iPod category. And I will tell you why I think that. The iPhone is not just an iPod with a nice big screen so you can view video in landscape and enjoy your iTunes purchases more, it supports touchscreen just like the iPod Touch, and the interface is just beautiful and so clean and slick. Then there’s Wifi Store iTunes and buying directly at Starbucks, and it has all the features that iPhone brings with it. And to be honest, when I go jogging, or take a trip or something like that I always bring with me my laptop, my phone and my iPod. Just having one device that has both phone, internet, my movies, tv and music, the podcasts and a proper browser and everything else .. is lighter, easy to take with me and voids having both a phone and an iPod touch. So how can it not be better? Is this blog now getting boring, the iPhone the winner of everything? The next category is about handheld devices, and the iPhone is the winner there to? No .. it’s not. You’ll see. But if you are traveling a lot, like to watch movies on your iPod, have your contact details and the internet in your pocket with you .. the iPhone is that solution.
Handheld Devices (laptops)
The nominations in this category of devices you can bring with you on the road that has OSX, a monitor, keyboard, and internet connection are the iPhone, the Mac Book and the Mac Book Pro. The Mac Book Pro is the device I would pick as winner initially because I am just so impressed with their previous version; The Powerbook G4, I can only imagine the Intel version being double the trouble. hehe. But, it is expansive, big, and if you need that type of power as a professional it will be a business expense probably. As a device for 2007 I wouldn’t pick it because it’s Mac Book, with power. More isn’t always better. The iPhone could be a winner, and it almost was. But there are some drawbacks besides all the good things I just wrote about in the above category. Why do I bring my laptop with me? First of all, because it has the internet, the iPhone has this covered. But mostly I bring it with me to show things to others, work on code, or check and write email. Or blog entries. Can you imagine me write this long blog on my iPhone? No thanks .. For the more serious things that are time consuming the iPhone does not cut it. I want to sit comfortably, have a bigger screen with good overview, run multiple programs at the same time and be able to share the screen with someone sitting next to me. Sorry iPhone, maybe check out the rumored category at the end to see how you can make it up in 2008.
The winner in the handheld devices category is the Mac Book. It is small, affordable (price is amazing to be honest if they made it 999) and has everything that your desktop Apple has. It does not have the downsides the iPhone has as I just described above. And it has the benefit over the big brother Mac Book Pro that the monitor is small, but big enough, it is powerful enough and when owning one you won’t desire you had the Pro version. It is great value for what you get, and it is an awesome product for students, parents, people on the road (or sitting at Starbucks), teachers, bloggers, consumers and professionals. If I needed to purchase a laptop right now, and the iPhone is out the question, I can be assured the Mac Book Pro is too expansive for me, and that the Mac Book is perfect and my choice. When people ask me which laptop to get I point them to the Mac Book. Don’t forget, it has everything built-in, bluetooth, wifi, camera, usb, firewire, external dvi port, etc. And it just looks gorgeous. Especially the black glossy one. (Rumor mill: I can’t wait for the OLED display, Solid State hard drives and thinner, lighter Mac Books)
Computers
For this category the nominations are a bit limited, since Apple only has a few computers, and I think one is the solid winner for everybody. But I will no break the way I’ve blogged about the other categories, and just get on with it. They are the Mac Mini, The iMac, and the Mac Pro. I haven’t included the Apple TV because it is a freaking failure .. ok, that’s overreacting, but they consider the Apple TV to be a hobby and in my ears that just sounds like ‘not taking it serious’, and that’s a shame. I rather see them discontinue the Mac Mini and the Apple TV and introduce a subnet media hub for the living room that’s a bit of both. The Mac Mini is better, it just doesn’t have HDMI. But there’s nothing wrong with DVI, which most HDTV haves anyway. The Mac Mini is a great device if you want an internet box in your living room or office and don’t need a power machine. I recommend it to my parents, my brother and my sister, especially if they would like to convert over from PC to Mac (which trust me, I try my best to do constantly). Anyway, it is not a complete system, it is not that beautiful and serious as a full fledged computer system. So it can’t win. I am also not impressed with the price increase it received after the introduction. They can take off 200 bucks of the iPhone, but increase the price on the Mac Mini? Common Apple, that’s not how you offer an introduction box to Windows users who are afraid of buying the Mac Pro.
