The Oracle

It’s not easy to say what is so appealing about looking into the future of Apple’s lineup but it by far more entertaining than to look into every other competitor’s future as most of it is usually openly presented months ago and totally boring anyway. So the MacHackers will also engage in this little game but not so much by compiling rumours but by simply thinking about what might make sense and what not given the well-established facts. We’ll see how our look into the glass bowl will stand up to reality but we’ll give it a try. So this is The Oracle speaking.

Regarding the announcements of MacWorld and the possible real-world introduction of products later on we are approaching an interesting phase in Apple’s lifetime and it seems as if Apple is supporting this point by hinting at big things to come on their website stating “the first 30 years were just the beginning”. But it is not about anniversaries. It is about the big revenge Mr. Jobs has promised when he came back to Apple (obviously still deeply wounded by the fact he had been expelled from his original dream) by commenting on his $1 salary saying “this is not about money”. I think this can be seen as being simply true. It is not about money. It is about demonstrating that Apple can not only do better, they simply want to define where everything is going. Mr. Jobs wants Windows to be remembered as a phase of technological depression in the late nineties in the end of the 20th century.

So what is in store for this year? Lots of products have been discussed and many have been dreamt of. But it is very obvious Apple is still looking for the big hits. And bug hits are products that many people really, really want. Although, some of them might not be aware of that.

Being a nerd among nerds, it is difficult to tell what people really want as nerds want things few people outside the scene do care for (with just a few minor exceptions). I am not saying these people never want these things. It is just that the experienced user usually is five to ten years ahead of its time. And only if no other technological breakthrough has taken over the domain under discussion providing other solutions (as the Internet did to world of loosely interconnected dial-up BBS systems) people start asking for this thing their fellow computer went crazy on for a long time already. Laptops are a good example. It was so obvious everybody else will want one. But it took far more than five years to catch on with the general public. So what do people want now and what is Apple’s role in delivering this to these people now?

So The Oracle is going to post a few articles on this to deliver the MacHacker’s thoughts on this. Maybe we are wrong, maybe we are right. But we feel this special urge to share our thoughts with you.