Jul 17, 2001, 10:45am

So what do you think Apple's next trick is going to be?

I'm still lamenting the passing of the cube partially because I wanted one, just for the cool factor if not for anything else. Maybe the cube was ahead of its time, but in the end, I think it was Apple's mistake - it should have been the iMac, V2. It should have been a cube integrated with a flat screen LCD priced competitively. I think people would have bought into it even at a 14 inch screen if it was this kind of device. But they marketed a sealed box to the wrong audience - the upscale, technology-driven person who wants to hack their computer systems with new features, new cards, new accessories all the time.

Problem is, Jobs is still stuck in his 1980s mentality of "seal the box, force the whole system upgrade path". It worked for the iMac, but it didn't work for the cube.

So what will Apple's next move be? The Ti notebook was cool, but that's so last year. The new iBook is okay, but hardly a serious innovation. One place I bet Apple is looking is here, and man, have you ever seen any other manufacturer that has competent 3rd party people do "designs" of their primary hardware sans cost or anything? Only in Apple's world.

I think Apple needs to have a one two punch for their "next big thing". A true iMac V2, maybe like this one, (though I'm not holding my breath) and they need to get over their loss of the Newton and design a new PDA, possibly on the Linux/OSX platform, but leaner. Maybe something like this. But again, I'm not holding my breath.

One thing's for sure though. If Apple ever releases a LCD iMac, I'm there.

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