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MW08: Epilogue
Every member of the working world knows that the first few days back from time-off, be it a conference or a vacation, is the busiest time of the year. And I, like some kind of moron, scheduled not one but two Leopard Server deployments this week. Then I caught some kind of bug (probably on the flight home) and am down with that now. No pity parties, please - just a quick explanation of what my week post-MW has been like.
Looking back on last week's Macworld Expo: you know I mostly go for the business divining rod. Hearing from Apple execs like John Brandon, Mary Philipsek, and our own Mike Pruneau, discussions with peers in the Apple Consultants Network, and more involved discussion (over Moroccan beer?!) with friends from the MacXprts Network.
Readers of the previous Macworld journals may remember the Keynote as a highlight of my trip. Not this year. But in hindsight, I was a little too harsh on some of the announcements. Time Capsule for example is going to be a fantastic product, and I was too harsh on Apple: the 10.5.2 update looks to resolve the issue of Time Machine backups to hard drives attached to Airport Extreme base stations. I should have had some faith in Apple to do the right thing; it's rare that they so blatantly hose their customers. I compared the Macbook Air to the G4 Cube, but then I heard another perspective comparing it to the original iMac. It makes sense: limited interfaces, lack of a popular medium (3.5" floppies then, CD/DVD now), a little pricey for its time, but very innovative. The big difference is that there was absolutely nothing like iMac in 98; it was hugely popular. I'm not sure that Air has the same thing going for it - time will tell. iPhone 1.1.3 is nice but not earth-shattering. And I can't wait for my new AppleTV to show up so I can watch some high def flicks. In fact, I'm starting to agree with Duane Burghard that AppleTV may turn into the next iPod. Once people see it and what it can do now, there's a lot of potential there.
The biggest disappointment on the show may not have been the awful training class I signed up for, but rather, the showfloor. It seems that Dave Greenbaum and I agree on this point (he's been journalling here)... I personally think that all of the vendors that exclusively offer iPod and iPhone cases need to be shuttled off into their own section of the building. I get it that they mean a lot of money for IDG (the people who put on the show) but it's annoying when every other booth is just another case manufacturer. Seriously, how many different things can you do with leather, silicone, and plastic to surround an iPod? The case I ended up buying for my iPhone is starting to annoy me.
But the real problem was that there didn't seem to be much "wow" from anyone this year. Microsoft debuted Office 2008, and it's biggest, most relevant feature is that it is Universal Binary. Intuit decided that they aren't going to try to fool customers into thinking that Quicken 2008 for Windows and Quicken 2008 for Mac are the same product anymore. They're just going to make a new Mac product that's entirely unique and release it in the second half of 2008. Let's hope it doesn't delete anyone's desktop. Speaking of products that we may or may not see in late 08, Retrospect is finally brining out a total re-write. About two years too late.
I'm having a really hard time filling in the "best of" this year.
Best Apple Hardware: It has to be Macbook Air by default. Time Capsule is just Airport Extreme with a hard drive. AppleTV is the same hardware - new software.
Best Non-Apple Hardware: Ricoh debuted a new line of printers that let you email an attachment directly to the printer and then it will print out the file. Kind of cool if you receive an email on the road, you can forward it to the printer and have it waiting for you when you get back, or have one of your people at the office get the print out. That and their new Gel printer line-up is really sharp. We're getting one for the office and one to resell. I have no desire to get into selling printers, but if I'm asked, this is it.
Best iPod Accessory: No clear winner here, but my money made the decision. I picked up a set of V-Moda's Vibe Duo headphones. Great bass response. Not noise canceling but they block out a lot of ambient noise. And they have the little microphone that makes them iPhone-savvy.
Best Apple Software: AppleTV's 2.0 to enable movie rentals. Although, had they released 10.5.2, that probably would have been it.
Best Non-Apple Software: My vote goes to Parallels Server. One big change is the ability to run Mac OS X in a virtualized environment. That's going to make presentations and testing a breeze - not to mention how it will function in the real world. Of course, VMware has a similar product, but Parallels is much more friendly to the reseller channel.
Best Ad Campaign: FastMac had a bunch of T-shirts with movie title parodies that promoted Leopard and poked fun at Windows. Personally, I liked "Hasta la Vista".
Best Chotzkie: Nothing truly notable here, but I came away with more t-shirts than ever before. I guess that's a positive.
So there you have it folks. Sorry no pictures this year; take a look at Dave's blog. He took a bunch.
With the last two years being spectacular, this one had to be a bit of a letdown. But maybe we should think of it as "building potential" than a letdown. After all, when faced with the economy that we're looking at this year, it's nice to be planning growth instead of battening down the hatches.
Posted on January 25, 2008
MW08: Almost Home
Greetings from Mel's Diner at 4th and Mission, SF. It's 9:30 PST and my flight leaves in about 3 hours. Mel's has been a staple of my visits to SF. Great breakfast, small town diner feel. Its my third visit this week.
My blog posting became a little erratic towards the end of the week. This was a combination of bad Internet access and lack of time. The latter was especially consuming. What seemed like a light schedule was quite an illusion. On Thursday, I managed to get through about half of the South hall's exhibits. I managed to speak with VMware about a deployment issue we will face next week. Found the new iPhone case that I was desperate for (mine was about a centimeter from falling off its clip). And chatted with some other vendors who had products that I or my clients might appreciate. (I'll email you individually very soon.) Ultimately, I missed half the floor and never made it back.
You see, the there are many reasons I invest the time and money to spend the week out here. Checking out new products is important, but not as important as setting the tone and strategy for 2008. And that's what I did for most of Thursday and pretty much all of Friday.
Thursday included the second of the Apple Consultant Network BYOB meetings. This was probably the most engaging of my scheduled activities. It was an open discussion of established Mac consulting businesses: what works, what doesn't. So many fantastic ideas... I'm proud to say that I was able to contribute some of my own to the collective.
Then I cut my South hall tour short so I could attend the ACN Business Meeting. For some reason or another, I never got to this one before. I won't miss another. The insight gained was immeasuably valuable. Among the speakers was Mr. John Brandon, VP of Sales in the Americas and AsiaPacific for Apple. Yes, one of SJs right hand men. After hearing him talk, its no surprise that Apple is now a $24B company. Brilliant is the only word.
Friday was all-day at the annual MacXprts conference. And it was just like the ACN meeting, except on the opposite side of the coin. Our Apple exec, Mary Philipsek, was equally brilliant, but more importantly, passionate about the channel.
