The Brilliance!

So yeah, I’m a super huge Apple fan right? To a certain extent I evangelize their products a bit too much. I suppose I just really love their attention to detail. That being said, after just scrolling through Engagdet’s live updates on the keynote today and chatting with my friend Adam about this new iPod Nano with a camera…I feel a little confused. I love simplicity, and not just in design, but in business models, etc. I feel like Apple is making some confusing moves by offering, while really cool, odd enhancements to their products. So we’ve got an iPod Nano that can take video now - great. But I kind of can’t believe I just saw Steve Jobs show a picture of a Flip Camera and say “we want to get in this market”.........and then announce it as a new feature on their mid-level music device. A music device that has nothing to do with capturing video. A device thats simplicity, see them brag about the click wheel, made it so attractive. A device that’s whole purpose, music, reinvigorated the public’s image of Apple. Does anyone remember Steve Jobs saying that even just playing video on an iPod wasn’t something they were interested in? Now they’re just cramming features into it - making it harder and harder for me to explain to, say my Grandmother, which iPod would be best for her. It used to be like, you know, small - medium - large. As in, Shuffle - Nano - iPod. It feels like each is its own product but none really fit into a line-up as Apple usually does. To be honest, it feels kind of like the presentation of product lines we’d see from Sony or something, you know? Or, ouch, Microsoft with their 20 different versions of windows. I had the same thoughts with the iPod Touch when that was launched too, like, I couldn’t believe they would do that. Yeah, it sells well, but does it cannibalize other products, does it confuse, is it kind of corny? I always looked at the touch as the C-Class hatchback Benz did a while back with cloth seats. Yuck, what a bad look for Mercedes at the time. It’s funny, when Steve Jobs came back the first time in the 90’s he slashed Apple’s product lines big time, made things simple, understandable and FOCUSED. Looks like they are creeping back to their old ways maybe? I guess it all feels just kind of un-Apple. ***All that said, its pretty awesome to see Steve back on the stage doing his thing, I hope this is the case for a long time to come.