Hardware and Faster Power Macs

-- Steve Jobs keynote was mostly about software, lots of it. We subtitled our coverage, "Apple The Software Company" in response. There were two hardware announcements at the end, a new graphically faster, high end iMac with 17" flat panel display and two new iPods, three if you count the Windows version. But mostly it was about software.

The new iMac closely parallels our hope for a high end iMac that rivals the Power Mac for those of us who do not need PCI slots but want high performance. Yet many were hoping for a faster, say 1.2-1.6 GHz, Power Mac--we were. But the faster G4s and later the G5 will come as will a redesigned and better engineered Power Mac, possible as early as next month if one believes the rumors. While Apple displayed mostly software, it still is mainly using its software to sell its hardware. Is Apple shifting though, with the lack of an upgrade discount on 10.2 and a subscription for .Mac? Apple didn't get any significant magazine covers that we are aware of as it does when it issues significantly new hardware at the Macworld events. Still, we think Apple's software is its best foot. Apple makes great-looking hardware but how many Macs would Apple sell if they only ran Windows?