Eddy Awards: Where’s Apple?

The theater was so strong , in fact , that Apple wound up with only one prize — an Eddy for the iPhone 2.1 software update , which , in the editorial stave ’s popular opinion , delivered on the promise of the iPhone and iPod jot platforms .

It ’s unusual for Apple to have such a swooning Eddy haul . For the 2007 awarding , as an example , Apple captured half - a - 12 prize for everything from the original iPhone to Mac OS X 10.5 .

So what gives with the lack of Eddys for Apple ? After all , it ’s not like the company kicked back in 2008 . It introduced ( and update ) the MacBook Air , overhaul both the MacBook and MacBook Pro models with a young design , updated its iMacs , introduced the next - genesis iPhone , and refreshed the integral iPod line . And that does n’t even address new products like Time Capsule backup equipment or the rebranded and relaunched MobileMe on-line service .

And while most of these products got favorable brushup , both from our publishing and elsewhere , when it come time to prefer Eddy winners , we settle that most of those new Apple products were really only improvements — albeit very nice improvements — on intersection we ’d already honored in previous years . It ’s hard to give accolade to acclivity when you like the master so much .

The new Apple products that we recall were the strongest competition for Eddys were the much ballyhooed iPhone 3 G and the newiPod signature . But the more we hash out those two products , the more we realize that what we really like about both was the software package they had in uncouth — the aforementioned updated to the iPhone OS . That mobile operating ( along with the third - political party apps it enable ) made Apple ’s smart telephone set and the iPod touch more genuinely useful than they ’d ever been before . So that OS was the one Apple product we consider was desirable of an Eddy Award this year . We liked the new telephone and iPod ; we loved their raw software .

Apple sure enough made a stir back in January when it unveiled the MacBook Air . And while we appreciate the radical - lean laptop ’s portability , we could n’t ignore that the redesigned MacBook is just a pound - and - a - half heavier while also offer better public presentation at a blue Leontyne Price . As for the young MacBooks , they stir some passionate debate around the Macworld offices , but in the goal we regain ourselves divide over the renowned improvements in the remodeled laptops versus the trade - offs like the lack of a FireWire larboard and the lower battery animation .

In unretentive , we found mint to wish about Apple ’s intersection in 2008 . But we also found hardware and software program that seemed like better choice for our annual awards for delivering quality , innovation , and value to Mac users . As noted in our creation to this year ’s Eddy Awards , that speaks volume about the overall lastingness of the Mac market and the hardware and software package Maker that help it . And hopefully , it might also inspire Apple to fight us to even not bad heights in 2009 .