“If Apple buys Adobe, is the operating system market up for grabs? It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see why. Borrowing heavily from Mr. Cringely’s terminology, there are several industry realities and stories, each having its own vector/trajectory that might lead one to seeing the importance of Adobe to Apple’s well being. Adobe owns key graphic sector applications. Meanwhile, Microsoft has a strangle-hold over Apple with Office for the Mac. Were Apple to buy Adobe, it would give Apple the leverage it needs to ensure Microsoft keeps making Office for the Mac,” John Kheit writes for The Mac Observer.
“Make no mistake, Apple is much like Blanche DuBois; it relies on the ‘kindness’ of Microsoft. At any given time, all Microsoft has to do to put Apple down like a sick pony is stop making Microsoft Office for the Mac,” Kheit writes. “Right now Microsoft will not do that for a slew of reasons, e.g., antitrust issues, Microsoft makes a boat load of money on sales of Office to Mac users, etc. Nevertheless, were it to become threatened as Apple transitions into more markets, Microsoft will not hesitate in pulling the plug on Office, and down the tubes Apple will go.”
Kheit’s “transitions” include:
• Apple’s ‘iWork’ office suite, which Apple is developing “at a glacial pace”
• Apple and Intel: the target is Windows
• Apple Media dominance: iPod+iTunes, potential future CE products
Kheit writes, “Were Apple to buy Adobe (and what the heck, maybe Quark), it would own enough key applications necessary to Windows users to thwart Microsoft. Should Microsoft threaten to pull Office from the Mac, Apple could then threaten to pull the Adobe products from Windows. This would be bad for both companies, and basically get them into a big ole game of mutually assured destruction (or at least mutually assured losses of revenue). Could Apple do this? Sure it could. Adobe’s market cap is around $17 Billion. Apple has well over $7 Billion in cash and its market cap is over $60 Billion. Apple has enough cash and stock for a buyout. And if Apple purchased a majority stake, the stock would soar for both companies; you might even see a dip in Microsoft stock. That would be a home run for Apple.”
Full article, an excellent, thought-provoking read, here.
Is Microsoft Office really that critical for Apple Mac? Seriously, would Apple’s Mac platform just up and die without future versions of Microsoft Office? Apple would have to stop doing promotions like this: Get Microsoft Office for up to 50% off when you buy a new Mac at the Apple Store, but doesn’t the Mac have a lot more going for it besides the ability to run Microsoft Office? Anyway, Apple would gain Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Flash, etc. if they bought Adobe. It would be a blockbuster deal, that’s for sure. What do you think?
Advertisements:
• The New iPod with Video. The ultimate music & video experience on the go. From $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.00.
• The New iMac G5. Built-in camera and remote control. From $1299. Free shipping.
• Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using your dial-up service. $49.00.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Adobe to acquire Macromedia in $3.4 billion stock deal – April 18, 2005
Apple and Adobe go to war – March 26, 2003
Adobe prefers (and promotes) PCs over Macs – March 24, 2003
Adobe makes some good products. The real question is how much would it cost? Are they overvalued?
As far as MS Office being ‘crucial’, I don’t think so – not anymore.
A year ago, I would have agreed, but I have setup many Macs for friends/family in ’05 and MOST of them are MS Office free.
They go with either OpenOffice or iWork. Office is critical for Macs in Business settings, but Apple isn’t exactly burning up the sales at Fortune 1000 companies, are they.
Even with a 100% compatible MS Office for Mac, selling Macs at big companies is a tough sell. It shouldn’t be.
Heh heh, I’m first. But seriously why is Apple so slow on releasing Numbers?
Is Micro$oft behind this, I’d think so somehow…
“At any given time, all Microsoft has to do to put Apple down like a sick pony is stop making Microsoft Office for the Mac”
This is idiotic. First off, Office as it is, is already a bloated mess, trying to be too much to too many. And Those that already have Office aren’t suddenly going to have to stop using Office is Microsoft cancelled support for it. The development community is way to adaptive to let something like this take much of a toll, if any. The only problem I’d see is with selling new windows switchers. There would have to be a compelling alternative, however since there is no need for one right now, there isn’t much of an alternative.
I’d say it depends on what they’re doing with iWork inside Apple. If its nowhere near ready to work as a real office suite, and particularly if they don’t have a replacement for Exchange server coming along, then yes a game of MAD by buying Adobe would make aLOT of sense. (If it were me and I had the cash, I’d buy Adobe just to kill all the apps except for the products of the former Macromedia. But that’s just me.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
Is this April 1st?
Dang, I wasn’t
If Apple were to (fingers crossed) actually threaten Microsoft’s Dominance in the OS world, I doubt they COULD pull Microsoft Office. A move like that would CLEARLY be a monopolistic tactic and very much illegal. Yes/no?
Yeh-heh-hehesssss, behold “John” the dipshit. I love seeing morons making fools of themselves — that’s why i gig on Conan. I love it. It keeps me young.
But seriously, who de hell cares about what Gates and his rim jockeys think? Check it out with de D.O.J., write de check, and lock it up! Do what’s best for Apple, and screw de rest.
Hey, it worked for Leno.
Not only would Apple own Adobe but also Adobe’s new acquisition: Macromedia. Thus, Apple would control all of Adobe’s shitware as well as Dreamweaver, Flash, Contribute, and all the other wonderful Macromedia stuff.
Hell yes! Apple buying Adobe would be awesome!!!!!
Ohmy my poooooooo
Buy it now while the price is good.
Buy it now while the price is good.
Buy it now while the price is good.
Buy it now while the price is good.
MDN: “Is Microsoft Office really that critical for Apple Mac?”
Yes.
In my field (astrophysics) the number of Macs has grown exponentially since OSX. There’s a good reason for this, we like to use UNIX based machines as all our analysis software runs under UNIX. However we also need to use Microsoft Office.
The fact that Macs can do both without the need to dual boot or run some software thats not fully compatible with Office (e.g. OpenOffice) is huge.
Office also gets the Mac’s foot in the door in professional settings.
If Microsoft dropped Office for Mac it would be a disaster, and the “MDN take” is very short sighted in believing otherwise.
The abilty to run Microsoft Office is a huge selling point for Apple.
This article is right on the money. The ability to run Office (which is better on a Mac than on Windows, by the way) is what makes Macs competitive and tolerated by the predominantly Mac-unfriendly IT staff at large companies, universities, etc. It is only because Mac users can still open, modify and share Office documents that they (we) are able to co-exist, despite the anti-Mac attitude.
I work at a large University Medical School. I could get by without Office for many things that I have to do, such as writing letters, simple documents, etc. However, when I write NIH grant applications I need to embed photographs and drawings into the text of a very large and complicated document, and at the SAME TIME, I need to also manage a very large bibliography. The bibliography tools that are available (e.g. EndNote, BookEnds) work with Word, but do not work with Pages. Other text editors do not allow image embedding. Furthermore, the NIH provides the blank grant applications only in Word (.doc) or PDF formats. The latter can’t be filled in, so is pretty worthless. Thus, the Word files become the standard.
