I finally made it to the end of the video version of the roadmap presentation from March 6th.

The video was so long (78 mins) I was watching a bit here and bit there due to being very busy.

Well all I can say is I am surprised this isn’t getting more news.

Apple clearly are heading for Enterprise and business customers. Their big untapped markets.

Its simple to shrug off the iPhone as a consumer gimmick but some of the business applications shown in the roadmap presentation were very compelling.

Example: The Salesforce.com application, beaming new leads to remote sales people then tracking the new contacts location with Google maps all within a new finger gestures.

All Apple need to do is keep going and they seem to be pretty good at delivering on promises.

The next problem is the iPhone/iTouch form factor but that can be solved by making a  12″ tablet version with multi-touch and it’s game over.

If you have  iTunes installed you can use the link below to download the video (its about 800mb).

This is proper next generation stuff. No one else is innovating on this level.

iTunes Link: Apple March 6 Event_ iPhone Software Roadmap

Fibre to the kerb is the future for consumer Internet access Its the only way to get super high speed at a low cost.

BT are starting the first consumer trial in the UK.

Fast forward 10 years, this this will be a typical connection speed. 

I do a lot of remote backups and I would love a high bandwidth connection to speed things up.

Link: http://news.google.co.uk/nwshp?tab=wn&ned=uk&ncl=1126140969&hl=en&topic=t

Note the video is not in English, but you get the idea of what multi-touch is and how it might apply to you as a laptop user.

Multi-touch allows you to do multi directional input with your fingers.

I cant see a reason that in a few years time this wont be a standard part of a laptop track pad.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-touch

I hate quoting myself but..(Link see Comments 31/10/2007)

One company could end the debate over formats in a heartbeat and that is Warner Brothers, if they chose a single format instead of supporting both, the game would be over.

Yesterday January 4th 2008 Warner Bros have announced they are going to pick Blu-Ray over HD-DVD, thus ending the raging format war between the two camps Blu-Ray and HD-DVD.

Just to point out the obvious they waited a full 10 days after Christmas 2007 to announce this, milking the last out of early adopting HD types.

Being a PC guy I would have chosen HD-DVD as my preferred choice. Microsoft also chose this format for PC and Xbox 360. So I would have guessed wrong but I would have been in good company. Microsoft, Toshiba etc.

Interestingly both Dell and Apple chose the right format (Blu-Ray). I think HP offered both.

Well the good news all the format nonsense is now over. Sadly there are millions of consumers stuck with the “Betamax” of this century.

So lets look at the lay of the land.

Standard Def DVD: By far the most dominant by miles. It looks great and is inexpensive to buy titles and players.

Blu-Ray: There is no and I mean no low cost route into Blu-Ray. You need either a Sony Playstation 3 or a dedicated Blu-Ray player. These are currently going to set you back £250 upwards. Until the hardware is between £49-£99 your average consumer is going to run a mile.

Digital Downloads: Hi-Def streaming and downloads are just around the corner. In the UK Sky have just signed up major movie studios so this is going to take off in 2008. Likewise Microsoft will weep momentarily about HD-DVD then fill the Xbox market place with more HD content for download. Finally iTunes will start renting movies this year.

The Blu-Ray HD format is now dead in the water. It is going to be beaten savagely by the aging Standard Def DVD format in the coming years. During those years Digital Downloads will slowly take hold.

The HD-DVD/Blu-Ray format war a good thing, it kept driving down the cost of Hi-Def to the consumer.

Blu-Ray is the new laserdisc, Standard Def DVD is the new VHS

If Apple shipped with Windows a lot of PC companies would be in serious trouble.

Not that I believe in conspiracies but:-

Apple Run on Intel CPU’s

Apple hardware can run Windows Via Bootcamp or Parallels

If Apple wanted to enter the “Windows” market they could, the general population is ready. Their brand is strong, they have established Internet and retail sales channels.

With Apple’s OSX Leopard being the sixth version of OSX how many more times can keep redoing essentially the same thing.

Gates and Jobs are publicly all touchy feely:

http://d5.allthingsd.com/20070530/d5-gates-jobs-interview/

Importantly Gates is retiring, so no industry ego issues to worry about.

If I was an Apple shareholder I would saying “Why ignore that huge Windows market”.

Look at the iPhone, back Apple HQ they must have thought will this/wont this work. Now they have sold more than a million into an established market that didn’t exist for them  6 months ago. The product is considered a success. So what’s next?

Call me mad (Use the comments) but I predict Apple will start selling Windows PC’s in the coming years.

What does Jobs call iTunes “The best Windows Application ever”.

The highest percentage of iPod/iPhone users are Windows users.

Therefore Apple’s customers are now predominately Windows users, why ignore their needs.

Please feel free to taunt me about this post in the future (say 2012 ish).