"I want to talk about 4 things..."

Steve Jobs is famous for saying "I want to talk about 4 things....", sometimes it is 3, but today there were 4 things I want to talk about from the Macworld 2008 Keynote address.

1) Apple + Google

He mentioned Google specifically several times. "We love working with those guys...." was the quote. He talked and demoed the iPhone "GPS Lite" feature obtained from Google. Steve also did a demo where he placed the Google homepage onto the home screen on the iPhone.

Apple + Google working together, I wonder what the rest of the mobile industry thinks about this.

2) iPod Touch upgrade $20

For a few dollars you can add a handful of new applications into the Touch. Is it worth it? Who knows, but the important point is that Apple is now "testing the waters" to see how much push back they will get for charging for handheld OS upgrades in the future. It was a red-herring in that this new concept of charging for upgrades is being tested on the Touch, and not on the flag-ship iPhone. If the world cries foul, then I'm sure they will find a way to drop it in a way similar to how they handled the iPhone pricing snafu.

If there is only a minor uprising, then Apple has set a new precedent that they can play with in the future. If Apple has sold 4 million iPhones since launch, and in the future they want to charge a $20 fee for a major OS upgrade, 4 million times anything is a lot of money.

3) No new iPhone announced

I was expecting a 3G/GPS iPhone to be announced, but it didn't come. What does it mean? Maybe there are technical reasons holding it up, but most likely the real reason is that they don't feel the pressure to bring another iPhone to market. iPhone 1.0 is still "fresh" in the market, and so far no other handset has even approached the iPhone "coolness" factor, so there is no competitive pressure to release a new model. They are still selling the 1.0 model like crazy, so why bring out a new one.

4) iTunes Movie Rentals

Groans from Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, and Netflix. The time period you have to watch the movie seems limited, but like all things, Apple is famous for throwing something out there and then not being afraid to adjust as needed. Apple TV was initially a flop, a new face-lift for Apple TV was announced, over time the integration between iTunes and Apple TV will get more compelling. You have to wonder what the Satellite, Cable, and Broadcast folks are thinking. Apple Computer, iPod, iPhone, and Apple TV are all viewing platforms in the content viewing strategy.