Hello Everyone, and welcome to a brand new column at a brand new XAppeal.org! I'm very excited to share this with you! MacAffairs will be a weekly column about the Mac world, in which I will write about what's happening out there and what it means to the Mac community. You are welcome to contribute by writing at .

This week's edition of MacAffairs is about Apple's strategy. Most of you already know that yesterday, November 10, was the official launch of the iPod, Apple's breakthrough MP3 player. A lot has been said about it, why it is good, why it is bad. Someone even thinks it will change computing! But what no one has talked about is what it really stands for.

Let's recap the last few years of Apple's history. Before Steve Jobs came to Apple, our little computer company had a lot of products. They had printers, scanners, cameras, PDA's, and lots of computer models. In short, they had products for everyone, but some of them had no need to exist.

Due to Apple's problems some of the product lines disappeared, and by the time Steve came into control the company only produced computers. They shrank their product lines, they concentrated on their roots. Why_

Well, you can't offer product's to everyone. I'm not saying that the printers were not good, or that the Newton and eMate were useless. I'm just stating that having lots of products tends to make you forget about some things. What Apple forgot was to give its products something extra.

Let's concentrate then on Apple's current product line. They have great consumer models in the iMac. If it weren't for them, Apple probably wouldn't be here anymore. Then you have the powerful professional models, which give its users enough power to satisfy their need. You have the server line for the enterprise market. And for people on the go you have the wonderful portable models, which work as well as the other lines.

What Apple did was to strenghten its core products. Create quality and value in the same box. They did the right thing. They recreated themselves by showing the world what a true computer company can do. They can do the right things in a completely different and fun way.

But, what does this have to do with the iPod_

Well, now that you have great core products you can start to think big again. How do you expand you product lines without making the same mistakes that you did before_ Steve knows the answer. Embrace the digital world.

Think about it. What's characterized the late 20th century_ The Internet and the digital media. Now that you have a computer able to embrace the Internet and extract its full potential you have only one way to go. Go digital!

The iPod is the first of a series of products that will expand Apple's product lines. These new products will be designed for the 21st Century, for a digital world and people with digital needs. But these products will have something in common with the company's computer models: they will give you an added value.

Apple's commitment is to produce devices that match their competitors, and offer you something more. Take the iPod for instance. An MP3 player that matches the Nomad Jukebox AND also serves as a FireWire Hard Disk. That is giving you more.

The following devices will continue this trend. Apple will innovate again, expand it's product lines, and make another mark in history. The iPod is just the beginning...

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Alex Ramos, a mac user for the past 15 years, is an Industrial Engineer student at Monterrey Tech Institute. He is also cofounder of Global Panic, a web design firm in Monterrey, Mexico. You can contact him directly at