Apple
Rant: What standards to hold Apple up against?
All the pundits are bashing apple for the iMac announcement - and they would have every right to do so, if this was an ordinary pc/software company. (Just look at the announcements/previews Microsoft and Moxi made the same day - that’s where the visionary stuff is happening).
This isn’t Apple of the 70’s and 80’s - this is a funky sexy pc company that does design, usability and marketing very well - which are the only areas that they are focusing on. It’s the legend of the garage, the two Steve’s, revolution, counterculture, the original Apple team and the founder’s comeback.
It’s the first love, the magic tale, the innocence of digital generation!
Sure i would love to have Apple take chances, take part in the future of web services, the semantic web, digital identity, truly reshaping the user interfaces of the future, personal publishing, etc., but that isn’t the business that Apple themselves thinks they’re in. (allthough a lot of their competences in usability, branding, etc. would be deeply appreciated in web services/digital identity).
The iMac will, if it’s successful, probably speed up the proces in the rest of the industry of adapting flat-screens, put even more focus on design and the soft sides of hardware products and a lot of the industry players will give an integrated product design another try - call that revolution if you want.
So, forget all your usual standards and enjoy the hell of show that Apple puts on! That’s at least what i’m doing ;_)