In the wake of Bloomberg’s faux-pas to end all faux-pas’ last week, Forbes gives their list of the top 5 things they’d still like to see from a Steve Jobs run Apple. Sure, they tack on an unnecessarily morbid title, but at its core it’s an intriguing question: Macworld 2009 or 2010, what shiny new toys do we most want to see on the receiving end of a Jobsian “Boom!”?
Forbes includes, in ascending order, an iTablet, a TV, a remote control (not the tiny white one they already make — they want a Harmony killer), an eBook reader (Kindle Killer), and another paradigm shift in computing to follow the Apple II and Mac.
My list? Well, it would start with a hyper-miniaturized communicator that’s all but invisible, and makes whatever they used on the Berman-era Star Trek look old and lame. The Minority Report Cinema Displays and iMacs are high up there as well (though they’d need to keep the traditional inputs as well, lest my arms tire out before I finish blogging…) Location-based services that are truly useful would be nice: (Alert! You’re approaching mom’s house, she wanted help cleaning the gutters. Turn right to avoid…) Also, I’d like a real Apple TV, that does for the set-top what Apple’s done for the desktop, laptop, and palmtop. Time to move past hobby on that one, Mr. Jobs. (And it already has the ultimate remote — the iPhone/iPod Touch. C’mon!) But #1 on my list?
A truly integrated, location free computing experience. Bill Gates showed off the concept many years ago at CES, but I think only Apple could deliver it with any elegance or grace: I work on my iMac, pick up my iPhone (which has synced my entire environment, coordinated with the “cloud”), go to the office, and keep right on working on my MacBook as though it were the exact same machine. And more: stop over at a friend’s house and jump on her Mac Mini as though it were the same machine as well. No more location-locked environments or data. Back to my Mac becomes My Mac Anywhere, a truly MobileMe. (Though hopefully — for Jobs’ sake — with better branding…)
That’s the top 5 things I want from Steve Jobs’ Apple.
What’s yours?
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