Filed under: Macworld, Apple Corporate, Odds and ends, Steve Jobs, Apple
Apple Inc., beyond the "Computer"
With all the hubbub today folks may have missed a small but telling detail. Given the focus on iPods and now the iPhone, Jobs announced the company itself had changed its name from "Apple Computer Inc." to simply "Apple Inc." (already reflected on the bottom of the homepage, right).Since the iPod became such a hit, many old-time Mac folks have worried that that Apple was increasingly moving away from the Macintosh. While I think it's premature to worry too much, certainly the change in name reflects a substantial shift in Apple's (or perhaps better, Steve Jobs') understanding of what Apple is as a company. It's starting to look like Apple is repositioning itself into a consumer electronics company that also makes computers (Sony, anyone?). What this means in the long term, both for the Mac and for Apple, is anyone's guess. It's heartening, though, that the iPhone will run OS X, so we can hope that even as Apple goes into new markets it won't forget the Mac faithful who got it here in the first place. What's your take on the name change?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Greg said 12:40AM on 1-10-2007
Right now I see the name change as very appropriate. It follows suit with Apple's change from the "iTunes Music Store" to just "iTunes Store". I'm glad that Apple is expanding their product line into other areas, and I for one am not immediately concerned about their losing focus on the Macintosh. It may happen unfortunately, but I' not too worried about it. Perhaps a simple name change is being exaggerated here. ;)
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Aron T said 12:41AM on 1-10-2007
It's one of the best business decisions Apple, inc. could have made. No longer are they limited by the lasso of a prohibitive vision and free are they to enter, expand, and even create new markets!
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Bryan said 12:49AM on 1-10-2007
total rubbish
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feld said 12:56AM on 1-10-2007
I think the bigger picture here is that the name change not only, "reflects a substantial shift in Apple's (or perhaps better, Steve Jobs') understanding of what Apple is as a company," but that Apple's name change reflects the overall shift of the computer industry away from just making a box that sits on your desk or a book that goes in your bag to products that compliment said boxes and lets them fit more seamlessly into your life via an integrated network.
PS>Sony was an electronics biz first, then made computers, not the other way around. That is a *big* difference!
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Kendall Tawes said 1:04AM on 1-10-2007
To be honest I was scared all the Windows fanboys were right and Apple was going to shift away from the Mac and just be a gadget company with loose ties to computing. After all they didn't say anything about Macs or Leopard. But I was quick to realise the purpose of the name change wasn't to shift focus but to broaden it. Now the company was free to explore new avenues of...anything really. The name change set them free to develop not just computers but all sorts of wondrous things I can't even imagine them. Finally we may see the convergence of technologies people have speculated over ever since the advent of personal computing. Apple Computer Inc. was a single sighted name, a vision of the computing world and that alone and with the name change to Apple Inc. Apple will have the power to see the full panoply of possibilities and opportunities this company can envision. I am fairly certain that Apple will use this broadening to assist it's Macs overall potential insted of limiting it. Apple is still Apple after all and with that shot of the "Steves" together I think they havent forgoten that. Besides it's not like they're Apple Pod Inc.
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Umgawa said 1:25AM on 1-10-2007
I don't see this as being a sudden shift of focus at all. This is just one of the many results of settling with Apple Corps, and the company probably would have been fine with changing its name to Apple Inc. in 1981 or 1991, had their previous legal settlements with Apple Corps gone so well. Now we just have to sit back and wait for Beatlemania to hit iTunes.
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Macobyte said 1:40AM on 1-10-2007
Some people are misinterpreting this and panicking, as has happened in the past, because they think Apple is pulling out of the computer production game. This isn't the case; what appears to be them removing themselves from the personal computer market is actually them merging that market with the new media market.
More and more Apple is tying all our digital media files together so we have them wherever we go and whenever we need them, on our desks, in our pockets, and now on our TVs. Apple is (and has been) pushing for the combination of computer, PDA, cell phone, DAP, and TV. Today's products only prove my point.
Fast forward to ten or twenty years from now. You'll wake up and on the nightstand next to your bed will be a small, pocket-sized tablet mac-slash-pda, sitting in its dock, ringing its alarm to awaken you. You'll roll over and tap the screen to turn off the alarm, and the local weather reports and news will pop up on screen. You'll get out of bed and get ready for work.
As you leave for work, you'll pick up the device and put it in your pocket, then deposit it in a slot on your car's dashboard as you drive to the office. Your entire music library will be available through the car's stereo, and your phone calls will come to the device and be delivered through the in-dash interface, as well.
You'll park and walk into your office building, holding the device up to your ear and carrying out a phone conversation as you reach your desk. On the desk will be a large flatscreen monitor, wireless mouse and keyboard, and another dock for your device, no CPU in sight. You won't need one, you'll drop the thing in the dock, the monitor will come on, and your call will be transfered to some next-gen iChat app as work. The small unit will be a fully-functional computer, performing all necessary tasks.
At the end of the day you'll drive home listening to your iTunes through your car again, then deposit your futuristic PC/PDA hybrid in a dock beside your TV, giving you instant access to your media files, as well as any channel you want to watch, as TV will be carried over the Internet. The machine will also drive your video gaming, and have video chat functions as you sit in front of your television (you'll be able to video chat on the go, too). At the end of the day, you'll drop it in the dock by your bed and repeat.
