The trend is one that started over ten years ago and is slowly coming to fruition. Computers, media players (television, radio, music. photos, film, video), graphics design, publsihing and telecommunications are merging - across both technical and economic models. Embracing the whole of this reality by calling Apple Computers, Inc. Apple, Inc. should be no surprise to anyone except for the Beatles who lost their last lawsuit filed in England against Apple Computers last year effectively clearing the way for the name change which they probably wanted to do years ago when the iPod was first introduced. It is smart marketing. Period. Say what you want about Jobs, but no one can argue with the fact that he is a top of the line marketing professional. After yesterday's announcement Apple stock hit its all time high. Mac sales are up, the Mac OS X is the system for the iPhone, Mac Books and desktops are cross platform, and Apple announce Apple TV just as Apple gets in bed with AT&T at a time AT&T is coming on strong on the delivery end of communications to the end user. Smart. damn smart. The best long term protection for the Mac platform is this kind on integration. On Tuesday, January 09, 2007, at 10:47PM, "John Griffin" <jwegriffin at mac.com> wrote: >Interesting that no computer products were shown. Just as interesting >is that Apple is changing its name from Apple Computer to Apple Inc. > >Does anyone else see a trend here? Jobs was on stage for over 2 hours -- an extra long keynote, I think. He barely mentioned the Mac, spent very had little time on iPod/iTunes so he could devote the appropriate time to the revolutionary iPhone. He did have to give a few minutes to AppleTV. I have to assume that there are software and hardware updates that will be announced after the iPhone excitement has been allowed to subside a little. A large capacity video iPod with some of the features of the iPhone would be nice -- not everyone has constant need of a cellphone and 4 & 8 gigs is not a lot. >I gaze into my crystal ball and I see Apple getting right out of the >computer business, selling off the whole division and becoming a >media company period. After all, it hasn't really been the most >profitable part of the business for quite awhile. Perhaps Dell or HP >might be interested...or IBM? To load the music into the iPhone, I assume you will still need a computer. ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more.