“Put all these threads together, and it appears that Apple is shifting strategy towards becoming a software company–admittedly, a software company that depends upon its own hardware. In the future, I expect to see more software from Apple, and for more of it to be sold as an upgrade to what users already own, or delivered as a paid service of some sort.” Editorial and MacWorld roundup at ZDNews.
Microsoft-Apple: Can This Marriage be Saved?
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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Not a bad little article, with one exception: at the end, he says, “by lowering prices.” Part of so many people’s complaints is that Apple hasn’t been lowering prices (unless you count the eMac, which replaces cheaper G3 iMacs). Not that I’m complaining about the prices or anything–don’t need to start that war again–rather, just pointing out his mistake.
and it’s about to part ways and move on to other things, Mac users don’t have much love for Microsoft (me included) and it’s time to clear the smoke and mirrors and let the games begin 🙂
if Microsoft stops making Mac software. I often thought that the Mac versions of MS software was better than the Windows version; particularly Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and recent versions (2001 and newer) of MS Office.
I feel that if MS is at least breaking even, they should continue development. If, however, they are actually losing money on the Mac, then it is understandable why they would cease development.
MS could land itself in antitrust hell, a newer and nastier form than the current variant, if they dump office for apple
MS has a monopoly on office productivity and the desktop os. If MS drop offices for apple then it will look like they are using their office monopoly to reinforce their desktop monopoly, which they would actually be doing.
Apple could make quite a case regarding the openin up and licensing of microsoft office. Or they could just sue MS (which always sounds good to me.)
My favorite part was this little gem:
“it appears that Apple is shifting strategy towards becoming a software company–admittedly, a software company that depends upon its own hardware”
And the usual stream of journalistic garbage:
“there are lots of things Mac that can’t be understood by outsiders”
“What the true believers got in return…”
“the computer industry’s last rock star”
“$200 to remain a MacHead in good standing”
Give it a rest guy.
The MS break has been a long time in the making. Everyone has known it was coming, just how exactly it will happen is the big question.
This is the last, and biggest, area where Jobs will be tested at Apple. I really hope he ends up being as bold as he has always been in the past.
OpenOffice is so good, I’ve even dumped Office from my x86 pcs. OpenOffice/MacWorks, Mozilla/OmniWeb, plus whatever web services plans Apple is working on are more than enough ammunition for Apple in the home user area. How many businesses really start dumping Office for OO will be a big test for Apple dumping MS and surviving in the business area.
The real wildcard in the Apple/MS relationship is IBM.
it appears that Apple is shifting strategy towards becoming a software company–admittedly, a software company that depends upon its own hardware
Actually, becoming more of a software house and less dependent on hardware revenue could be a good thing for Apple and the Mac platform. If they’re less reliant on hardware as a revenue stream, it may increase their comfort level with licensing clones. An open, commodity PPC platform might give some much needed competition to x86, and would provide a lot more options for users of OS X. Also, competition in the hardware area would help to drive down the cost of a Mac OS system. One of the biggest complaints I hear about Macs is the cost of entry – a low end Mac is considerably more expensive than a low end PC.
personally, i hope that the marriage ends. Perhaps apple will more aggressively pursue greater market share. There are a lot of things that they can do to gain that share that they have not yet done.
I just love the way that the “PC industry pundits” insert their bias in such a sutle fasion. Here is a fact apple is the only
computing company that stands to grow. from a financial perspective, their tiny market is risky but also offers great potential rewards. If apple can expand to 10% of the market then their investors will reap massive rewards. they can do that.
If Apple could guarantee there would be no Microsoft on their platform — ever — many ISV’s would be more open to building apps for it.
It’s one thing to compete with Apple, a totally different thing to compete with Microsoft.
Overall, Apple stands to gain as a non-Microsoft platform. Philosophically, the Linux/UNIX community would warm to Apple even more.
#m
Why do you think Apple can advertize that Windows users can move their files over to the Mac platform and still use them? Microsoft!
As for the Linux/UNIX community, who gives a fornication? Their market share is less than Apple’s!
Wake up!
>>As for the Linux/UNIX community, who gives a fornication? Their market share is less than Apple’s!
Wake up!<<
Their marketshare might be less than Apple’s (or even Microsoft’s) but sure powers more than 70% of the Internet!
Given that MS Word format is required by virtually all commercial entities exchanging wordprocessing documents I can’t see MS ceasing development of Word/Office for Apple as anything other than negative for Apple, a company with ever decreasing market share.
That said, I don’t think MS will cease Word/Office for Apple. It lets them pretend they’re not using office to reinforce the Windows monopoly.
I think the previous poster may be correct. Microsoft may be forced to continue developing MS Office for the Macintosh platform to nurture the illusion that they are not a monopoly.
Personally, the Office monopoly upsets me more than the Windows monopoly. Why did we let a closed, proprietary format become the standard electronic method of distribution for printable words and letters?
“Why do I have to send you my resume in MS Word format? If I don’t have MS Word at home am I not eligible to work in your company? What can’t I send a text file? Why can’t I send a RTF or HTML file?”
Probably because you don’t know how to open a text file in your expensive copy of MS Word.
The word file format’s use as teh standard for wordprocessing documents is what makes Word/Office such a “must have” program. It need not be so.
Sun have open sourced star office to open office but, more importantly, they have also opensourced the open office xml file format.
If appleworks, wordperfect, final draft et al adopt this as their default file format then word/office compatiability becomes moot because we would then have an open standard. Platform and application agnostic.
The word file format’s use as the standard for wordprocessing documents is what makes Word/Office such a “must have” program. It need not be so.
Sun have open sourced star office to open office but, more importantly, they have also opensourced the open office xml file format.
http://xml.openoffice.org/
If appleworks, wordperfect, final draft et al adopt this as their default file format then word/office compatiability becomes moot because we would then have an open standard. Platform and application agnostic.