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• Innovate or perish: The challenge facing Apple's new Intel iMac and...

  San Francisco (CA) - From this point forward, Apple Computer will have to innovate toward a unique and perhaps unparalleled computing platform, if the company expects Macintosh to remain a competitive force in a rapidly changing consumer computer market. That's the opinion of David Daoud, IDC's research manager for personal computing. "A company that has a 4% market share cannot afford remaining stable from a product line perspective," Daoud told TG Daily this afternoon. "They need to innovate, or otherwise they will simply just disappear." The little remote control, the media player front end, the embedding of the computer in a thin, flat panel behind the widescreen monitor, are all very nice. And the addition of Intel's Core Duo processors are, in Daoud's opinion, a tremendously positive step. Both the new iMac desktop units and the completely new MacBooks "certainly have all the nice features, like Front Row [media player], iSight [built-in camera], but they need to do a little more than that if they really want to gain market share in substantial ways," said Daoud. You can almost hear the Macintosh proponents' outcry: How could today's announcements not be innovative enough? The company has made an unprecedented platform shift from an architecture derived from the Motorola concepts on which the original Mac was built, to a platform that doesn't even count multi-Byte numerals in the same Byte order. The new notebook machines will feature dual-core processors as standard equipment, along with features that have been called "innovative" and "competitive" in the past, like Airport WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. And today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced his company will be completing its transition to all-Intel processors by the end of 2006, as much as half a year ahead of schedule. How can this not be considered innovative? The problem facing Apple is innovating the Macintosh to a degree as substantive and as market-changing as its innovations to the iPod. Consumers interested in new systems are going to be comparing the new Intel-based Macs with the well-established established array of Intel-based PCs, feature for feature. At that point, they're going to discover some very familiar features - half-a-gigabyte of memory, 80 Gb hard drive, ATI Radeon X1800 graphics card, and others - and then compare the new MacBook Pro's entry level price tag with a comparable system from Dell, which Daoud calculated at about $1,400. Add-ons for such a system, like Bluetooth, WiFi, camera, and maybe even a little remote control, could bring the Dell system up to about $1,750. Apple has slimmed down its "Macintosh premium" - the extra price consumers will pay for the right to say they own a Mac - to a gap of perhaps less than $200, assuming that these consumers necessarily want all the MacBook Pro's high-end features. Is this reduced premium enough to convince current or would-be Windows notebook users to make the jump? IDC's Daoud says no. The iMac now comes with Intel's Core Duo dual core processors "I think any analyst out there who expects Apple to duplicate its success from iPod with the computer line, will be very mistaken," Daoud remarked. "The iPod sets the stage for a new industry, a new market. The PC is a very mature, very well established industry, and there are several very gigantic companies out there, and a host of small companies that are extremely innovative." So whereas it is much easier for Apple to define the theatre of operations for the entire portable music market, that authority does not automatically translate into the PC market, where much of the true innovation, some believe, has already taken place. "It's going to be very difficult for a company like Apple, or anyone, to really move market share beyond one or two points. It's just not going to be possible." For Macintosh to gain market share, Daoud pointed out, someone else has to forfeit it. In most markets where market share is captured at the expense of a competitor, one company's innovation directly targets another company's leadership strengths. In the automotive market, for example, Dodge's recent re-introduction of the Challenger design at this week's Detroit Auto Show, and Chevrolet's dabbling in the waters of reinventing the Camaro, both appear to be moves directed at Ford's very successful refresh of the Mustang (one of Ford's few recent successes). In the PC market - even in portable computers - one computer tends to look very much like the next. But this year, that's changing. At CES 2006, the major players in the notebook market - including Toshiba, Samsung, HP, and Sony - indicated they're searching for that breakaway