There are similar issues with the other Office programs. Powerpoint is the de facto standard. I use Keynote when I can (and always get comments about how beautiful my presentations look), but if I have to share my file, or if I have to make a presentation somewhere in a lecture hall which has a Windows machine connected to the projector, I have to convert it to Powerpoint. I have learned to use my Macs effectively and efficiently, but I have to do so in a world that is dominated by Windows.
I couldn’t do what I do using a Linux machine or Open Office. I can only get by because I can use and create Office documents on my Mac. If Office for the Mac were to go away, I would really be in a bind and might have to switch to Windows.
“This is idiotic. First off, Office as it is, is already a bloated mess, trying to be too much to too many.”
Don’t underestimate the importance of Office. Regardless of criticism, it is the life blood of the majority of PCs on the planet. “Business” runs on Office. Mac without Office becomes a total write-off in business, including Marketing and Advertising departments where it is grudgingly allowed to exist. Even those departments must co-exist and communicate with the rest of the organization. Without Office, you will see Macs tossed out of businesses in wholesale fashion.
Apple must have an Office type suite that is fully compatible with Office file formats to have a chance to fully take on M$.
Also, don’t underestimate the antitrust issue. If Microsoft pulled Office simply because Macs were getting more popular, they would face a massive antitrust suit.
That sort of activity is illegal, and would not exactly be subtle. All the time the Mac Business Unit makes money for Microsoft they dare not close it.
If Apple wants to compete against Microsoft, it would sell OS X for Intel without proprietary computers. OSX is of equal or greater value than Windows XP Pro which retails somewhere around 200 plus dollars. Apple sells OSX intially at 99 per license for 90 days and then sells it for the regular 129.00.
In the meantime, Apple can spend the money they might have spent on buying Adobe and invest in developing better applications the Adobe sells. ie Premiere versus IMovie.
Done.
Is Adobe even for sale?
“is MS Office for the Mac critical?”
Heck yes!
It is my number one coversion argument for Windows users that consider the Mac regardless of whether is/isn’t a good app. If it wasn’t Apple wouldn’t use it as one of its 10 top reasons to consider a Mac.
Most Windows users could care less about iWork and OpenOffice. Try to convince a Windows user to come to the Mac so that they can use OpenOffice…..they’ll laugh at you.
It is absolutely necessary in the corporate environment.
^^ “But seriously, who de hell cares about what Gates and his rim jockeys think?”
Good one, T-Dog.
JJ:
Hostile Takeover: In the world of mergers, the acquisition of one company by another against the wishes of the company being acquired. Also termed a hostile acquisition, this is accomplished by purchasing controlling interest in the stock of the acquired company, usually by offering to pay a price exceeding the current market price. A hostile takeover might be motivated to eliminate competition, to sell off the assets of the company for more that the takeover payment, or to temporarily inflate the price of the stock.
Is Microsoft Office really that critical for Apple Mac? Ummm… YES!
Another short-sighted, idiotic and most of al,l childish take from MDN.
MDN takes remind me of a five year old running around the house singing “Na-na-na-na-na”
I agree completely with pog, but for slightly different reasons. For better or worse, Word is the de-facto standard for collaborative writing in the social sciences. With parallel versions of Office for Mac/Windows, it is rarely necessary or relevant to know a collaborator’s operating system, so even in heavily Windows-dominated environmens Mac users can work productively and can escape the scornful looks of 10+ years ago when cross-platform collaboration was more cumbersome. It seems likely that MS would ensure that any 3rd party “office-compatible” programs would have just enough glitches to prove the point. MS’s play is not self-evident, though, because many of us in dual-OS environments still need a few industry-specific Windows programs and have no easy solution for running them without buying a cheap Dell box (Wine & VPC are not viable) for everyday use. If MacIntel’s are reasonably easy to dual-boot, MS stands to sell both Windows and a copy of Office to a large segment of the Mac-hardware market.
Gotcha Fred, but it still seems kind of hypothetical..
I mean, couldn’t Microsoft just as easily, “hostily” take over Apple if it wanted to?
For one, Cringely, would NEVER recommend Apple buying Adobe. Didn’t the author read Cringely’s blast at Adobe, becoming fat and lazy and useless a month or two ago?
Second, how does buying Adobe help Apple kill off MS Office?
This is just nonsense.
As has been so well pointed out often on this site:
APPLE IS A HARDWARE COMPANY, DICK!
Why would they ever violate their own business model by purchasing a software company? Guess you can’t always believe what an Apple zelot says.
On the flip side.
What would happen if MS bought Adobe.
OH Sh*t.
Triumph, you may not like “Gates and his rim-jockeys,” but that doesn’t mean they don’t have a say. The Office products have been selling so long and so well now that they are far beyond mere ubiquity. For many, many users, platform decisions come down to a handful of questions, at least one or more of which have to do with Microsoft compatibility. Until THAT changes, Mr. Bill continues to hold the upper hand, while YOU continue to, uh, POOP on stuff. Yeh, heh, hess.
1. Wish Commonwealth of Massachusetts success for demanding open source for posterity. Other states will follow its example.
2. iEverything is tired. Save Appleworks brand name.
3. AAPL stock valuation makes an acquisition using stock more desirable. Save the cash.
Adobe FrameMaker really sucks big time.
Apple’s Final Cut Pro Studio, Shake, Logic and Aperture are all hardware products? And iTunes songs?
Apple is primarily a hardware company. In terms of Mac/Mac OS, yes Apple is a hardware company. But overall, software counts – if even only to shore up the hardware platform and make it sing.
Didn’t I just read somewhere that Microsoft is opening the MS Office fileformats (doc, xls, ppt) and also the next generation XML based formats… Correct me if I’m wrong.
Hey! Someone is using my initials! I’ve been posting on here for years with those letters and never had any other posters with it…
This might have to go ‘fist-a-cuffs’ ….
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”tongue laugh” style=”border:0;” />
Reverse Thrust said
“Why would they ever violate their own business model by purchasing a software company? Guess you can’t always believe what an Apple zelot says”
Well, they did buy emagic… You may recognize the result as Apple LogicPro
They also got Astart, you may recognize the result as DVD Studio Pro
They aslo got SoundJam, you may recognize the result as iTunes
Software isn’t violating any hardware business model. Hardware is nothing without software. (Hint, its the software stupid)
In each case, Apple has aquired software assets, and made it into something equal to or better than current 3rd party apps. If Adobe doesn’t want Apple to do a real web page development package (for example) Maybe they should at least keep the mac version of dreamweaver on equal development footing with the windows version. Adobe has a bad habit of screwing longtime Mac customers by slow to non existant development and then crying foul when Apple does something better. Think FinalCut pro
I rest my case…
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/microsoft_opens_formats/
http://macslash.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/21/209238
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1891829,00.asp
Note to the author. Apple already has that leverage.
Here’s sorta how the conversation goes
(phone rings)
SJ: “hello this is steve”
BG: “Steve, this is bill”
SJ: “Hello bill, it’s been a while”
BG: “yeah steve it has. Hey nice job with the iPod. Our employees love them despite our threats to fire anyone caught using one in public and our attempt to kill the word Podcast”
SJ: “yeah it was a pretty good move huh?
