Much is made of Apple design excellence and their innovativeness. However, I suspect that when we look back on 2009, we'll see this as the year when Apple consolidated its technology, focussing on stability and refinement rather that adding stack of new features of marginal value.

iPhone 3.0 and iPhone 3G S

Outwardly, the iPhone 3G S looks almost identical to its predecessor, the iPhone 3G. Other than some changed decals the body is the same. The changes that have been made to the hardware include a faster processor, improved graphics performance and a much needed increase in camera capability with more megapixels and the ability record video and do some basic video editing. In other words, the new hardware is, to a great degree, catching up to market that has moved on over the last year and some evolutionary improvements on the software front.

In fact, a close look at the iPhone OS reveals many subtle changes that improve the user experience hugely without being the sorts of "sexy" features that grab headlines. For example, the font used to display email is clearer. When sending a SMS, the progress bar has been shifted to the top of the screen and doesn't take up nearly as much space as it used to. Also, messages that aren't sent can be more easily resent.

The ability to search inboxes and the introduction of Spotlight to search the entire contents of the phone is a great benefit as well. As I use the notes field in the address book, this is a great boon as it makes it easy to find specific contacts. However, there's still room for improvement with messaging as different email accounts still have separate inboxes. As soon as Apple or some third party introduces a unified inbox for ALL messaging, they'll have my money.

Notebooks

Since the aluminium PowerBook G4, Apple's outward notebook design has only changed marginally. Even the introduction of the revolutionary Unibody manufacturing process has resulted in only incremental outward change. I would argue that although there are many benefits to the Unibody process (environmental benefits, slightly lighter bodies, increased strength) that benefits to end users are incremental.

The new MacBook Pro's introduced last week (designated as the mid-2009 MacBook Pros in Apple's support documents) represent refinement on the models introduced earlier this year. The addition of an SD slot to the 13" and 15" models and return of Firewire to the 13" product line represent a response to customer demands. Again, this is evolution but no revolution.

Snow Leopard

September 2009 will see the release of Snow Leopard, the latest incarnation of Apple's OS X operating system. The summary version of what Snow Leopard will bring is a bit like the superhero, The Atom. It's going to be fast, powerful and small. According to this informative article by David Pogue

And sure enough, Snow Leopard really is faster--and smaller. Yes, smaller: The OS occupies only half the disk space of the previous version, saving you a cool 6 gigabytes. That's a first in the history of OS upgrades.

Apple says that everything is faster, too: Snow Leopard installation is 45 percent faster, shutting down is 75 percent faster, waking up 50 percent faster, 55 percent faster joining Wi-Fi networks, and so on. (These are all Apple's measurements, and they're all "up to," but still.)

In other words, Snow Leopard is all about doing everything you do today. You'll just do it better. Again, evolution and not revolution.

Why consolidate?

I have a strong suspicion that Apple's strategy is based around the future of its enigmatic leader Steve Jobs. For least ten years, Apple's fortunes have been strongly tied to the fortunes of Jobs. When his health was questioned the stock price suffered, disproportionately in my view. Over the last few months, Jobs has been absent due to ill health and the need for him to take some time to get himself healthy. What we've seen is that the company has continued to operate successfully and develop new and improved products.

I don't think there's any surprise that Apple has been in product consolidation mode over the time when Steve Jobs' health has been in question. In fact, when one considers the long-term future of Apple it's clear that this year is incredibly important. I doubt that Jobs has been 100% hands-off this year but providing opportunities for his other executives to stand up has shown that for Apple there is life after Jobs.

Apple's next test will be whether its able to successfully conceptualise, develop and commercialise a new product. For example, without Jobs, can the Apple TV move from a "hobby" project to a commercially viable powerhouse like the iPhone? Is there someone in the management team with the force of will Jobs is reputed to have that can create something new. Only time will tell.

However, I'm certain that 2009 will be seen as the year Apple consolidated its product lines and market position. Perhaps, 2010 will be the year of Something Big. Maybe Something Big will be Jobs' "one more thing".