formula that would enable them to carve new market niches for themselves. All four of these manufacturers are dabbling with high-end features, such as high-definition optical discs, WiMAX connectivity, and even Dolby Surround Sound, all of which contribute to a premium price tag. The premium end of the market has typically been Macintosh territory. MacBook Pro doesn't appear to be targeted toward any of these high-end competitors at present. Instead, says Daoud, it's geared toward Apple's base, as well as heavy multimedia users who may already be familiar with - if not enamored with - the Apple brand. So MacBook Pro, he said, "really does not break into a new market. It really is a continuation of a product shift from the previous processors to the new ones, beefing up the system with applications that talk very well to the iPod world. But I really don't think that this is going to duplicate the success that we've seen with iPod, into that computer market." "What you will see [is] a number of innovative products entering the PC market," Daoud continued, "that are really going to be branded as 'media centers' - various forms of PCs in new form factors, that are going to make the market pretty interesting, very diverse, and extremely competitive...Each of the vendors out there right now are introducing very interesting systems, from tablet PCs to media centers to things that can replace your stereo system and television." And ironically, Intel may be doing the most to help out these competitors, through the advent of the Viiv media center PC specification, which embraces the Core Duo specification well enough, but also requires Windows Media Center Edition. "It goes back to a very critical point, which is innovation," IDC's David Daoud told us. What leads Apple to succeed in the portable music market is the fact that iPod has defined the functionality that consumers expect in that market, even from competitors. In the meantime, Apple's new computers "really are nothing else than refreshes. They are good systems, they are strong systems, they have new stuff, but so does everybody else. So it's a field where everybody is on equal footing, as opposed to what Apple did with the iPod, where they pretty much took the leadership role and created that market."

• The all-aluminum MacBook features an LED-backlit display. The use of LED backlighting allows Apple to offer slightly improved battery life and color, while also eliminating the use of mercury. High-end professional monitors and TVs use red, green, and blue LEDs instead of a fluorescent bulb to extend the gamut (color range) of the display. You’ll see this marketed in TVs and monitors with Sony TRILUMINOS, HP DreamColor, or NEC Spectraview-LED technology. These displays allow you to see “greener greens” and “redder reds” and reproduce more of the colors that exist in real-life. A handful of notebooks such as the new 17” MacBook Pro and Dell XPS Studio 16 use RGB LED displays, but the majority of shipping notebooks with LED backlit technology use an array of white LEDs.  Unlike the RGB technology that generates white light by combining red, blue, and green light, white LEDs are blue LEDs with yellow filters. While most LED backlit notebooks offer better color than equivalently spec’d notebooks, the main advantage to these types of screens are improved battery life, thinner screens, and more ecologically sound design. The backlight is only one component to the ultimate picture quality. The LCD panel itself also plays a significant role. While the MacBook’s display isn’t comparable to the premium TN-film display on the MacBook Pro or the H-IPS panels of the 24” iMac or 24” Cinema Display, the MacBook still offers adequate quality for most users. We were fortunate to have two MacBooks with display manufactured by different companies. The AUO screen (9C8C) is considered to be superior to the LG-Philips (9C89) panel by most users. The differences are subtle, but the measurements agree. Measurements Our MacBook with the AUO display had a peak brightness of 255 cd/m2 with a black level of 1.31 cd/m2. This results in a contrast ratio just shy of 195:1. Our sample with the LG-Philips display had a peak brightness of 254 cd/m2 but a black level of 1.41 cd/m2 resulting in a contrast ratio of 180:1. While these ~200:1 contrast ratios sound like a catastrophically horrible results in a world of 1000:1 desktop displays, it’s worth putting things into context. 1 cd/m2 is equivalent to the amount of light 15 minutes after sunset.   0.1 cd/m2 is equivalent to the amount of light 30 minutes after sunset.  The differences are subtle between the two units unless comparing side by side.  Notebooks such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 or SL300 might only get 150:1 contrast, whereas the Dell XPS M1330 hits 550:1 and the Dell Studio 15 hits 800:1 contrast ratios.  