Summary
Apple tried for many years to enter the industry world. Will they succeed with the new iPhone and SDK2.0 ?
Analysis
At yesterday's WWDC, Steve Jobs announced a couple of new products/services that have a major impact on Apple business model.
iPhone 3G
With the 2.0 3G version and its new price of $199, Apple decided to go frontal in the war with Blackberry and attack the business environment. Full exchange compatibility and VPN servers are now provided.
For years, Apple have been trying to penetrate the business world with laptops, desktops and servers. The IT people usually are reluctant to introduce Mac-related software or unit in a closed PC world.
With the new iPhone update, it is expected to see Apple increasing its market share on that segment.
The addition of new languages, the 3G features and definitely the new price will boost iPhone sales.
Mobile Me
Mac has been criticized by some people that the service value is not enough for some of us to justify the $99 subscription fee. As far as I am concerned, I am pretty happy to be able to easily share pictures with iWeb or gallery and have a stable email address without too many spams... Mobile me goes beyond that and proposes to replicate the Microsoft Exchange features on a personal level. Automatic push emails, calendar and notes will now happen between your PC, Mac and iPhone (iPod touch? Please...)
In addition to it, a 'yousendit' feature is provided to help people to share large files. The storage capacity is extended to 20GB and you can easily share your files with a downloadable link.
The computer war Apple lost some years ago will not evolve over time. Its market share will be unlikely to go higher than 10%-15% except in some specific market or segments. However, with the increasing numbers of peripherals and solutions that are provided, Apple is continuously increasing its benefits over PC to convince consumer, pro-sumers and professionals to switch to Mac.
