- Joined
- Jun 11, 2003
- Messages
- 4,915
- Reaction score
- 68
- Points
- 48
- Location
- Mount Vernon, WA
- Your Mac's Specs
- MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 4GB RAM OS 10.5.2
Source: MacMinute.com
Highlights from Apple's annual analyst meeting
November 6, 2003 - 14:45 EST Apple held its annual meeting with analysts and investors at its Cupertino, CA campus on Wednesday. Several Apple executives spoke at the gathering, including Steve Jobs, CEO; Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide product marketing; Fred Anderson, CFO; Tim Cook, executive VP of worldwide sales and operations; and Ron Johnson, senior VP of retail. MacMinute has put together some highlights from the Q&A session with Jobs, in which he discusses Intel chips, DVR features on Macs, iPod and iTunes, the digital lifestyle apps, .Mac, Longhorn, and more.
Jobs first addressed a question about whether songs from the iTunes Music Store should work with MP3 players other than the iPod, or conversely, that the iPod should work with other legal music services.
"There's really little reason to [make iPod work with other services] right now. The iPod is the No. 1 selling MP3 player in the world, even compared to all of the little cheap Flash players that hold seven songs each," Jobs said. "Why should we work with another music store when we're working with the Microsoft of music stores? I'd rather spend our engineering dollars on enhancing the iPod and enhancing the iTunes music store."
Jobs also revealed that the iTunes Music Store "had over an 80 percent market share for all legally downloaded music on the Internet," according to new figures from SoundScan.
Jobs was next asked about porting Mac OS X to Intel architecture. "It's perfectly technically feasible to port Panther to any processor," Jobs said. "One of the great benefits of moving from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X was getting a far more modern technology that is platform independent. It's very easy to run Mac OS X on different processors. We're running it on the [IBM] PowerPC and we're very happy with the PowerPC -- but from the technical point of view, it's very easy."
"Right now we don't see a compelling need to switch processor families," Jobs said. "The stuff that's in the PowerPC road map is really good -- I can't talk about it -- but it's really good. We have all the options in the world, but the PowerPC road map looks very strong."
Jobs was critical of the idea that Apple should sell TiVo-like Macs similar to Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center, which combines TV and digital video recording (DVR) capabilities. "There is a small audience that likes this... We're not going to go that direction; we're going to integrate toasters, Jobs said jokingly.
He noted that people want big-screen TVs and do not want to watch movies or shows on a small computer screen. Jobs also pointed out that people use computer and TVs very differently: "Generally what they want to view on television has to do with turning their mind off," he said.
"We've always believed that this convergence between the computer and the television wasn't going to work." Jobs said that video recording is processor intensive and should be left to a standalone device. "When I want to record 'The West Wing,' I want to make **** sure it records 'The West Wing.'"
The Apple CEO talked a bit about the digital hub strategy and where it is going. "There are new categories of applications that people haven't even thought of yet that we are working on," Jobs said. "We have a lot of innovation up our sleeves when it comes to the digital lifestyle/digital hub class of applications -- a lot. You will be seeing some of it next year... very strong stuff."
Jobs said that Apple is out-innovating Microsoft, noting that the software giant still has years of work ahead of it with Longhorn, the next major version of Windows. "They're hoping in 2006 to be where we were with Jaguar," Jobs said, adding, "We're going to have a few more releases by then. We're going to be way ahead by then."
Jobs and Schiller also addressed a question regarding Apple's plans for the mobile phone market. Jobs made it clear that Apple still has no plans to enter the market, while Schiller went over Mac OS X's tight integration with Bluetooth phones. "We're way ahead of Microsoft in this area," Jobs said. "And since we're not trying to make our own phone, we're working with everybody and everybody wants to work with us. We have great relationships with handset manufacturers."
"We've turned .Mac from a money pit into a money maker," Jobs declared. He noted that critics said .Mac customers would not pay $99 after getting the first year at a discount of $49. "Our renewal rate was 87 percent... unheard of, higher than almost anybody's in any industry," Jobs said. "We've built ourselves the beginnings of a pretty good Internet services business."
Jobs said Apple is strongly focused on selling to existing Mac customers and to those who have not upgraded in a while. "One of our goals over the next year is to get our pro customers upgrading more," he said. "We've got a lot of G3s out there in use and a lot of early G4s, and a lot of customers still running Mac OS 9."
"With the combination of G5 and Panther, it's a great time for our pro customers to upgrade," Jobs said. "That's the No. 1 thing we're focused on; that's the lowest-hanging fruit for us."