BG: “Yeah, so really why im calling today steve is i wanted to let you know that we are dropping development for office for Mac”
SJ: “Oh, ok….. Thats fine”
BG: (long pause)… um maybe you didnt hear me. we are dropping office for mac.
SJ :”no, i heard you just fine”
BG: “oh…ok.
SJ: “yeah because as soon as we cant sell Macs anymore we are just going to release OSX for any x86 PC and by the way we will sell it for $59.00. And while we at it let me tell them to add iLife for windows, iWork and all our pro apps to that as well.
BG: “oh, ok…er um ( a loud voice in the background screams “IM GOING TO FSKING KILL YOU followed by the sound of a chair hitting the wall)
so yeah, they dont need to buy Adobe for leverage but yea it would still be cool.
If Apple wants to protect itself, I would recommend they contribute money and programmers towards OpenOffice.org, specifically a Aquified Mac Port. If MS were to halt Office for the Mac, then Apple would be able to fall back onto OO with it’s Oasis document format. This would seriously push that format, which would end up having a lot of other people start to learn about OO and realize that it does a lot of what they need for free. I don’t think MS wants people to start looking for alternatives on either Mac or Windows as that would start the downfall of Office as the standard.
Regardless, I think Apple should invest some time & money in OpenOffice, but who knows if MS would get mad about that.
Nice take, Hammer.
I don’t feel that MS Office is critical for the survival of the Macintosh. If Office for Mac suddently went away Apple and other developers would extend and improve the import and export to Word format that now exists in Pages. Back in the early 90s we use to have to “save as” our Mac Word files to PC Word format before sending them to our Windows-based co-workers. In recent years the ease at which PC and Mac users can share Office file is a great convenience. I find that most of the PC folks I’ve worked with are not even aware that Office files for Mac and PC are interchangeable.
On the other point of the article on Apple purchasing Adobe. Man, oh man, that would be something to dream about. I would love it if Apple purchased Adobe and then cancelled further development of all Windows versions of Adobe Creative Suite. Integrate the graphics power of Adobe CS with Mac OS X and Apple hardware to create the ultimate graphics platform! A guy can dream…
I guess some people are just too sentimental for the days of Apple death knells. (and have too much time on their hands)
Yes Yes
Apple, buy Adobe
and bring back Freehand
JJ,
Microsoft could never buy Apple (or Adobe, for that matter) because the FTC would never allow it.
Hammer, you’ve got an excellent point there. I forgot that Apple’s already got a heavy sword hanging over Microsoft’s neck.
Oh, and Quevar, I agree, Apple should put some effort into helping the OpenOffice effort. Personally, I use Microsoft’s office at home primarily for school projects so I can share with classmates on team projects, but I’d just as well kick all Microsoft products off my Macs. Plus, if OpenOffice was feature-rich enough (namely, TOC, indexing, bookmarking, footnoting, and image handling)I’d ditch MS Office at work in an instant. I’m the tech writing department in a small company, and I have to be able to share files with everyone, so Framemaker, Quark, and InDesign are not really possible for me. But a good OpenOffice would be pristine!
Apple should have bought Bungee before Microsoft did and made Halo the killer app for Mac Gamers.
Hammer– I like it. Probable.
What if….
The intel macs will run windows applications seamlessly. Then, MS has absolutely no hold on apple. I think this is likely to happen and probably part of Jobs strategy in moving to intel. Who cares if they make a Mac version, if a person can use the Windows version? The threat will mean very little…
openoffice.org
Hammer, I read the comments to Kheit entire article, as well as all the comments to MDN’s synopsis, and I think you got it right.
Thanks for the kudos on the Hammer take. I like to add a little humor to the mix as well. What I wouldnt give for a video of Balmer having a meltdown. I run it on a loop.
Jeff wrote:
“What if….
The intel macs will run windows applications seamlessly. “
I have argued that the real reason for the Intel shift isnt about DRM or to screw IBM for not producing low power portable chips (even though those are factors n some level probably) but it has more to do with switching people to the Mac. The number one objection people have to switching to Macs is software availability and being able to run certain apps. Apple gets sround this objection by switching to Intel. Simultaneously developers have an easier time making Mac versions of their apps, Virtual PC will now run better, and this virtual invironment where Windows apps can run sans Windows comes to life.
Suddenly, the biggest objection people have to switching disappears.
Thus, the reason for the Intel switch…
and yeah DRM blah blah, IBM blah blah…something something.
I’d like to see that happen. Sure for leverage against Microsoft, but more so because I’d love to see how they’d improve the Adobe line. Macromedia has always sucked at interface. Adobe is much better, but Apple is best. Maybe GoLive would actually be worth using again!
How about Adobe buys Apple….
As far as MS Office being ‘crucial’, I don’t think so – not anymore
—
Yeah, and most people on here suffer from tunnel vision.
We need Office just so that no one can say “Macs don’t even run Office” it’s like a country that doesn’t have running water..
Optional? Yeah right.. alternatives be damned.
” Is Microsoft Office really that critical for Apple Mac? “
No.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is viewing the situation for a very narrow niche, and can’t see the forest for trees, so-to-speak. The lack of perspective of such people compels me to conclude they are nothing more than the kool-aid drinking, cultists that PC apologists have been calling Mac users since the days of the Mac Plus.
I’ve been running my publishing business since 1989 and MS Office was never, ever, necessary.
BTW, I do have MS Office. I got a special deal when I bought my first OS X Mac. I thought it might have fewer problems with then current Word files I was receiving from clients. Even with plain text files, the OS 9 text editor I had been using was having issues with Word formating garbage.
AFWIW, If the “Office is necessary for the Mac to survive” crowd is right because Office is “the” essential piece of business software,then heaven help us. The constant use of that piece of dung would go a long way towards explaining the current state of the U.S. economy.
Another stupid article.
Apple has the ace in the hole over Microsoft and it’s called OSX.
MicroSoft decides not to play nice…Steve gives away OSX for Intel processors.
In the cold war we called it shared mutual destruction.
It was actually called MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction.
Damn brain farts…thanks hammer.
Office is and isn’t crucial. There are workarounds and options for users, but most computer users don’t know it. It’s the same reason people buy a known name brand over an equal or better competitor.
Coke vs. Pepsi. Coke is the “favorite,” but in blind taste tests, most choose Pepsi.
I like Coke.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
“It was actually called MAD, Mutually Assured Destruction.”
This whole thing reminds me of a certain scene in Reservoir Dogs. Let’s just hope it doesn’t end the same way.
I’ve been using Neo Office (free open source that works with Word files) for about six months now and I have zero problems with Windows compatibility.
Let MS discontinue office and we’ll have anti-trust and racketeering charges against them in two weeks.
Just let Billy “Blue Screen of Death” Gates try some of that nonesense. Go ahead Billy… just try it.
http://lostbudgie.blogspot.com/
leodavinci –
No one who works by themselves, e.g. in their own business, necessarily needs (or wants) Office. But everyone who shares and cooperates on building documents in big organizations (that are dominated by Windows PCs) has to have Office to participate and/or contribute.
