January 15, 2007
The "real" big-stories at Macworld
The press was filled with stories about the iPhone. But I think when we look back on this Expo we'll remember something else as being "the big story" of this show.
The real story of Macworld 2007 was that Apple has declared that it is now a consumer electronics company. That was the common thread of each of the three announceents they chose to make at the keynote.
There were a lot of reports floating around the show that Steve was in a really good mood, and that he seemed to genuinely feel that this was an extremely significant point for the company. I think that's a reflection of Steve's realization, and excitement, that it's a new company now.
There's no question that the iPhone and AppleTV are big products. All the geeks I know were wandering around mumbling about breaking open the glass case at the show to get a phone.
AppleTV was a bit overshadowed by the phone, and I think it deserved more attention.
I'm not totally comfortable with the fact that the first two items in the AppleTV menu are links to the Apple Store. But nevertheless, I think this will set a new baseline for personal TV systems. I also think that the fact that podcasts are right there in the list next to "TV" and "Movies" will be another big boost for our new medium.
But these individual products were not the real big story of Macworld SF2007. The big one was that Apple is now a consumer electronics company, it may be the "new Sony".