Many people will harp on endlessly about how Apple is out to compete with various companies. It ocurred to me today who Apple potential biggest rival is.
Sony.
Why Sony? Well, it makes sense. Apple started out selling personal computers, but they’ve never gone beyond being a niche player. OK, so it’s a fairly big niche, but it’s still small compared to Dell, Gateway and HPaq. I can’t help but feel that the clever business minds at Apple know that just selling pretty PCs isn’t going to keep them afloat forever.
So Apple are constantly re-inventing themselves. They not only sell PCs, but also now music players, and music to play on them. Many of these components all interconnect, and play nicely with eachother. Steve Jobs today announced the new iTV device, which basically slaves off a PC or Mac to play media content onto your TV. Media content you bought from the iTunes store, natch. Content you can also play on your fifth-generation iPod.
There’s also the other devices, like the iPod hi-fi. What next, a TV with the iTV built in, perhaps? Or a bigger version of the iPod hi-fi more like the average bit of livingroom kit. How about the fabled Mac PVR? Sony probably aren’t concerned, but they do produce an awful lot of “me too” products similar to what Apple produce these days. Once upon a time, if you wanted home entertainment kit, you had Sony. Now, it could be Apple.