The previous generation MacBook Pro broke 1000:1 contrast and the current model has been measured in the 900:1 range. More important than the contrast ratio is the color accuracy of the screen (all of the colors in between pure black and pure white). Using a digital Munsell ColorChecker 24 patch chart and a DTP-94 colorimeter, the AUO screen had very good color accuracy after calibration with a residual average delta E of 2.66 (peak 6.83). Grayscale accuracy ranged from 0.69 to 2.95 (Average 1.682). The LG-Philips display was worse overall with an average delta E of 3.19 (peak 8.03) but the grayscale accuracy was better than the AUO with a range of 0.91 to 1.78 and an average deltaE of 1.376. These calibrated numbers are respectable for a notebook display. An 8-bit Samsung PVA desktop display capable of attaining 993:1 measured contrast ratio had an average delta E of 2.52 (peak 5.10) with a grayscale accuracy ranging from 0.49 to 3.03 (average of 1.312). By convention, a delta E < 1.0 suggests that a highly trained observer, under ideal conditions will be unable to detect a difference. A delta E < 2.0 is a difference that is only noticeable with direct A/B comparison by an average observer. A delta E between 3 and 6 is “acceptable” match for commercial reproduction on printing presses. Panel TypeContrast RatioPeak BrightnessColor Accuracy (after calibration)MacBook (Sample 1)LG Philips LP133WX2180:1254 cd/m2Delta E: 3.19MacBook (Sample 2)AU Optronics B133EW02 V0195:1255 cd/m2Delta E: 2.6624“ LED Cinema DisplayLG Philips LM240WU6802:1377 cd/m2Delta E: 1.76 Using http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/Calibration/monitor_black.htm it’s possible to see the gray square at Step 2 once calibrated.  The factory default setting won’t allow you to see anything until Step 5. In summary, a calibrated MacBook display has adequate picture quality for working with basic photos or movies. Like other 13” TN display monitors, viewing angles are limited with a small sweet spot, and 6-bit color prevents the same quality of color that can be reproduced with a desktop display. Out of the box, color accuracy is considerably worse.

• Just as there are the budget-minded Windows buyers who cannot appreciate the extensibility of the platform, there are the fashion-conscious Mac buyers who pick up the latest MacBook or iMac simply because it looks stylish. However, that is not to say that Macs lack any substance. I’ve been computing since 1984, and it’s only recently that Mac OS has become the superstar operating system that it is in 2008. In the Mac OS9 era, there was no true preemptive multitasking support. That means that while you could open multiple applications at any given time, the operating system could not automatically allocate computing resources to each application. Holding the mouse button down, for example, stopped the entire system until you finished your selection. You can be Hiro and even stop time. The transition to Mac OS X was a substantial one. OS X was essentially the next version of NEXTStep, with OS9 emulation and the support of PowerPC. With this new operating system design, attention to proper programming practices was held. Rather than tie the operating system to a single big endian platform, Apple engineers, from day one focused on code that was clean enough to run on x86 processors. Presumably, it wasn’t difficult to port to the ARM processor. Although IBM’s Power architecture offered superb performance in its corporate line up, the PowerG5 CPUs failed to offer the same overall performance ratio that was available from AMD’s and Intel’s CPUs beyond floating point computation. More importantly, the G5 was unworkable as a mobile chip and this meant that the Mac notebook had no ability to compete against the rising talent from Intel’s Haifa design team. Everything’s Changed We can start with the OS X. Like Nvidia during its rapid six-month product cycles, Apple has been exceptionally aggressive in pushing Mac OS further. Non-Mac users may not realize how different OS X 10.5 (Leopard) is in comparison to the original 10.0 (Cheetah). From the original proof-of-concept 10.0, Apple moved quickly, adding a GPU-based window manager/compositor, a journaled file system, and automated backup support, all the while improving overall system performance with each step forward. The hardware has also improved dramatically. The visual effects introduced in OS X, which once made OS X one of the slowest operating systems on the market, are now accelerated by faster and faster GPUs. With the transition to Intel complete, today’s Macs offer the same hardware as a PC. In some cases, Apple is even ahead of the PC world—GeForce 9400M shipped first on Apple. This transition has also allowed better PC compatibility with virtualization.