This is what Steve Jobs always meant the term "iPod" to entail. Eventually, such a device will function as a full featured computer and media center while docked, and revert to more simple functions for audio and video phone, web access, and media playing while used portably.
Sorry for the long post, I'm an industrial design student and have spent the past 9 years of my life brainstorming how such a device would look, interact, and function.
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babken said 1:52AM on 1-10-2007
i acctually remember a few years back, "Apple, Inc." started quietly showing up on the bottom of their press releases, but the "Computers" came back after a while...
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newswede said 2:08AM on 1-10-2007
You all missed it. Read Adam Curry's blog ('cause I can't claim it for myself) and he posts an interesting note...
"Just a random thought here, but could the name change from Apple Computer to Apple Inc, in conjunction with Jobs playing a Beatles song in his keynote be clues that there is a pending merger or acquisition of Apple Records?"
ha!
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Steve in Denmark said 2:30AM on 1-10-2007
Thoughts?
Meh.
Everyone calls them 'Apple'. Doesn't matter what they put after it.
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LittleJoe said 2:49AM on 1-10-2007
Sorry, I agree with Steve. Theyve always been "Apple" to most people around the world.
Much like the "iPhone", you might as well just go with the flow and call it what its known as.
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Matthew said 5:23AM on 1-10-2007
All the UK pages still have "Copyright © 2007 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved." at the bottom. Lazy Apple. Or it's because of some obscure copyright or company name law that we have.
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Brendan said 7:09AM on 1-10-2007
"What's your take on the name change?" (Mat Lu)
My take is this. Apple wants to make products other than computer, and you don't want them to?
Well being a fan of Apple's stuff, I think it'll be wonderful to expirence their presents in other places and products. I'm truly looking forward to my Apple HD TV with iTV built-inside. Who's not going to want that??
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Flip Sasser said 11:28AM on 1-10-2007
The day Steve Jobs is willing to skimp on his computing experience because iPods sell so well is the day he dies. The Mac will always be important to Apple and will always be a product they manufacture and improve. At least until El Stevo dies, but by then we'll have Google Brain Implants with World Skinning™, so... meh.
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John Krull said 11:57AM on 1-10-2007
I attended MacWorld today, and the Keynote was pathetic because Jobs spent over an hour talking about a phone ans SKIPPED any talk of new computer software or hardware. Apple still needs to remember that it sells computers and the audience at MacWorld wants computers and not iTunes or phones.
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prateeko said 3:57PM on 1-10-2007
I am a little worried.
I paid $2800 for my 17" MBP. And if Apple knows something, its the fact that computer sales can be pretty juciy.
I don't mind if they go out and make a bunch of other stuff, more power to them. But if they stop concentrating on the computer aspect of it all, then they'll have become the company they always strive to beat.
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Donald Burr said 5:31PM on 1-10-2007
To suspect Apple of moving away from the computer business is sheer foolishness. For one thing. computers ARE their core competency. They've been doing them longer than iPods, longer than anything. But more importantly, every product they have introduced, are not necessarily standalone products; in every case, they depend on a computer. People would be listening to a lot of silence on iPods if it weren't for the Macs used to fill them with music. Apple TV similarly needs a Mac to either fill its hard drive, or to stream content from. Even the iPhone needs a Mac to sync its data (addresses/calendars/music/etc.) from. Note that Steve did NOT make any mention of being able to buy or transfer music using WiFi or EDGE; meaning that you'd still need a computer to fill the iPhone with music, podcasts, and TV/movie videos.
The Apple Inc. name change makes a lot of sense, because they do indeed now make other, (strictly speaking) non-computer devices that go hand-in-hand with the computers that they also make and sell.
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Jon H. said 8:00PM on 1-10-2007
I too was dissapointed about the lack of Macintosh news at the Stevenote.
Then I went into work this morning and literaly *every* newspaper on the newstand featured the iPhone somewhere on the front page. Most of them had that image of the big, colorful widget screen, nothing like anything out there, and I thought "this can only mean good things for the playform."
I feel this could bring in more converts than the iPod could ever hope for! True, the popular image of Apple Inc.--especially among my generation of twentysomethings--is "the iPod/iTunes company," but when you think about it, the iPhone puts all of the virtues of OS X into--literally--the hands and minds of the masses! This could be interesting...
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Mac Dan said 8:47PM on 1-10-2007
In response to Donald Burr.
"in every case, they depend on a computer." Correct, they do!
" People would be listening to a lot of silence on iPods if it weren't for the Macs used to fill them with music. Apple TV similarly needs a Mac to either fill its hard drive, or to stream content from. Even the iPhone needs a Mac to sync its data (addresses/calendars/music/etc.) from." Incorrect, they do not! And thus is the reason I am worried about the name change. All of the new products from Apple can be used with Windows as well as Mac OS. Since the introduction of the first Windows compatible iPod, Apple has started to move focus from the Mac to their new digital lifestyle products.
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Anonymous said 9:05PM on 1-16-2007
I think the name change is appropriate for Apple Inc. They are no longer just a computer company, and media market. Do I think the new Apple Inc. will leave the Mac in the dust? No. Since Steve Jobs returned to Apple Inc. their computer marketshare has grown significantly, especially with the release of the Macbook, a downsized version of the Macbook Pro. I myself am a lifelong Windows user, but will be ditching it-along with its many flaws of both security and design-for a Mac this spring after the release of the Leopard this spring.
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