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Apple’s latest offerings: simpler, smaller and less, and just all-around better

Tue, January 15th, 2008 by Jamie Folsom | 0 comments

Apple's products seems to offer less and less all the time, and they just keep getting better.

It's been a year since they dropped "Computer" from their name and became Apple Inc. This year Apple dropped all kinds of unneccessary stuff from their products, too. The product announcements at this year's Macworld Expo were about evenly split between Mac-related and non-Mac related products. It's what those products all share that's Apple's unique strength, and which transcends products and patents. Its offerings in all the markets it has entered are generally easier to use, more elegant and less annoying, and all of the the new ones today improved on the past by removing something: the unneccesary, the complex, and the convoluted.

This subtractive approach to refinement has a long and illustrious list of exponents, from Web 2.0 innovators 37signals, to Blaise Pascal. Apple's just really good at it.

In reverse order of Steve Jobs' announcement the new items today were:

• Macbook Air, a very thin and light notebook computer
  
• Apple TV 2, an updated "livingroom ipod" 
• Time Capsule, a wireless access point with built-in backup
• A software update to the iPhone and iPod touch, which set the stage for third-party applications

Macbook Air has less of everything. As they have done in the past (in dropping the floppy drive from the original iMac), they have created a wonderful new device, simpler yet no less functional than its peers, by eliminating parts. The wired network port is gone. It has no optical drive (replaced by software called "remote disk"). Macbook Air also adds a feature from the iPhone that makes first-time users gape: a "multitouch" trackpad. Manipulating objects on the screen is more natural with multitouch, as it relies on hand gestures you might well use with real objects. So it removes the need to use unfamiliar interface conventions. Finally, it actually dispenses with the one moving part of a computer altogether, by allowing replacement of the hard drive with solid state storage, which is faster, quieter, and less prone to failure.

Apple TV 2 removes the computer from the process of buying digital audio and video from iTunes. Along with a raft of partnerships and technologies, this update to the not-very-successful version 1.0 makes Apple a player, literally and figuratively in the à la carte/on-demand video entertainment market. Apple will rent HD movies and tv content to be downloaded from the iTunes store. Netflix and Comcast are the two obvious competitors there. Amazon, Joost, Miro, and Sling offer features of those services, too, but have less traction, and more fragmented customer base. Apple's edge? Its service will be more seamless. With the computer no longer necessary for the transaction, Apple has another line of products that does not require a computer at all, let alone a Mac.

Time Capsule removes wiring, hardware and difficulty from user data backup. Time Machine, Apple's dead simple backup solution was introduced with Leopard, the latest version of Apple's Mac OS. Time Capsule is an accessory to Time Machine, and is the "Ronco Showtime Rotisserie Oven" of the backup world: "Set it and forget it" as Ron Popiel would say. With a Terabyte of storage, you'll be backed up for years to come, and you will have fewer tools to do it with.

The iPhone update means users don't have to buy a GPS receiver to get where they're going; it can tell you where you are based on the cell towers and wifi access points you're near.

For an interesting perspective on this approach to product development, have a look at 37signals' book, Getting Real, and in particular Chapter 2, Build Less, an excellent introduction to making web software usable.

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