So I just watched the keynote address from Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, from yesterday’s opening of Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2007. And yes, I watched the entire 90 minutes… Though there weren’t as many announcements that blew people away, I can’t help but be impressed by Apple like I am after every keynote address. More on my predictions on the company later. First, my Apple history and possible future…

I decided to take the plunge and jump into the world of the Mac back when OS 10.2 released back in 2002. That’s five years ago. I made the shift to the Mac back when pretty much every one would have to ask you to explain what an iPod was. ha, those were the days.

Anyway, it was a G3 iBook laptop. I learned the new operating system as best as I could and used it daily. I loved it. But unfortunately it still wasn’t mainstream enough for me to be able to do everything I could do on my XP machine, so I certainly wasn’t planning on making a complete switch. Then it ended up the $2100 unit was a lemon and blew up about six or seven times, but Apple didn’t seem to be too willing to replace it even though it kept breaking every single time they fixed it. So finally it broke and I really had no interest in getting it fixed… I was a little ticked off at Apple since I never could really use it thoroughly, since I knew it was going to blow up and didn’t want to put important data on it anyway. Oh the joys of being an early adopter. Or at least it was early compared to the company’s popularity and household name status now (for the record, I wanted a Mac in the OS 8 and 9 days, but didn’t have the money then)…

But I’ll admit it, I’m thinking of jumping back in again. I’ve always kept my foot in Apple’s door and have been a big fan of the company, always fooling around with their new products at work and watching the various keynotes (like yesterday). And, again, despite there not being a pile of mind blowing announcements this time (it was pretty lackluster, really), the new features in OS 10.5 Leopard (releasing in October) that were shown sure were cool. Lots of great things coming that are easy to use, very functional and useful. Plus they are very pretty to watch because of their cool animations. ha. Apple is always good at making things look pretty…

So why am I considering buying a Mac again? Well, to be honest, I kind of miss the operating system for one thing. Here’s a couple of other quick points off the top of my head…

- There are lots of really cool features (with 300 more coming in October) that are exclusive to OS X and are, again, very useful.
- OS X has always been the operating system that the artsy folk have liked… It’s for good reason though. If you are into music creation, photography, photo editing, movie editing, and anything else multimedia, OS X has a pile of goodies that are exclusive to the operating system. I’d love to get my hands on these kinds of programs.
- While I had a bad experience before, I’m confident it won’t happen again. With the new Intel Core 2 Duo processors, the operating system is blazing fast and stable.
- But what about Windows? Well, I wouldn’t make a complete change quite yet. But now you can load Windows onto the Mac with a program such as Parallels, allowing you to have a Mac program opened side by side to a Windows XP/Vista program at the exact same time. This is huge for me and something I would definitely live on. If it works the way it says it does, I may not need a PC ever again since it can run the two in one.

I have a feeling I’ll be getting a Mac again when push comes to shove. I just need to decide whether I want to buy one now or wait until OS X Leopard releases in October. The new MacBook Pros with LED screens sure are tempting right now and I suppose I could always upgrade later, but it’s still over $150 I’d be saving just for waiting and its already installed. Plus if I did decide to purchase now, I’d have to buy the MacBook Pro, the AppleCare plan (just in case I get a repeat performance), and Parallels… That’s a lot of cash that is even harder to part with since I need to pay for school this month.

Now for the prediction. While Apple is certainly gaining speed and is growing in popularity, I have a feeling this new operating system in October will be the official tipping point. Let’s be honest, the iPod saved Apple as a company and got their brand out there again, so it could be considered as Apple’s tipping point. But now with a new operating system on the way, arguably the most anticipated cell phone coming in a matter of weeks (the iPhone), plus the new ground they’ve made as a company with the iPod, the new Intel chipsets, cheaper price points, and more, I believe this upcoming operating system is going to be their most popular to date. And this will be thanks to a generation of kids/teens/young adults who are walking around with their iPods and iPhones, hearing how many problems Windows Vista is having (not to mention the smack talk in the media), and deciding to buy an Apple as their next computer because it is a brand name they have learned to trust. I believe this is going to be the operating system round that will cause Microsoft to start sweating as they’ll have some serious competition…

Anyway, so there’s what is currently circulating my brain right now. Decisions, impressions, and predictions. I guess I’ll have to chew over it some more still…