Project is everywhere in the office (at least in IT) and there needs to be a good Mac equivalent for Macs to be taken seriously in the office. The last piece of that puzzle (and one I hope they will choose to go after) is a Microsoft Project replacement.
They already have a powerpoint replacement (Keynote) and are rumored to be working on an Appleworks update including a lightweight database (they need something to compete with Access).
It also sounds like they are working on full productivity software.
With fast powermacs coming soon able to connect easily to xServe render farms Apple can make some inroads. Probably the first step will be to get back into the creative businesses. There are lots of things they could do.īut Apple seems to be trying to work their way into business as well. A phone that integrates with my computer (so it can use the address book, for instance) would be great. I really think iPod is just the beginning. Both to give people more reasons to buy macs and to generate revenue (and profit!) themselves. I expect to see Macs tying in to more and more of the other electronics around the house. That’s what the digital hub concept is all about.
So how do they do that? In the home front, it’s obvious. But in the real world it’s obvious that they at least they want to greatly grow their market-share. Well, maybe in some strange drug-induced trance. I don’t think Jobs wants Macs to control 95% of the market. I guess the real clarification needs to be made – getting Apple back to the top of what? Apple has no strategy for the damn things except for selling pretty things for people who like to spend a bundle. My proposal: Make the XServe a $5000 pretty looking faceplate you can screw on your more useful Solaris/Linux/Unix/NT based 1U server. They need to get serious about the XServe as well. There is nothing worse than the legions of self professed experts that Apple’s condecending lie filled marketing strategy unleashes into the world of computing. On the otherhand, they should get out of the computer market and pronto.
Just make portable devices, for people who like to think they are cool and sleek and hip. They need to stick with that MO and get moving. I think they really have a future in consumer devices for people who like to spend extra ducats on the whole “package” of slick, white uber designed stuff.
I mean Apple makes a couple of nice devices. Watch movies? Get a DVD player and a nice TV/Home theatre. You want to listen to music? Buy a stereo! They usually push on it until everyone thinks it’s dead, then they stand it back up, dress it in some new clothes, and put it on wheels so they can push it a little easier.
In any case, they’ve rarely just dropped it and moved on when it comes to hardware (unlike some of their failed software efforts which they tend to shovel under the rug as soon as they realize no one’s looking). In other cases they’ve seen slower-than-expected adoption (such as the XBox and PocketPC). In some cases the markets were usually not as big as they thought (such as set-top internet, which they seem to have renewed their marketing push for recently as they try to leverage the also-not-very-strong MSN branding). Otherwise, short of keyboards and mice, MS has never really performed well in the hardware markets they’ve entered. They supported NT quite well on 3 platforms, but the platforms didn’t take off, either because the applications weren’t there or the users weren’t there (another chicken & egg problem), and MS slowly dropped off their support of NT on those platforms.
They’re one of the major contributors to a number of different PC hardware specifications, including the guidelines that PC OEMs look towards when designing new PCs (guidelines which determine what hardware a new PC should come with, which lead to things like all new x86 PCs and many older PCs having USB ports by the time Win98 came out with support for them, and the eventual phase-out of the floppy drive, which has been in the specs for a few years).Īs for NT support for other platforms, that pretty much is the horse & carriage problem (or chicken & egg). Microsoft has had their hands in where PC hardware moves for quite a while, but the XBox is the closest they’ve come to developing a complete PC (even the most recent concept PC was done with HP, they’ve done similar things in the past iirc). Anyone knows otherwise please correct me. NT support for other CPU platforms is not as strong as x86, and PocketPC is really the only other platform MS really supports other than x86. Even Microsoft hasn’t invested much into development of core PC hardware (except up till now with that glassy concpet PC, I want to say Athens but I think I got the codename wrong).