The Mac Pro didn’t win either, I consider it a workstation slash server, and not a box for consumers. Who needs two cpu’s with multiple cores, up to 32gb ram and up to 4 TB of data storage internally? The price is kind of ok, it compares well against equal machines from Falcon Northwest, Hewlett Packard or Dell. But I just don’t see my family or friends buy one unless they run a business or are into Digital Media like I am (yes, I have a Mac Pro -woot-) The clear winner here is the complete computer solution for everybody, consumer and business, at now (to be honest) very, very affordable prices for what you get.
The winner is undisputed the new 24″ aluminum with glossy glass iMac. Personally I wouldn’t even tell people to buy the 20″, unless you’re strapped for cash. Get the 24″ iMac if you can, and are looking for the ultimate in computer experience without having to worry about how to install it, how to operate it, how to set it up, etc. You take it out of the box, you plug it in. You connect the USB or wireless keyboard and mouse. And press the power button. You’re done. A single device on your table with the monitor and computer into one. And oh my, does it look delicious. The aluminum makes it look next generation, professional, and so sexy in your living room, or in your office. And the black border and the glossy glass finishes it off really well. Even the back has gotten some work and is a nice matt black that makes it look slim and huggable. Yes, I said huggable. When you get your iMac see if you can fight the urge to not hug it. And yes, I have the Mac Pro, but for reasons not relevant to this blog. But I have had a really, really hard time not buying the 24″ iMac when it came out.
If you do not own a Mac and are considering to switch, get… the… iMac (period)
This kind of concludes this Top-Apple-List as far as products of the year go, the next categories are not really considered relative, so I feel this is the moment where I inform you that I think from all the Apple Products I am the most impressed with the iPhone. And sharing first place with the iPhone is the iMac computer. If you’re a fanboy, a geek, and like to hug computer equipment or show off your hardware to your friends, these are the two Apple products of the year 2007 in my eyes. Let’s continue with the final three categories and complete the Top 10 List of Apple Products.
Underdogs
The nominations for software or hardware that just didn’t cut it for whatever reasons, but still deserve a spot, … the underdogs .. are the Apple HD Cinema Display, the .Mac, the Apple TV, Product RED, iPod Nano, Microsoft Office 2008, and Games for the Mac. I’ve already talked about the games. I am keeping that short now, they are not impressive since I heard they’re just from EA, and they’re kind of emulated instead of running native. Surely this will change, 2008 hopefully impresses me. MS Office 2008 is announced for a while, but it still is not out for the Mac, and to be honest, Pages and TextMate are the only editors you need. Nevertheless the office 2008 suite is an awesome product. A good revamp, check out the demo when it is available. I think that team doesn’t get enough credit, so worth a mention at least.
I also talked about the Nano, what I didn’t say is that it got not enough ‘wow’ factor from even the fanboys. The pictures looked too bulky on the rumor sites, and on the official site once out it didn’t give the impression either that you wanted one. But .. go to the Apple Store and play with one. You will go wow then. It is impressive how much they can put in that little thing. Especially with that screen and the revamped menu. Worth a mention .. not the purchase. Either get the shuffle if you just wanna listen to some music once in a while. Or get the iPhone – the best iPod at the moment. But I already talked about that too. Product RED and Apple going more Green is worth a mention. If you like a red colored iPod, get the RED, it helps on so much levels. We can’t ignore it. And Apple going Green with smaller stuff to wrap it in, and all that .. that can’t be a bad thing. Both worth a mention. The Apple TV has so much potential, but as already discussed, they just don’t seem to take it serious. So .. can’t win; but it’s worth to not ignore it. Especially if you are interested in buying stuff on iTunes, and let it stream to your Apple TV overnight so you can watch it later on demand. A glimpse of what’s to come in the future of how we change the way we watch television and movies, or stream music to the rooms in our house.