Of course, it is easy not to use office, for example if everyone would save documents in RTF or some other standard format. Unfortunately, the PC world doesn’t do that and the programs that import the RTF files on the Mac (e.g. Pages, TextEdit, OpenOffice) don’t always generate something that is the same as the original – especially complex forms.
If Office went away, the Mac would still be great, but it would be relegated to “has been” status very quickly.
Office for Mac is not going to disappear anytime soon. M$ is dealing with antitrust issues across the globe and it wouldn’t take much for the USDOJ to jump on them again (hopefully with more than a wet noodle this time). So the discussion is moot. That won’t keep me from commenting, however.
Even if M$ stopped developing Office for Mac today, it would take a good bit of time for that action to begin seriously impacting current users. How often does M$ upgrade it now?? Unless M$ quickly released an Office for Windows update or patch that seriously broke the Mac/Windows Office file compatibility (which is already suspect for PowerPoint), it could easily take a year or more for the impact to become a factor to current users. I admit, however, that it could be marketed by M$ to deter potential Mac buyers.
I do not see a reason for Apple to buy Adobe. Apple has demonstrated the capability to leverage internal programming telent combined with strategic intellectual asset acquisition to develop software products that can effectively penetrate established market segments (e.g., Final Cut Pro, etc.). Aperture is a good example of a more recent Apple software product start that has long-term potential to compete with established products (although Aperture apparently has some growing to do according to discussion forums).
So the answers are: won’t happen and no.
MW ‘consider’ as in don’t bother
The antitrust government would never allow Apple to buy Adobe. End of story.
The same government would not allow Microsoft to make Office windows only. They wouldn’t wait for a law suit the judge in charge would step in and stop it before it could have an effect on Apple. End of story.
The rest is story fluff.
Even if it were available for sale, Adobe is so expensive that any benefits for Apple would be negated by the huge price. Besides, Windows Photoshop users might jump ship to other software without changing operating systems.
It would be nice to have all those graphic apps in cocoa. Just think how sweet Photoshop would be with Core Image!! Soooooooo many Mac only features! Owning Flash AND pdf would be huge-o-mungus.
I’d like to think that Apple is smart enough to beat M$ to it. I was really afraid that they were going to buy Macromedia.
Yes Microsoft Office is still critical…not for us…we are already die hard mac users….that is the reason we are posting on macdailynews….MS Office is critical for anyone switching from Windows…selling Macs for the past 3 years the first question you hear from any convert is …. “Does it run Microsoft Office.” We start saying no to that statement and people won’t switch…that simple
Adobe would sure benefit from Apple’s interface design prowess. We’d make Photoshop and everything else work better. And we’d rid the world of that abomination Permier to boot!
This is a great idea. Let’s do it!
Adobe looks like a bargain.
I think I’ll buy it myself.
Do they take American Express Black?
Yes, Microsoft Office is still an important consideration for the business workplace (and yes, there is a small, but strong, Mac presence in business).
Looking at it a different way: My small company has about 45 computers, 30 are Mac’s and the remaining 15 are Windows based PCs. Here’s the catch, the 15 PCs are ALL second machines (niche software necessary for running our business is Windows only – actually more like modified DOS only), meaning all of our employees use Macs and some have a second Windows based PC (no-one has just a PC). We need Microsoft Office compatibility to share files with others (we’re not computer geeks, so don’t tell us that it’s easy to use some other software that reads Office docs).
Now stop and think about this for a minute… Apple is moving the Mac to Intel, so theoretically, I expect that we will be able to run Windows programs at normal speeds on a Mac. If that happens, we don’t need 15 PCs, but we will still continue to buy Macs.
If there are other companies such as ours, we might see Apple’s share of the computer market increase not by only an increase in sales of Macs, but by a decrease in purchases of now unnecessary Windows PCs.
Also, I think Apple would be smart to buy Adobe… After all, someone has to fix the mess that PDF is becoming…
>>JEG wrote: Most Windows users could care less about iWork and OpenOffice. Try to convince a Windows user to come to the Mac so that they can use OpenOffice…..they’ll laugh at you.
Agreed. I’m a Mac user as well… and I still couldn’t care less about iWork and OpenOffice. It’s MS Office for me.
—
>>leodavinci wrote: Anyone who thinks otherwise is viewing the situation for a very narrow niche… I’ve been running my publishing business since 1989 and MS Office was never, ever, necessary.
It’s funny how you call people narrow and then argue it from the perspective of running a publishing business, which of course not everyone does.
I was in the publishing business – well, advertising sales of a bi-monthly magazine – and EVERYONE had MS Office on their Macs.
—
>>Hammer wrote: Virtual PC will now run better, and this virtual invironment where Windows apps can run sans Windows comes to life.
I’m thinking the same thing. However, it’s not a sure thing that Microsoft will port VPC for OSX/G5 over to OSX/Intel.
What if some group went the other way with it and “virtualized” OSX/Intel to run in Windows?
>>JEG wrote: Most Windows users could care less about iWork and OpenOffice. Try to convince a Windows user to come to the Mac so that they can use OpenOffice…..they’ll laugh at you.
Agreed. I’m a Mac user as well… and I still couldn’t care less about iWork and OpenOffice. It’s MS Office for me.
—
>>leodavinci wrote: Anyone who thinks otherwise is viewing the situation for a very narrow niche… I’ve been running my publishing business since 1989 and MS Office was never, ever, necessary.
It’s funny how you call people narrow and then argue it from the perspective of running a publishing business, which of course not everyone does.
I was in the publishing business – well, advertising sales of a bi-monthly magazine – and EVERYONE had MS Office on their Macs.
—
>>Hammer wrote: Virtual PC will now run better, and this virtual invironment where Windows apps can run sans Windows comes to life.
I’m thinking the same thing. However, it’s not a sure thing that Microsoft will port VPC for OSX/G5 over to OSX/Intel.
What if some group went the other way with it and “virtualized” OSX/Intel to run in Windows?
>>JEG wrote: Most Windows users could care less about iWork and OpenOffice. Try to convince a Windows user to come to the Mac so that they can use OpenOffice…..they’ll laugh at you.
Agreed. I’m a Mac user as well… and I still couldn’t care less about iWork and OpenOffice. It’s MS Office for me.
—
>>leodavinci wrote: Anyone who thinks otherwise is viewing the situation for a very narrow niche… I’ve been running my publishing business since 1989 and MS Office was never, ever, necessary.
It’s funny how you call people narrow and then argue it from the perspective of running a publishing business, which of course not everyone does.
I was in the publishing business – well, advertising sales of a bi-monthly magazine – and EVERYONE had MS Office on their Macs.
—
>>Hammer wrote: Virtual PC will now run better, and this virtual invironment where Windows apps can run sans Windows comes to life.
I’m thinking the same thing. However, it’s not a sure thing that Microsoft will port VPC for OSX/G5 over to OSX/Intel.
What if some group went the other way with it and “virtualized” OSX/Intel to run in Windows?
