What Does the Future Hold for Apple?
There’s a piece by Nick Wingfield of the Wall Street Journal today about what Forrester Research is speculating will be the next steps for Apple. Apparently, they believe that Apple’s future lies in the home, in every room, and with gadgets that aren’t exactly mind-blowing.
This is just Forrester’s forecast of what is coming, and nothing is set in stone. But it makes sense that Apple’s next steps would be about simplifying and modernizing everyday household items.
For example, Forrester sees Apple coming out with touch screen HD picture frames that connect to your computer and put out various media, including videos. Of course, digital picture frames are already out there, but there could be room for Apple to improve. Excited yet?
Another idea perhaps in the pipeline is an Apple clock radio that connects to your home network, although its hard to imagine how much more a clock radio can be improved to make owning an Apple clock radio a necessity. I guess it would be cool to access a playlist from iTunes to wake you up in the morning, but what else would you use it for?
Obviously, Forrester’s speculation has no basis on what is actually going on at Apple, but it’s fun to speculate nonetheless. The idea that Apple will try to take over your living room is one that makes sense. The idea of an Apple universal remote that fuses your Mac with your stereo and tv is kind of a cool idea, especially if it offers a touch screen that allows you to scan music, tv shows, movies, and other media.
However, this foray into the living room has been attempted by Apple with Apple TV, and Steve Jobs himself has admitted that he’s disappointed with the results. Speculation continues that Apple will attempt a TV set, but this probably isn’t coming, and if it does, Apple will probably want to focus more on how to fuse the Internet and your computer with your tv, although I personally believe Sony or Microsoft, with their video game devices, may make a big push on this as well and combine them with their Playstation and X-Box to make it even more attractive.
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