Apple led off its keynote today with the announcement of its new Time Capsule storage hardware and the surprised me.
Not so much because it wasn't one of the rumored products being launched today, but because it strikes me as so . . . ordinary. Here's what the front looks like:
And the back:
Although this external hard drive is wrapped in a cutesy name that matches up to Apple's similarly gimmicky Time Machine backup software, the fact is, Time Capsule is simply a wireless network attached storage device. And we've seen wireless network attached storage from other companies before--Iomega had its first wireless NAS box three years ago; D-Link has offered wireless NAS, too.
Even so, wireless storage has never taken off before. Apple is looking to change that with Time Capsule, billed as an automatic wireless backup drive, but so much, per Apple's own specs. Time Capsule can be used with other wireless devices, too, including Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
Why Wireless NAS Has Failed in the Past
So why has wireless NAS failed in the past?
First and foremost: Performance.
Previous devices offered 802.11 a/b/g, but not 802.11n. No one likes a sluggish file transfer--even if all they're doing is backup. By adding Airport Extreme (802.11a/b/g/n) to Time Capsule, Apple has immediately addressed one of the big gotchas to wireless data transfers.
I'm still not convinced I'd be satisfied using a 1TB Time Capsule over 802.11n, but I look forward to giving one a try and seeing how it does--especially when I transfer 20GB of digital images to my hard drive, and then need to get those 20GB backed up to Time Machine.
A second issue with most previous attempts at wireless storage: Design. I'm not just talking about colors or eye-catching curves here. I'm talking about the fundamentals. The overall design of previous wireless NAS devices, such as the Iomega Wireless Network Storage Gigabit Ethernet/802.11G 1TB was, well, kludgy.
The Iomega was a clunky box that lacked any design sense at all. On the other hand, Time Capsule is sleek and atylish, and is well-matched to the Appleverse's design sense.
The third gotcha with previous wireless efforts: Price. Here, too, Apple is very competitive: At $499 for a 1TB drive, it's right in line with competing single-drive 1TB network-attached drives (most of the drives on our Top 5 chart are a bit more complex, admittedly--multidrive storage devices with RAID options, for instance. More ordinary 1TB external hard drives sans wireless run for about $360.
The Apple Trifecta
Personally, I see Time Capsule's compatibility with Apple's multimedia trifecta of Apple TV, iPhone, and iPod Touch even more notable than its use as a wireless NAS.
Those three devices have limited storage--if Time Capsule can be used as an external storage server for those devices, that opens up the realm for entertainment considerably.
Time Capsule changes the storage game, but it's not game over for traditional hard disk drive vendors. I'll be intrigued to see how--and how quickly--they respond to Apple's challenge.
For full coverage of Macworld Expo 2008, go to the PCW Mac Info Center.
