BusinessWeek online has published some edited excerpts from a conversation it recently had with Apple senior-vice president for worldwide marketing Phil Schiller. They preface Schilleris comments with some of their own commentary on the expo. From the Businessweek online article:
Among this yearis attractions: the new iMac with a 17-inch, flat-panel monitor and new software that lets PC users sync Appleis way cool iPod with Windows machines.
The one big downer of the show? The announcement that Apple would shortly start charging an annual fee for use of its now free online iTools suite of software.
The post-Macworld interview touches on a few topics that have been much discussed in the Mac community since Steve Jobsi keynote. From the article:
Q: People are asking why youire charging so much for Jaguar, the new OS X update.
A: We came out with OS X 10.0 in May, 2001, at $129. Thatis our usual price for paid upgrades. Last fall, we came out with 10.1 Normally, we would decide to charge $129, but because we wanted to help the adoption of OS X, we made it free to our customers. Now, with 10.2, itis $129 again, same as it always has been. I think a year and a half before charging for an upgrade is very reasonable. And we included 150 new features in Jaguar. Thatis a lot for your money.
Other topics covered in the piece include the Windows version of iPod, Appleis Switch campaign and a defensive response about Appleis encroachment into other software developeris territory with some of the upcoming features of Jaguar.