“Apple’s practice of producing equivalent consumer and professional applications suggests they may pursue professional versions of iWeb or iTunes. Their audio focus suggests a professional podcast, live radio, or live performance package. Their video focus suggests videocasting, video workflow, scriptwriting, or storyboarding. The Mac platform also has relatively limited 3D offerings that Apple may want to address,” Tom Brinck writes for SimplyBlog.
“Apple’s software offerings focus on the Creative market, as a strategy to make the Mac an excellent platform for creation and organization of any media. Apple has only a few software offerings, such as Filemaker, that don’t fit squarely in this model,” Brinck writes. “Apple has introduced new software that filled niches that weren’t served well by 3rd-party solutions, such as iPhoto. In other cases, such as the Final Cut Studio suite, Apple directly competes with existing software offerings. What interests me most… is the question of what new software Apple will introduce.”
Brinck has created a diagram that explores Apple’s software strategy and his full article speculates on what future development Apple might pursue within this strategy.
Brinck concludes, “I’d say that a pro version of iWeb is the most likely application that Apple has in the works. A pro version of iTunes is probably the most marketable idea of all of these. And strategically, I’d strongly suggest that Apple enter the 3D professional software business as a way of continuing their tradition of great creative software while guarding against any erosion in their video software business.”
Full article here.
Wasn’t Apple developing some sort of Moon program?
i heard about pixar (under jobs) were working on there own 3d “maya killer” app, whether it was to be purely in-house or for wider release like renderman i leave you to speculate.
I’d love something Apple-esque with which to make animations.
They really need to get Autocad to come aboard. Everyone in my buisness has to use a PC just to get it. I tried Virtual PC and it was too slow to be any use.
pro-tunes? what more would be in it? what would be cut out? what would be the point?
Buyout Newtek!
Or ‘acquire’ Avid (2 billion market cap – chump change).
It would be greate if they released new software but I would suggest that they change their Quality & Assurance strategy and not use all of their customers as Beta testers (Aperture, iMovie….).
Id freakin love to see a 3D app from apple.
even just an app that allowed you to create simple shapes, but with a great renderer, for things like icons, logos etc.
a pro web app from apple would also be great but i wouldnt expect this until iweb is at least a couple of versions old.
The guys suggestion that there should be a pro iTunes app shows his lack of technical understanding. iTunes is media player. How do you make a Pro and Non-Pro media player? LAME. His suggestion is lame and thus his whole article seems irrelevant – you lose trust in the writer when part of their topic includes something that does not make sense.
I want to see apple create plugins for apps like photoshop and painter that opens those programs to core image and core video, making the mac so superior to any other platform that any pro would be insane to use any other platform.
Then they can optimize and tweak core image and core video to keep them lightyears ahead of anything from MS.
Apple has to differentiate themselves. Adobe, Quark, and others all want their apps to be identical on all platforms. Apple should make it possible for the mac experience to be way ahead of the other platforms. Just install the standard Adobe Creative Suite on a mac and get twice the porformance. Adobe won’t make it happen, Apple has to do the work.
maybe this blogger isn’t well informed, but there are many apps that suit mac creatives needs that don’t need to be Apple developed. Garageband by Apple does create podcasts so thats covered. Dreamweaver is the standard in the pro web development field, and it even has templates for newbies. For 3d, outside of Autocad, there are excellent choices already. I use Lightwave 9 (which desperately needs a Universal Binary version), but there is also Cinema 4d, Modo, and Maya. Basically, Apple fills in the gaps for the mac market where apps don’t sufficiently meet the needs already (Adobe Premiere anyone?) due to affordability or usability. Spreadsheets seem to be the only area not really covered since Appleworks (officially discontinued ?) and that may come soon.
PS – interesting side note – Apple bought Final Cut from Macromedia which means if it hadn’t, Adobe would have acquired it and at worst, killed it in favor of Premiere, and at best . . . we would still be waiting on a Universal Binary of it to go along with Photoshop !
Web Space –
Now that Adobe has announced it will be keeping GoLive and Dreamweaver in their lineup, it means Adobe fears dropping one or the other in fear of competition scooping up the left-behinds…
Who would Adobe fear entering this market that could make such an immediate impact? Apple.
Dreamweaver is being positioned as the groupware solution, that will enventually fold into CS or become a compliment thereof.
GoLive will be the creative artist/web designers tool.
Keeping both makes for a murky message, and confusion in which to choose. While it can keep most onboard, it still leaves cracks for Apple to exploit.
Apple would deliver a “Final Cut Express” level tool that will deliver a market leading GUI, seamelss OS X integration, and agressive price point ($199?) directly targeting GoLive.
The solution is targeted at three markets:
– The freelance GA/Web designer
– The low-hanging-fruit (Mac hobbiest/Pro-Sumer).
– GA Switchers
The attractive category for Apple are GA swithchers. This delivers the PC/Windoze web designer on the fence a native OS web package for the Mac – from Apple. Not a chance this SW will be going away any time soon, or being late with updates, etc…
Growth of Mac sales is front and center at Apple, and finding a SW entry point to move more Pro switchers over to the Mac is a very, very, profitable move. Count on this SW coming to market by Spring ’07
~Steven
Would that someone would just buy Macromedia’s old SoundEdit/16 and release a Universal version. Add native support for MP3s and AACs, Chapters, and metadata and you’ve got the perfect low-end sound editor.
