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SAN FRANCISCO, CA – In a much anticipated keynote address, Steve Jobs revealed the new products Apple has been working on behind the scenes as many Apple enthusiasts followed via web updates. (Including, Yours Truly) 🙂
Included in the new products, and perhaps the news of the conference, was the first appearance of an Intel processor in a Mac. Both the iMac and the new line of laptops, the MacBook Pro, received the processor upgrades. Reported to be 2x to 5 x faster than their predecessors, the new Macs should be an instant hit.
Jobs also reported on the sales for Apple of both their Mac line of computers as well as the iPod line of MP3 players and they were staggering. Since 2001, when the iPod was first released, Apple has sold 42 million iPods. Thirty-two million of those were sold in 2005, and 14 million of those were sold in the “holiday quarter” of 2005. That’s up from 4.5 million last year around the holidays. Apple’s dominance continued with the iTunes music store, now also selling videos, the store has sold over 850 million songs since its inception, and over 8 million TV shows have been purchased since Oct 12th of last year. Their success is evident in an 83% share of the digital downloads market. Again, staggering.
A few of the items predicted here at GregsHead.net were unveiled as expected, but missing from the new line of products was the DVR Mac Mini. The rumors are still fairly strong regarding this item, so stay tuned for a future release of such a gadget. It will come… eventually. 🙂
To wrap up, here are the predicitons made prior to the speech this morning, along with related (and unrelated) actual releases from Apple. Enjoy.
- Intel Laptops:
The biggest news in the Mac world is the switch to Intel processors to happen this year. The target date was June of 2006, but knowing Apple, they are ready to unveil something today! Look for a new revision of one of the laptop lines (likely the iBook) with the new processor included.Indeed, the MacBook Pro was released today. It’s thinner than Apple’s current 17″ PowerBook G4, has a 15.4″ high resolution screen, comes with iLife ’06, a remote, built-in iSight video camera, and Apple’s popular Front Row application. Obviously, the biggest improvement is the Intel Duo Core processor, available in 1.67Ghz and 1.83Ghz for $1999 and $2499 respectively. The new processor is reported to be 4-5x faster than the previous PowerBook G4 processors! Quite an upgrade!
- Mac Mini: DVR:
Another likely candidate for the Intel processor would be the budget Mac, called the Mac Mini. But look for more than just a processor upgrade for the tiny Mac… this one will go in the living room, not the office! Small, but powerful, this machine will come with Front Row, and possibly even new DVR software! With iTunes offering video content now, this little machine would be perfect!This little gem has not yet come to fruition… but don’t give up hope just yet… 🙂
- iLife ’06:
Rumor has it there will be a revision of this package (this is the iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand suite) that might include a web deveolping program called iWeb. Look for a revision of the .Mac package that Apple offers as wellAs predicted, Apple upgraded its iLife suite of software, offering enhanced versions of all the current apps as well as a new web creation application called iWeb. Offers features like podcasting, blogging, and cool photos to web slideshow publishing. There were also significant improvements to iPhoto, GarageBand, iMovie and iDVD. Check Apple’s website for complete details.
- iPod FM:
Something I saw just today… perhaps a new iPod with a built-in FM tuner? We’ll see….Apple did release a special set of headphones with a remote that allows your current iPod (video and Nano only) to receive FM stations, which you can view and control on the iPod screen. Pretty nifty little add-on for $49.
Other releases:
Apple also announced an update to their OS, OS 10.4.4, updates to the iWork ’06 software package, and New TV content at the iTMS.