MacWorld 2007 has arrived and once again Apple has sent some disruptions across the tech land pretty much proving beyond all doubt that Apple intends to lock up the entertainment and media content market up all for themselves.
The highlights from Steve Job's keynote:
- iTunes Store: Sold over 2 billion songs, or 5 million songs a day now. In addition they have sold 50 million television programs and 1.3 million movies. A partnership with Paramount to sell an additional 250 movies from the Paramount library, with a price of $9.99 for most titles, $14.99 for new releases and $12.99 for pre-orders.
- Apple TV: Coming out in February, available for pre-order now, its a $299.99, 720p high def video player that uses Wi-Fi to take video, pictures and music from up to five computers and play them on your TV.
- iPhone: What is basically a leapfrog over all existing cell phones, Apple is clearly out to dominate the market. Its a cell phone, iPod nano, and wi-fi browser rolled into one slim product. Rather then using buttons or a stylus, it uses a touch sensitive 3.5 inch color 160ppi screen to display data and accept commands. It comes in a 4GB ($499) and 8GB ($599) sizes exclusive to Cingular and will be out in June. In addition the iPhone runs on OS X meaning the device will be able to play videos, graphics, widgets, applications, pretty much anything that a standard computer can have, with harddrive space and processor speed (intel) being the limitation. Also as a result of the large display (for cell phones) and OS X the internet browsing capabilities are run by Safari with email push out partnership formed with Yahoo. In addition it has a 2 megapixel camera and speaker. Since the display is touch sensitive, it also has 3 built in sensors, one for proximity so when on the phone cheek doesn't perform accident commands, ambient light sensor to adjust light to save on battery life (5 hours talk time, 16 for audio playback), and a "accellerometer" sensor to tell if the landscape or portrait "mode" depending on how holding the phone. With OS X, Safari browser, IMAP yahoo email and Google Earth, the phone is a mini-computer cell phone. If not for the price and being forced to sign up with Cingular/AT&T, I would be getting this phone.
- iPhone Accessories: Also announced where Apple designed stereo headphones with a dongle mic and switch and a tiny black bluetooth ear set.
- Apple, Inc: From today forward, as an indication of Apple Computers, Inc move away from just computers and into entertainment and multi-media, they have changed the name of the computer to just Apple, Inc.
So there you go Macworld 07 ends. iPhone (video here and here) and Apple TV. To major new forays into the entertainment arena. One is basically a cell phone with a built in fully functioning computer and the other is that missing piece to get multi-media data from the computer to the TV. If you have the money, if you don't already own some Apple stock, now is the time as chances are high that Apple is about to become king in two new electronic markets.
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