I find it ironic that it was SJ’s love of typography that created the first “800 lb. gorilla” for the Mac – desktop publishing. This area is now a weakness, what gives?
MW = strength (no kidding!)
as in, turn this weakness back into a strength, I say!
Re: Pro Audio. Apple owns Logic, which is the recording software pro version of Garageband (along with the video feature in Soundtrack). I don’t see them doing garageband pro, but rather continuing to develop logic.
Agreed. The Pro-iTunes thing is a little bizarre. Apple already has a number of other audio related Apps (GarageBand, Logic Express, Logic Pro.) If anything they could just add a DJ mode, or spruce up Party Mix a little bit, and the consumer iTunes would be more than enough for presentation.
I’m more interested in “other apps” that they may have up their sleave. Additions to iWork mostly. Keynote is such a supremely excellent App. I’d love to see more Apps that are as easy and beautiful as it. (PowerPoint is such an ugly excuse of an App. And no one really noticed until they got to see it side by side with Keynote.)
Brinck said: Apple’s practice of producing equivalent consumer and professional applications suggests they may pursue professional versions of iWeb or iTunes. Their audio focus suggests a professional podcast, live radio, or live performance package. Their video focus suggests videocasting, video workflow, scriptwriting, or storyboarding.
A pro version of iWeb was one of the first things I thought of when it made its debut … “this is to prepare us for more”.
A pro iTunes? What is he on?
Pro Podcast? Just add a couple buttons into Logic.
Pro VideoCast (etc.)? Just add buttons into Final Cut (with links to Logic and/or GarageBand.
Video workflow, scriptwriting or storyboarding? You can already do that in AppleWorks! Oops! Forgot. The ugly stepchild is going away. FINE! Take its corpse and re-purpose it … who would know any better?
AAPL Dude.
That is an interesting observation. Another potential candidate would be Native Instruments. Possibly the best music software company.
I wonder if Apple could donate money to companies to develop software for creative and biz segments where Apple has very little presence.
Perhaps Apple will add all those features missing from Vista and not currently avialable now with OS X, plus add a few more innovations Microsoft never imagined.
I agree that Apple will likely introduce a Professional Web Development tool. Hopefully, they will keep most of the easy to use features of iWeb, and add some of the most obvious features…like, say the ability to DUPLICATE A PAGE!!!!!!!
As for 3D, I can see Apple purchasing a currently available app and ‘appleizing’ it, much as they did with Final Cut Pro. Likely candidates being Carrara, and Cinema 4D. Maya would be nice though. I also see the next addition of LiveType being able to do preset 3D effects.
As for a Pro iPhoto app. I would hope that they could squeeze in a better slideshow maker. Something with the simplicity of fotomagico, and with the effects of MemoriesOnTV (PC app).
I also see some professional PodCast software in the future.
To those wondering what a pro version of iTunes might be, he did offer a clue in the article “Their audio focus suggests a professional podcast, live radio, or live performance package.”
Running a radio station from iTunes as it currently stands wouldn’t be practical, but if you had a version that better incorporated the concepts originally introduced with cart machines and allowed the user to cue up chosen tracks without interrupting the main output, then you would have a starting point.
Of course there are many other things that would need to be included, but there are products on the market, such as the Short Cut 360 machines, which allow rapid recording, editing and replay of audio material. If Apple were to include that sort of functionality, it would be addressing a pro market instead of an amateur one.
The market could be much wider than many might imagine. Apart from existing radio services, there are also opportunities to offer solutions for PodCasting, content creation, live performances, houses of worship, drama production and outlets like in-store radio services or specialised sports commentaries.
One advantage would be to further consolidate iTunes as the dominant force in music. If you have the pro’s depending on it as well as the public, that can only be a good thing for all.
While it’s true Apple do go after the ‘Creative market’, I think in this case the author means the ‘creative market’.
i.e. capital letter = proper noun
I’m still waiting for Apple to release an office suite to replace Microsoft Office on the Mac. I simply don’t understand why Apple hasn’t done this already. To me, the most obvious thing is to give new Mac users the same functionality on the Mac that they are used to on the PC.
Every PC comes with a trial version of Microsoft Office, but Macs come with basically nothing (except the same trial version of MS Office) since the demise of AppleWorks—which was a very slick little program with dynamite functionality that simply needed a facelift. Pages is nowhere near as useful as a simple word processor, which is what the average user wants it to be.
I’d like to see Apple either make Pages more user-friendly as a no-frills word processor or turn it into a professional application, which it could very easily become. Adobe InDesign is a good program, but still surprisingly PageMaker-like after all these years. The Pages interface is much more sophisticated. Maximum ease of use is obviously the direction Apple wants to go with its future software releases, whatever function is being performed.
Apple should save its money up, wait for Macromedia/Adobe to work itself out post merger and then buy Adobe.
All software areas should start with iLife, then Express, then graduate on up to Pro with bundled suites.
This includes the Mac platform obviously, but also Windows. Apple could make more with iLife/iWork->Express->Pro on Windows for each PC sold than any other vendor involved (Microsoft, Dell, etc…). This would also make switching to the Mac easier due to cross-grade issue with software while Apple would still be able to provide compelling reasons to be on the Mac.