My Comments: Lots of news!
Highlights from Apple's annual analyst meeting
November 6, 2003 - 14:45 EST Apple held its annual meeting with analysts and investors at its Cupertino, CA campus on Wednesday. Several Apple executives spoke at the gathering, including Steve Jobs, CEO; Phil Schiller, senior VP of worldwide product marketing; Fred Anderson, CFO; Tim Cook, executive VP of worldwide sales and operations; and Ron Johnson, senior VP of retail. MacMinute has put together some highlights from the Q&A session with Jobs, in which he discusses Intel chips, DVR features on Macs, iPod and iTunes, the digital lifestyle apps, .Mac, Longhorn, and more.
Jobs first addressed a question about whether songs from the iTunes Music Store should work with MP3 players other than the iPod, or conversely, that the iPod should work with other legal music services.
"There's really little reason to [make iPod work with other services] right now. The iPod is the No. 1 selling MP3 player in the world, even compared to all of the little cheap Flash players that hold seven songs each," Jobs said. "Why should we work with another music store when we're working with the Microsoft of music stores? I'd rather spend our engineering dollars on enhancing the iPod and enhancing the iTunes music store."
Jobs also revealed that the iTunes Music Store "had over an 80 percent market share for all legally downloaded music on the Internet," according to new figures from SoundScan.
Jobs was next asked about porting Mac OS X to Intel architecture. "It's perfectly technically feasible to port Panther to any processor," Jobs said. "One of the great benefits of moving from Mac OS 9 to Mac OS X was getting a far more modern technology that is platform independent. It's very easy to run Mac OS X on different processors. We're running it on the [IBM] PowerPC and we're very happy with the PowerPC -- but from the technical point of view, it's very easy."
"Right now we don't see a compelling need to switch processor families," Jobs said. "The stuff that's in the PowerPC road map is really good -- I can't talk about it -- but it's really good. We have all the options in the world, but the PowerPC road map looks very strong."
Jobs was critical of the idea that Apple should sell TiVo-like Macs similar to Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center, which combines TV and digital video recording (DVR) capabilities. "There is a small audience that likes this... We're not going to go that direction; we're going to integrate toasters, Jobs said jokingly.
He noted that people want big-screen TVs and do not want to watch movies or shows on a small computer screen. Jobs also pointed out that people use computer and TVs very differently: "Generally what they want to view on television has to do with turning their mind off," he said.
"We've always believed that this convergence between the computer and the television wasn't going to work." Jobs said that video recording is processor intensive and should be left to a standalone device. "When I want to record 'The West Wing,' I want to make **** sure it records 'The West Wing.'"
The Apple CEO talked a bit about the digital hub strategy and where it is going. "There are new categories of applications that people haven't even thought of yet that we are working on," Jobs said. "We have a lot of innovation up our sleeves when it comes to the digital lifestyle/digital hub class of applications -- a lot. You will be seeing some of it next year... very strong stuff."
Jobs said that Apple is out-innovating Microsoft, noting that the software giant still has years of work ahead of it with Longhorn, the next major version of Windows. "They're hoping in 2006 to be where we were with Jaguar," Jobs said, adding, "We're going to have a few more releases by then. We're going to be way ahead by then."
Jobs and Schiller also addressed a question regarding Apple's plans for the mobile phone market. Jobs made it clear that Apple still has no plans to enter the market, while Schiller went over Mac OS X's tight integration with Bluetooth phones. "We're way ahead of Microsoft in this area," Jobs said. "And since we're not trying to make our own phone, we're working with everybody and everybody wants to work with us. We have great relationships with handset manufacturers."
"We've turned .Mac from a money pit into a money maker," Jobs declared. He noted that critics said .Mac customers would not pay $99 after getting the first year at a discount of $49. "Our renewal rate was 87 percent... unheard of, higher than almost anybody's in any industry," Jobs said. "We've built ourselves the beginnings of a pretty good Internet services business."
Jobs said Apple is strongly focused on selling to existing Mac customers and to those who have not upgraded in a while. "One of our goals over the next year is to get our pro customers upgrading more," he said. "We've got a lot of G3s out there in use and a lot of early G4s, and a lot of customers still running Mac OS 9."
"With the combination of G5 and Panther, it's a great time for our pro customers to upgrade," Jobs said. "That's the No. 1 thing we're focused on; that's the lowest-hanging fruit for us."
My Comments: Lots of news!
STEVE SAID "****" 
