Comment Articles

Bring back the Cube

Matt Loney ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 06 Nov 2002 15:41 GMT

Almost every product to leave the Apple factories since Steve Jobs returned in 1997 is a fantastic example of quality engineering working in concert with great ergonomics and targeting a clear market segment.

I say almost every product because although the G4s, the iBooks, the Xservers and even the iPods continue to enjoy huge success, there is one member of the family that Jobs and co. would no doubt rather forget. I'm thinking, of course, of the Apple Cube; a fantastic example of quality engineering with great ergonomics -- conceived without the slightest conception of the target market.

That gorgeous Perspex case, it seemed, was not the only facet of the Cube to develop cracks. Nobody ever quite knew what the Cube was supposed to be used for: it didn't have enough expansion for power desktop users; people who wanted a mobile solution were buying iBooks; and it looked just too damn nice to be used as a server.

Apple did the decent thing and pulled the Cube after sales shrank to a third of what the projections said they should be. Now, though, the time is ripe for a new Apple Cube, and it should not be sold as a desktop PC, or as a semi-mobile PC nor as a server.

No, if Apple wants to bring back the Cube then it should bring it back as a media centre PC. Imagine that silky Perspex cube replacing your black hi-fi stack as the entertainment source in your living room. Of course Apple's Cube is not -- was not -- fitted out for home entertainment, but it doesn't need much extra: hardware DVD decoding, six channel sound, together with an infrared control and an LCD panel for playing CDs without having to switch on a monitor (or TV).

Why would such a device make sense? First, everybody wants an Apple Mac in their living room. One of my neighbours sits their Apple G4 system case on a table in their front window. Us PC owners in the street tend to hide our beige boxes away under the desk.