>>JEG wrote: Most Windows users could care less about iWork and OpenOffice. Try to convince a Windows user to come to the Mac so that they can use OpenOffice…..they’ll laugh at you.
Agreed. I’m a Mac user as well… and I still couldn’t care less about iWork and OpenOffice. It’s MS Office for me.
—
>>leodavinci wrote: Anyone who thinks otherwise is viewing the situation for a very narrow niche… I’ve been running my publishing business since 1989 and MS Office was never, ever, necessary.
It’s funny how you call people narrow and then argue it from the perspective of running a publishing business, which of course not everyone does.
I was in the publishing business – well, advertising sales of a bi-monthly magazine – and EVERYONE had MS Office on their Macs.
—
>>Hammer wrote: Virtual PC will now run better, and this virtual invironment where Windows apps can run sans Windows comes to life.
I’m thinking the same thing. However, it’s not a sure thing that Microsoft will port VPC for OSX/G5 over to OSX/Intel.
What if some group went the other way with it and “virtualized” OSX/Intel to run in Windows?
Leo: What’s narrow is the general public’s point of referrence. I have no doubt 90% of customers of all stripes could get by just fine with Office-like alternatives, but try convincing them of that. I’m very much a ‘real is the better reality’ kind of guy, but I don’t ignore the substantial obstacles that ‘perception as reality’ consistently throws up. I don’t think that should be underestimated here.
hammer: You’re absolutely right that moving to x86 will allow easier development of cross platform software (although I think VPC will esentially be an expensive redundancy from here on out, no matter how well it runs). However, for that to be such a huge issue in driving the transistion, there would have to be equally huge gaps in current software compatibility/availability between PPCMac and Windows. I just don’t see that. For all but the most niche of apps (like say autoCAD), there’s equivilents to be found on either platform. Now access to the lucrative gaming market has been argued as somewhat of an incentive, but I doubt we’d have seen 40% sales growth this last year if even that was a big a deal as some believe.
Increased software availability and development is a good thing, but seeing how that wasn’t killing Apple in the first place, I think it winds up being more of a bonus than a main motivator.
R: Coke was always served up ‘semi-flat’ in those taste tests. I actually did a few back in the day. When I bought my own bottles and re-did the test, Coke always won (for me).
>>>Odyssey67: I have no doubt 90% of customers of all stripes could get by just fine with Office-like alternatives, but try convincing them of that.
It’s that sort of thinking that dooms competing products – and this isn’t specific to Office, but of any product.
—
>>>I’m very much a ‘real is the better reality’ kind of guy, but I don’t ignore the substantial obstacles that ‘perception as reality’ consistently throws up. I don’t think that should be underestimated here.
You may be overlooking what motivates people to choose one item over another.
Offering wares that perform almost as well and offer much of the functionality as an existing product (probably already purches) isn’t motivation. Those are prerequisites for consideration.
Motivation is price. Motivation is increased performance, increased productivity… decreased time doing tasks that your tools should do… increased time away from work. Motivation is knowing this product will work well with others and there is no need to worry/wonder/stress out about it.
The benefits of using MS Office are real! It’s not a figment of the imagination of millions of corporate workers, doctors, lawyers, students, and such. With such proliferation comes easier and more productive work days because you’re not dealing with other software/missing functionality/alternative implementations.
Argue in terms of price – OpenOffice is free!
Well, at first glance it seems like a no-brainer. Go with the freebie! But, you’ll lose hours and gain headaches in the switch and in the sharing. Until MS opens up the Office formats, nothing will be compatible to the point of being seamless.
I’ve used OpenOffice and it’s amazing what that project has accomplished. I still went and bought MS Office… haven’t touched OpenOffice/NeoOffice since.
To someone not concerned with Apple-fanaticism/MS-hatred, Office is worth the price charged and then some! Why worry about the shortcomings of an alternative? Aren’t there more important things to deal with in the course of a workday? To many, wasting even a couple of minutes fiddling with an alternative isn’t viable.
I know that when my stomach is growling because I had to skip lunch to meet a deadline, the last thing I want to worry about is whether OpenOffice is going to display all my tables properly or if vlookup works the same as it does in Excel.
Motivation is very real!
>>>Odyssey67: I have no doubt 90% of customers of all stripes could get by just fine with Office-like alternatives, but try convincing them of that.
It’s that sort of thinking that dooms competing products – and this isn’t specific to Office, but of any product.
—
>>>I’m very much a ‘real is the better reality’ kind of guy, but I don’t ignore the substantial obstacles that ‘perception as reality’ consistently throws up. I don’t think that should be underestimated here.
You may be overlooking what motivates people to choose one item over another.
Offering wares that perform almost as well and offer much of the functionality as an existing product (probably already purches) isn’t motivation. Those are prerequisites for consideration.
Motivation is price. Motivation is increased performance, increased productivity… decreased time doing tasks that your tools should do… increased time away from work. Motivation is knowing this product will work well with others and there is no need to worry/wonder/stress out about it.
The benefits of using MS Office are real! It’s not a figment of the imagination of millions of corporate workers, doctors, lawyers, students, and such. With such proliferation comes easier and more productive work days because you’re not dealing with other software/missing functionality/alternative implementations.
Argue in terms of price – OpenOffice is free!
Well, at first glance it seems like a no-brainer. Go with the freebie! But, you’ll lose hours and gain headaches in the switch and in the sharing. Until MS opens up the Office formats, nothing will be compatible to the point of being seamless.
I’ve used OpenOffice and it’s amazing what that project has accomplished. I still went and bought MS Office… haven’t touched OpenOffice/NeoOffice since.
To someone not concerned with Apple-fanaticism/MS-hatred, Office is worth the price charged and then some! Why worry about the shortcomings of an alternative? Aren’t there more important things to deal with in the course of a workday? To many, wasting even a couple of minutes fiddling with an alternative isn’t viable.
I know that when my stomach is growling because I had to skip lunch to meet a deadline, the last thing I want to worry about is whether OpenOffice is going to display all my tables properly or if vlookup works the same as it does in Excel.
Motivation is very real!
>>>Odyssey67: I have no doubt 90% of customers of all stripes could get by just fine with Office-like alternatives, but try convincing them of that.
It’s that sort of thinking that dooms competing products – and this isn’t specific to Office, but of any product.
—
>>>I’m very much a ‘real is the better reality’ kind of guy, but I don’t ignore the substantial obstacles that ‘perception as reality’ consistently throws up. I don’t think that should be underestimated here.
You may be overlooking what motivates people to choose one item over another.
Offering wares that perform almost as well and offer much of the functionality as an existing product (probably already purches) isn’t motivation. Those are prerequisites for consideration.
Motivation is price. Motivation is increased performance, increased productivity… decreased time doing tasks that your tools should do… increased time away from work. Motivation is knowing this product will work well with others and there is no need to worry/wonder/stress out about it.
The benefits of using MS Office are real! It’s not a figment of the imagination of millions of corporate workers, doctors, lawyers, students, and such. With such proliferation comes easier and more productive work days because you’re not dealing with other software/missing functionality/alternative implementations.
