Initial Impression of Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event

It looks like the last page refresh has come from engadget.com and live.gizmodo.com and all the news is now news. Kevin Rose’s leaks on the Nano and iTunes were mostly right. The Genius feature looks like the natural evolution of the iTunes MiniStore and smart playlists. The new iPod Touch was expected. I really like the addition of the volume controls and the speakers. That was my wife’s complaint about her iPod Touch — the lack of speakers. Now I need to figure out a way to upgrade it. It looks like Apple is staggering the iPod Touch 2.1 update and the iPhone 2.1 update and not trying to launch them both at the same time.

I think the game titles are promising. I know my kids will want Real Soccer 2009 and Need for Speed (in November). I’m not a fan of games on the Mac. It’s a combination of the lack of good games and the fact that I see the Mac as a tool and not a game platform. I have a DS, PS2 and a Wii for gaming. But the iPhone/iPod Touch seems different. I also like the pricing model. I can buy a game once and the whole family can play it (3 iPhones and an iPod Touch).

Steve Jobs showed that he has a sense of humor about the reports of his death (photo by Gizmodo.com).

What did we not see at this event? I did not expect a new tablet or new laptop. The time of year is wrong. Apple telegraphed that this was an iPod announcement and delivered what they promised –despite the negative Wall Street reaction (AAPL down 3%). To add MacBooks would have confused the message. I would not be surprised if there was another event between now and January but the bet now is that we will see a new MacBook in January.

I am disappointed that we did not get iLife ’09 like I had previously posted. That too would have confused the message. I’m not sure what is needed in the iLife package. I think iDVD is going extinct or at least vestigial. I do have a wish for how Apple can improve iPhoto but I’ll save that for another post.

The only other product that would make sense to rev would be AppleTV. They could fix the UI and add some of the new Genius features. Perhaps simply getting HD TV shows are enough of a big deal. I know that I would consider buying Battlestar Galactica episodes in HD.