I think a potential winner is .Mac. The price is affordable, and it offers great services, sync options, storage options, and integrates so smooth with iLife and iWork products. The web pages you can create and the web 2.0 galleries are amazing. Wow, this is already possible for this little money? Good job Apple. And finally the Apple Cinema Display which is still my choice of purchase if I would get a 24″ or 30″ monitor. Or is it? No! It’s not! And that is a shame. The only reason I would buy one now is because the quality of the monitor is good, because it has an Apple logo on it (yes, I know that is kind of sad), and because it looks amazing. It matches very well with my Mac Pro. But, it lacks everything the amazingly looking Dell monitor has. HDCP support, multiple in ports, component, HDMI, the ability to change height and a reasonable price. The Apple monitor also hasn’t been updated in ages. I was really hoping MacWorld 2007 would introduce a revamped version with iSight built-in and more ports, and perhaps even DisplayPort support for the new cards coming to 2008.
So, as winner I would pick the Apple 30″ HD Cinema Display. But, since it has not impressed me in 2007, and there are no rumors for 2008 that this will change soon (plz steve plz!) the clear winner here is .Mac, underdog category winner for 2007. It has received amazing updates, but hasn’t received as much praise as perhaps deserved.
Failures
Hm, perhaps not worth a mention in a Top 10 List, but .. despite being an Apple Fanboy, and owning iPods, Mac Pro, accessories and spending lots of money on software licenses and digital media, and loving it all. There can’t be all good news right? Right! So they are worth a mention too. And the nominations are without a doubt the following: The Apple Mighty Mouse (wireless or not), the AppleCare program, iPhone’s AT&T & Others locked down contracts and bricking (legally) unlocked iPhones, and the iPhone Ringtones re-pay-for-what-you-already-paid-for feature. And perhaps the NBC deal going bad on iTunes, but .. I don’t care about that really. Screw television networks. I can’t view any of those music or tv or movies things here anyway, licensing and contracts prohibit people outside of the US to enjoy paying for it legally. Those industries have failed me epic in 2007 and haven’t impressed me. So not worth the mention (damn, but I just did!)
The winner of the failure category can not be the AppleCare program, nothing changed, I wasn’t impressed with the price and I doubt this will change any time soon. I was however looking up from my keyboard when I heard AT&T tied things down so hard with Apple. Yes, they did help make all this possible, but on the other hand. Why are you not allowed to change providers? Hello? Monopoly? Where is that class action suit? But this can’t be Apple’s fault, they wanted their product out and this is a downside to it. The iPhone still rocks. So can’t win as a failure. More ridiculous was having to pay for your music again if you want to have a fair-use-moment of the song as a ringtone experience. Yeah, that will teach your fans .. you love the music so much you want it as a ringtone? Cough up the cash. But I guess this is a result from how awfully lame the music industry is. Let them dig their own hole, while we continue to buy EMI music (for example).