Argue in terms of price – OpenOffice is free!
Well, at first glance it seems like a no-brainer. Go with the freebie! But, you’ll lose hours and gain headaches in the switch and in the sharing. Until MS opens up the Office formats, nothing will be compatible to the point of being seamless.
I’ve used OpenOffice and it’s amazing what that project has accomplished. I still went and bought MS Office… haven’t touched OpenOffice/NeoOffice since.
To someone not concerned with Apple-fanaticism/MS-hatred, Office is worth the price charged and then some! Why worry about the shortcomings of an alternative? Aren’t there more important things to deal with in the course of a workday? To many, wasting even a couple of minutes fiddling with an alternative isn’t viable.
I know that when my stomach is growling because I had to skip lunch to meet a deadline, the last thing I want to worry about is whether OpenOffice is going to display all my tables properly or if vlookup works the same as it does in Excel.
Motivation is very real!
>>>Odyssey67: I have no doubt 90% of customers of all stripes could get by just fine with Office-like alternatives, but try convincing them of that.
It’s that sort of thinking that dooms competing products – and this isn’t specific to Office, but of any product.
—
>>>I’m very much a ‘real is the better reality’ kind of guy, but I don’t ignore the substantial obstacles that ‘perception as reality’ consistently throws up. I don’t think that should be underestimated here.
You may be overlooking what motivates people to choose one item over another.
Offering wares that perform almost as well and offer much of the functionality as an existing product (probably already purches) isn’t motivation. Those are prerequisites for consideration.
Motivation is price. Motivation is increased performance, increased productivity… decreased time doing tasks that your tools should do… increased time away from work. Motivation is knowing this product will work well with others and there is no need to worry/wonder/stress out about it.
The benefits of using MS Office are real! It’s not a figment of the imagination of millions of corporate workers, doctors, lawyers, students, and such. With such proliferation comes easier and more productive work days because you’re not dealing with other software/missing functionality/alternative implementations.
Argue in terms of price – OpenOffice is free!
Well, at first glance it seems like a no-brainer. Go with the freebie! But, you’ll lose hours and gain headaches in the switch and in the sharing. Until MS opens up the Office formats, nothing will be compatible to the point of being seamless.
I’ve used OpenOffice and it’s amazing what that project has accomplished. I still went and bought MS Office… haven’t touched OpenOffice/NeoOffice since.
To someone not concerned with Apple-fanaticism/MS-hatred, Office is worth the price charged and then some! Why worry about the shortcomings of an alternative? Aren’t there more important things to deal with in the course of a workday? To many, wasting even a couple of minutes fiddling with an alternative isn’t viable.
I know that when my stomach is growling because I had to skip lunch to meet a deadline, the last thing I want to worry about is whether OpenOffice is going to display all my tables properly or if vlookup works the same as it does in Excel.
Motivation is very real!
Microsoft Office is critical for the Macintosh for only one reason: it’s the only productivity suite that can reliably handle Office’s document formats, and it is the tight control of the formats that has allowed Microsoft to leverage Office into the must-have application suite that it has become.
However, Microsoft has announced that Office will move away from the closed formats and support their Microsoft Office Open XML format (MOOX), a competitor to the OASIS Open Document format, but it remains to be seen exactly how “open” it will be. If they do, it won’t matter which productivity suite one uses, as long as it supports MOOX. Personally, I seriously doubt that Microsoft will make it fully open; doing so is tantamount to putting a bullet in their cash cow. Their insanely huge pile of cash is due in large part to the colossal profits they reap from Office. Maybe they recognize that they can’t hold back the tide of competing products and are angling for licensing fees.
An Adobe takeover would be like an Iraq takeover: MASSIVELY expensive, long drawn out battle sucking out enormous resources, and very shaky return if successful.
Apple should develop functionality across its entire lineup, so that if the need should arise to become competitive, it’s just a matter of cut ‘n paste.
I do like the idea of a “Super App”, that does everything the user needs. That would be fun.
As many people have already indicated, MS Office is currently essential for the Mac, by definition because it is the industry standard. So not having it would be a real barrier to entry for potential switchers.
Apple buying Adobe is something I have thought about for a number of years. I am not sure it is as beneficial move as some people suggest. For a price of $17 billion, Apple couldn’t afford to forego 90% of the Adobe’s revenue stream by ceasing sales to the PC world, and then they still have to pay the ongoing bills for all those extra staff and company assets. That’s pretty much like pissing $16 billion up against the wall.
NOT GUNNA HAPPEN!!!
At least not like that…
I think potential switchers are more easily persuaded if office is available for os x (after all, they are using windows right now so common logic does not apply
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” /> ).
Help me out here. Lets say M$ dropped Mac office. Apple introduces Numbers. You can already export to Word, Powerpoint via Pages and Keynote and Numbers would support Excel I would assume. So what’s the problem again?
…what the problem is…
1) Microsoft Office is a recognized brand name. It’s the dynasty MS player and users are like fans, they don’t want to trade. People want the same experience with their business application on a mac as they get on a pc. Believe it or not, most people don’t even know about neo/star/open/any office alternative.
now..if you have someone even looking at a mac..
2) iWork??? You have to be joking right. Sure Keynote is there, but Pages sucks. Why does Pages suck? Because even with it’s wonderfully hidden wizard system (thanks Apple), it isn’t Word. If it had a ‘interface’ or ‘visual’ compatibility mode then it would do the trick. iCal, iSync, Mail…almost kinda groupware but not quite. Filemaker owns, but it just needs to be part of the package and have ‘access compatibility’ (like that’s even a serious product). Numbers? Don’t see it. In fact, Excel is one of the best of the Office apps (help is reasonable). So we’re missing a couple things and they will only be introduced slowly or massively when needed because..
3) Look and Feel of Microsoft Office can be copied 100% by Apple including and server side junk (Exchange). Why? When was the last time Microsoft used a patent they had against Apple for appearance?
4) Microsoft Project ..this just needs to be done a long time ago.
5) so…Adobe…should not have been able to Backwire the Macromedia stuff again. This article would have been better suited for publication when there were two smaller companies..although Adobe is downsizing a bit there. Should Apple buy Adobe? No they could buy some current products.
If ‘Freehand sucks because everyone uses illustrator’ then there’s no reason for Adobe to not sell it (funny how they weren’t forced to divest ill of fh this time around). That would see a ‘Apple only’ product in the second release that could kill illustrator and meh up to indesign (id pwns). Fair enough there. GoLive or Dreamweaver? Either one w/ a different interface or less bugs. and so on and so forth..because that leaves competition, but allows Apple to make some bank w/ it’s own products and not have to worry that…
OH NO THE SKY IS FALLING BECAUSE COMPANY X STOPPED MAKING PRODUCT Y FOR (EITHER: Macs, Apples, Apple Computers, Macintosh Computers, or Mac OS X..obviously missing the hideous yet possibly correct iHyphenated ‘Apple Macs’).
Apple should have bought Macromedia 2 years ago as well as bought Maya from Alias.
With Macromedia it would have gotten Flash, but also a lot of tech that could have helped them in making a real PSD competitor, a vector graphic package (Freehand) and tech for iWork as well.
Now Adobe is way over valued especially since its apps are aged and blotto as MS Office is.
I think the need for Office for the mac is a lot less necessary for the platform’s survival these days, as people are seeing Apple independently from MS for the first time due to its new found CE presence.
Apple needs a Maya3D app in its Pro VFXs stable, that is clean and powerful and interfaces elegantly with FCP/Shake/Motion/Logic/DVDstudioPro, something to make it a one stop shop for professional vfx studios, and give it more OSCAR/screen credits, as well as more video game credits.
This always brings in workstation business, but also gets kids excited about what you can do with a Mac, which leads again to more sales in the long run.
At this point it could buy SideFX softwares Houdini which is independent and in some ways would be a better fit to shake, as it is ground breaking in similar ways.
The thing is the “stupid” iPod and CE focus of the company is making them miss some key opportunities, in the professional sphere that really could make Apple a complete solution company.
This is so annoying, as it would really help it take away what is left of the SGI legacy.
(the best thing would be if it bought Autodesk with Discreet, oh my god that would be SO excellent I could cry.)
I say buy! MS has made the announcement recently that they’re opening up their Office formats.
Apple can just make their own kick-ass office suite that is compatible with MS.
I wouldn’t be concerned, and I see no reason why anyone should be.
Whenever Apple sees something big missing from their offerings, they either fill the gap by creating it themselves, or by buying it from someone else and improving upon it. I see no reason why Adobe wouldn’t make a great acquisition for Apple!
Costs too much in money and headaches. The clue is Aperture. Despite its weaknesses (hopefully to be corrected soon), it is one sweet app. It tells us that Apple is capable of doing just about anything it wants when it comes to software – on the high or low end.
Microsoft and Adobe can threaten by simply treating Apple with disrespect – so easy to do in many little ways from “late” to “suboptimized” releases. Apple would respond with software that threatens their market. I bet it’s cheaper to come up with competitive software than to buy Adobe. I’ve always thought that Jobs is too smart to not have a “skunkworks.” Fast-track it and we could have a Photoshop or Office killer in no time at all.
What is the point? Office for Mac gives Microsoft inside information on what Apple is doing with OSX. To drop it would lose them both revenue & expertise, and probably cost another mass-migration of their developers.
Imagine Ballmer trying to explain that to MSFT shareholders, let alone the DOJ. There is no way M$ will drop the Mac version.
NOT very likely I think…
Were Microsoft to close down OfficeMac it would be put to death by anti-monopolists, both governmental and popular.
Adobe is trying to digest Macromedia now. It’s not in perfect shape and would distract Apple from its own amazing innovative run.
Please DO NOT disturb the work of the geniuses at Cupertino.
But he’s right of course: the operating system market is now up for grabs…
Go Apple!
I agree that most switchers want the ability to use Office for Mac, however it is appaling to use, especially compared to iWork.
Bring on Numbers, better Pages and possibly Database and you’ve got a monster suite.
MW: Worked (I’m not making this up)
Agree RS. But I think Apple need to get the names sorted out really well first. I reckon its one key to making it’s useability and acceptability. “Send me a Pages document sounds bad. Maybe the singular is better…
Send me an Excel file or a Word doc sound easy on the ear, send me a Filemaker or a Numbers file sounds like hard work…
Keynote is a great name though.
“Mac without Office becomes a total write-off in business, including Marketing and Advertising departments where it is grudgingly allowed to exist.”
I totally disagree, at least as far as advertising goes. If you worked in the field you’d know we’d all rejoice if they elminated Office for Mac. I can open any Office file right inside my layout programs (even the wonderful Adobe products like Creative Suite that so many of you fools here seem to love to dis). I don’t need Powerpoint, Word or even Excel.
We creative types let desk jockeys make pretty pictures in Powerpoint so they’ll leave us alone when it comes to ‘real’ creative. InDesign beautifully imports Word and Excel files into my pre-defined tables.
And this notion that you can’t have a Mac in a Windows environment is silly. Those who work in the creative field know this well. Since we don’t need 50 IT people to support our every working moment, we can be self sufficient. We can do most if not all of our own support (I still need the networking team to actually wire the ethernet ports). Everything else is either figured out by the OS itself or is so simple, I can do it.
My marketing director was very supportive of my switching our entire creative team over to Macs. He knew it was the preferred set-up for creatives and was surprised that we worked on Windows before. I’ve even found many of the IT guys come up and help us just to look at our lovely 23″ monitors and see how printers are automatically configured to work (right out of the print dialog).
I thumb my nose at all these doomsdayer type stories. I’m proud to be an Apple cultist. I wear my religion on my sleeve.
I thumb my nose at all these doomsdayer type stories. I’m proud to be an Apple cultist. I wear my religion on my sleeve.
Yep, me too would rather be a Mac cultist than a Windows fascist (neo-nazi)!
a) I briefly was stuck on the “Dark Side” for a year with a Toshiba laptop and Win98(?). I could have bought MS Office for it, but opted for WordPerfect Office, which I thought was a much-nimbler program – it was nearly as weighted down with bloat like MSO… I went that route, because I had owned WordPerfect 3.5 on my previous Mac. Needless to say, I was severly disappointed when Corel – bless their incompetent hearts – dropped the Mac with the switch to MacOS X.
However, I think that Corel has WPO on Linux, so how much of a challenge would it be for them to bring it to MacOS X on Intel? Hard, I’m guessing, because it made me nervous when they bought Painter…
b) Appleworks did suffice for most of what I wanted to do word processor and/or spreadsheet wise, but was disappointed to see Apple drop it like an illegitimate step-foster-child with genital warts when they announced iWork… Why couldn’t they have just updated Appleworks, thrown in the “nifty new” features of Pages, and added Keynote? Rewritten in Cocoa it would have offered plenty of basic power in writing/page layout, drawing/painting, spreadsheet, presentation, and would have been sufficient to meet the needs of 75% of the iMac/iBook/mini crowd…
c) Buying Adobe just creates too many problems – more than it supposedly solves. Now, what would have made sense is to buy the orphans from the Adobe/Macromedia merger… Likely GoLive and Freehand… Heck, Final Cut came from Macromedia, so there is a history. And if Apple aimed Freehand and GoLive at the pro market, ala the FCP Production Suite, it may alleviate any concerns Adobe might have. Heck, FCP was a better product than Premiere anyway.
d) Microsoft still owns stock in Apple AND Corel, so they have a healthy-enough fear of the DOJ to keep competitors alive. Their Corel stock has (probably) seen very little growth (I think it was $100-150M they invested about 3 years ago). But their Apple investment, back in ’97(?), shortly after SJ rreturned to the helm at Apple, was $150M of non-voting shares(?), and the stock was worth around $15-17 at the time… That’s approximately 10 million shares… Today, after the stock split back in 2004(?), those 20,000,000 shares (give or take) are worth around $1.5B (with a Billion!)… It was a 2-1 split, yes?