No, the winner of the biggest failure of any Apple product is year after year the horrible Apple (wireless) Mighty Mouse. They impressed me in 2007 by letting me know per email I could now buy a wireless version of their button-less mouse. I have to squeeze it now, or think I want to press and automatically my hand pushes a little, creating a click. Or use cool combinations to get a right popup menu to appear. Yes, you impressed me with your email that you need to fire everybody in that department and get some people from the other apartments to redesign the user experience, the product, the design, and the make an Apple-version of the Logitech Revolution MX mouse. I strongly recommend to eBay the mouse that comes with your awesome 24″ iMac as soon as you unpack it. Fanboys will probably still buy it cheap from you, especially when it has never been used. Never buy this mouse! Sorry Apple .. it just really is a bad product. http://mightymouse.epicfailed.us/
Rumored
The nominations for the rumor-mill category 2007 (eh, 2008) are the new iPhone with 16 to 32gb storage on 3g, the sub level touch screen mac book meets iPhone, and the new Mac Pro with a billion cores. And I am rumoring myself here the new Apple Cinema Display. Oh, and getting ahead of the game by saying Mac OS 11 first info will be rumored in 2008. Which should a revolution in operating system progress. Ah yeah, I almost forgot the Mac Mini meets Apple TV merger product as Apple Media (let’s throw that in too).
The new iPhone won’t be impressive, just an evolutionary upgrade. The Mac Book Touch will be very impressive and a reason to upgrade my Powerbook perhaps and most realistically announced upcoming MacWorld. A new Mac Pro will also be an option, updated CPU/RAM/GPU and perhaps even a new case and blu-ray burner. I don’t care really. I got my Mac Pro and I think it will perform for a lot more years to come as my day to day workstation. If Apple would offer a trade + pay difference I wouldn’t mind upgrading, if I can move over my hard drives and RAM. Anyway. Some info about OS 11 from Mac would be really cool. I am super curious what the next generation of operating systems is going to be now that we’ve been introduced into Windows 7 and the Surface product, and handheld devices becoming more day to day affordable solutions, and linux showing of some cool tricks too. I’ve already talked about the Apple Cinema Displays, and more realistically this would be my choice. I want to upgrade my monitors to 24″ ones, and am simply waiting for Apple to impress me with something in 2008, or I will go with the Dell ones as usual. I am also very excited about hearing if the Mac Mini gets discontinued was a true rumor, and that it turns out the Apple TV becomes the new Mac Mini and is revamped as Apple Media which is a) a mac mini, b) an apple tv, c) a media hub with iTunes as central focus, and d) a game machine.
What I would dream about as an Apple Fanboy: A single device with n-wifi speed, that can be used as a media device in my living room, connects to my HDTV and has a smart stand and built-in bluetooth so I can use it as a desktop-laptop for when I want to write longer things with a real keyboard (and not touchscreen keyboard). It must have a touchscreen user interface, and this includes a touch screen keyboard. Runs 64bit OSX 10.5 and is a device that sits in between the iPhone and the Mac Book, and leans towards the 17″ iMac replacement (say 12″ monitor) and the Mac Mini (but with monitor built-in).
And I think that’s what we will not get, but something close to it. They impressed and surprised me with the iPhone, boom ! here’s a cool device.. Let’s see if they can do this again by introducing us with a device that comes close to what I can dream about. Yes, I wish they would introduce new Cinema Displays, but I can always get a Dell or Samsung. If Apple would introduce a sub-level notebook that blows my mind, then I don’t see others like Dell or Sony or ASUS do that too that quickly, so I declare the rumored sub-level Mac Book Touch notebook as winner for the Rumored category.
And that’s it! Ten reasons that Mac was awesome in 2007, has great products and services, and that you should not use Windows haha. But more seriously this list is to show you what I feel about their products and services, what impressed me (or not) and what I am looking forward too. The reason I buy Apple products is because they look just amazing, are easy to use, and are becoming quite affordable. It is really hard to resist buying something and despite some mishaps or things I don’t agree to, I think I have improved my experience with using computers, operating systems, and software, so much by using Apple products and services.
Please leave some feedback, comments, your thoughts, etc about this article, Apple or go browse through my other blog entries. And I hope you enjoyed this list. I am looking forward to the new things in 2008 made by Apple. And if you would ask me which Apple product to buy. I would tell you to get the iPhone to replace your music player, your phone and your handheld device. And if you want to replace your computer, I would tell you to get the 24″ iMac. Both devices are worth their money; despite still being quite a bit of money.