Microsoft is stupid when it comes to writing clean, quick & nimble code, but not when it comes to business acumen. They’re not about to piss away the investment they’ve made that appears to be paying any dividends. Not to mention the $300M or so they net,…., that’s NET….. each year from MS Office Mac sales… And they need all the revenue they can get for those looming massive lawsuits and nasty recalls on the “rushed-to-market-just-to-beat-Sony’s-PS3” XBox 360… Speaking of which: I wonder if it was a marketing snafu, wherein an engineer was referring to how hot the dang thing got, and not its 3D field of view…
e) So, buying Adobe makes no sense. Apple needs commited partners, especially with the transition to Intel. MS knows how to butter its own bread, and that Apple preserves are sweet on it. Apple may take some consumer app-space, with iLife and iWork, but they need a healthy & happy developer community. Adobe would be too much of a distraction – Apple makes incredible software (when they want to), but they use it to sell hardware. Buying Alias for Maya would have made sense. An acquisition like iView Media Pro could be tweaked into an iPhoto Pro – but only if they wanted to take on Adobe.
f) I think the real push from Apple is going to be in the digital home. Adding Front Row to iLife ’06 (with bluetooth remote), make it act as a concierge to iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, and iTV-DVR (hint-hint)… Eliminate DVD Player and QuickTime Player as stand-alone apps, folding their functions into Front Row. Let the iLife apps retain their independence (for creation, organisation, management), but Front Row would be the interface you see when accessing their playback functions. License iMDB to add database functionality to your DVD and iTMS (iTVS?) TV and features collection.
In my sixteen years of using Macs I have never, I repeat NEVER needed MSO, so that is a totally bogus argument. Apple needs M$ Word macro viruses about as much as I need to contract MS. (horrible disease!) whatever…
That Word is available for the Mac means that I can have G5 tower at work when everyone else has Windows boxes, and means that I can have all Macs home. I’ve spent about $5000 on Macs, between home and work, in the past two years, and that’s just on new ones.
Let’s be perfectly clear on one point–OpenOffice sucks hard, is a giant bloated mess, and even the NeoOffice/J guys quickly admit that OpenOffice’s code base is such a bloated, meandering, obtuse nightmare that almost any volunteer that looks at it runs away screaming at the idea of trying to adapt it to OS X.
>FUBAR wrote: In my sixteen years of using Macs I have never, I repeat NEVER needed MSO
If that’s how things are for you… great. Too bad for Apple you’re not their ENTIRE target market.
In my 21 years of pc computing (started with ][e and a C64), I’ve used MS Office/Word since ever since…
My 21 years trumps your 16 years.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
>FUBAR wrote: In my sixteen years of using Macs I have never, I repeat NEVER needed MSO
If that’s how things are for you… great. Too bad for Apple you’re not their ENTIRE target market.
In my 21 years of pc computing (started with ][e and a C64), I’ve used MS Office/Word since ever since…
My 21 years trumps your 16 years.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
>FUBAR wrote: In my sixteen years of using Macs I have never, I repeat NEVER needed MSO
If that’s how things are for you… great. Too bad for Apple you’re not their ENTIRE target market.
In my 21 years of pc computing (started with ][e and a C64), I’ve used MS Office/Word since ever since…
My 21 years trumps your 16 years.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
>FUBAR wrote: In my sixteen years of using Macs I have never, I repeat NEVER needed MSO
If that’s how things are for you… great. Too bad for Apple you’re not their ENTIRE target market.
In my 21 years of pc computing (started with ][e and a C64), I’ve used MS Office/Word since ever since…
My 21 years trumps your 16 years.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”raspberry” style=”border:0;” />
Adobe’s non-Macromedia products might be “shitware” to you if you don’t use them, but they’re far from “shitware” to myself and other professionals who rely on them every day. A bit narrowminded.
I think they all should let well alone, especially the Microsoft angle. Apple doesnt need to wield any big stick to survive. I remember “the Economist” about 10-12 years ago advising Apple that in order to survive, it should forgo the hardware side of its business and concentrate on the software, specifically OS part. This is where the money is, it said. Well, is it still? and is it all about money, now? I’m sure the giant at Redmond has a different take on that now. and the economist is singing a different tune right now. besides, it’s a poor biz model to acquire adobe if only to show up microsoft. mutually assured destruction, indeed. once you start, and then construct you biz philosophy around that, there’s not stopping you. it detracts from your original goal of customer satisfaction, innovativeness, and the much-vaunted ease of use of apps and machine. Apple can hold its own anyday. nuff said.
I’ll just keep using NeoOfficeJ. Thanks.
I already use Adobe Acrobat as my preferred word processing environment. No converting, no issues and collaboration is built in.
After all, you write and design to communicate. Isn’t it!
For now, and the next few years, MS Office is very important to the Mac. I have nothing but Macs at home and we get Excel files for the kids’ soccer schedule, Word docs for PTA, etc. If we didn’t have Office we’d be in big trouble. Like it or not, the world–not just corporate America–runs on MS Office.
But…Haven’t you all heard that software is dead? Oracle’s purchase of Siebel Systems was the first nail in the coffin. If/when MS comes out with “MS Office Live” that will be the next nail in the coffin.
MS is working on porting all their Office apps to a server-based subscription model (hosted applications). This can be a huge benefit to Apple. There wouldn’t need to be a Mac version of Office. Now, knowing MS, they’ll probably make it require IE and a Passport account…
Apple should work toward improving iWork and making it a complete Office suite. Then they should move it to a hosted application suite under .Mac or something similar. This is the future. Steve and his good buddy Larry Ellison should team up and form a new group to promote open standards-based office documents like RTF, XML, PDF, whatever. Kill MS Office gradually.
We don’t need Adobe, but that would certainly make things interesting. But I still believe that one of the reasons Apple software is so good is because they don’t have to worry about the mess that is Windows.
>sigamy wrote: Now, knowing MS, they’ll probably make it require IE and a Passport account…
Sorta like that way Apple requires iTunes (with iTMS) in order to use the iPod.
I see your point about how limiting choice is actually a good thing. Ahrm… wait, is it really?
>sigamy wrote: Now, knowing MS, they’ll probably make it require IE and a Passport account…
Sorta like that way Apple requires iTunes (with iTMS) in order to use the iPod.
I see your point about how limiting choice is actually a good thing. Ahrm… wait, is it really?
>sigamy wrote: Now, knowing MS, they’ll probably make it require IE and a Passport account…
Sorta like that way Apple requires iTunes (with iTMS) in order to use the iPod.
I see your point about how limiting choice is actually a good thing. Ahrm… wait, is it really?
>sigamy wrote: Now, knowing MS, they’ll probably make it require IE and a Passport account…
Sorta like that way Apple requires iTunes (with iTMS) in order to use the iPod.
I see your point about how limiting choice is actually a good thing. Ahrm… wait, is it really?
I think the commentary about the importance of Office is silly. It is absolutely critical.
I do think a purchase of Adobe is critical and will never happen. It would have to be a hostile take over, which Apple doesn’t want and won’t pay for.