No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes it would. If Microsoft saw an advantage that could be legally gained by buying Quark then I would understand. Software users are always getting the shaft. mTropolis users got shafted from Quark Live Picture got shafted after shelling out $4k and watching LP get neglected. Mac users got somewhat shafted by Bungie. This is business and honestly if an app is good enough people will follow it to another platform.
I used to think Apple buying a Game Developer would be a good thing but I'm not too sure it's worth the envolvement. Producing games is expensive and risky if the game bombs. Bungie was Apple's best chance and they slept on them. The nice thing about games is they show off the power of your system and competing developers never complain because there's always room for good games in the consumers mind. Let's get Moki to pitch Ambrosia to Apple for say 15 Million
I think that Apple should imploy the reverse MS strategy of gaming. Buy out some gaming companies and release all the games on Mac first and PC port later. Of course this would only work on companies that make games that everyone wants like Quake / UT / WarCraft / StarCraft / etc. This is only because a completely new game on Mac wouldn't gain as much support as quickly since the Mac population is smaller than the PC population. I assume this is true, but I could be proven wrong and I would like to be proven wrong. I would like to see that a game released on ANY platform, as long as it's great game will get demand to be ported.
No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Since the largest professional group os Mac users are design professionals, graphic designers, 3d modelers, etc. , Apple is trying to build up that market on themselves. MS was trying to get all user peroid to rally to them with the browser wars and such. Apple is trying to get all of a selected crowd of the people with the current buy-outs.
They are trying to solidify Apple's market position. If Apple relies on other companies like that, then those companies can always up and drop Mac support and leave Apple up a creek without a paddle.
My best analogy is that MS tried to get a monopoly on gas, something that everyone needs to use (see web browsers and word processors). Apple is just trying to get a monopoly on Diesel Fuel. deisel fuel only affects some people, but not the majority of people (I'm not taking into account the higher prices of products that are shipped by truck due to raises in diesel fuel prices). Not a great analogy, but you get the point. MS wanted the whole pie, while Apple is just vying for a piece of it and trying to make sure they keep that piece.
Okay, I know I already chimed in with my thoughts on Apple purchasing Maya (source code, programmers/engineers, intellectual properties, Bill & Duncan, etc.) from Alias|wavefront...
But how about this one...?!?
CONFIRMED!!! APPLE PURCHASES ID SOFTWARE!!! DOOM3 TO BE MAC ONLY "FOR NOW..." SAYS JOBS.
Nothing like a little payback for micro$loth pulling that little Bungie thing...!
<strong>What a load of cobblers. When somebody decides a company has a majority right to a format etc, you cross the line.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Put yourself in Emagics place. You've spent enormous resources developing your software and the next thing you know PC users have cracked your Copy Protection and are using your product illegally. You make this sound like it wasn't a mutual decison. All I know is that Apple put 30million on the table for exclusive rights to emagic products and they scooped it up. Don't be made at Apple. Business is Business.
I think Apple should start up a game conversion department so they can convert PC games themselves. Who better to do it to get the most out of the hardware?
And by the way, at this point not too many people would cry if Quark were suddenly removed from existance. It's taking Quark 2 full years since OS X's release to get an OS X version of Quark out the door (Quark 6, available a year from now). That's absolutely laughable. The mass migration to InDesign has begun... Quark is dead in the water, they just don't know it yet.
if i were apple, i'd be trying to create a hedge against microsoft pulling out of the mac market. apple needs to secure the existence of a good office-like productivity suite as well as a browser. given that appleworks could be retooled to be more office-like, and open office already exists....i think having a competitive browser would be a priority.
we know they've already hired the guy who founded the chimera mozilla project. i say, buy omni. for a small amount of jack you get their cocoa written web browser plus omnigraffle and outline (which can be folded into a new appleworks). apple needs a browser that is fully developed and fast. in IE's place, i don't see a fully viable alternative unless apple helps to make one.
<strong>if i were apple, i'd be trying to create a hedge against microsoft pulling out of the mac market. apple needs to secure the existence of a good office-like productivity suite as well as a browser. given that appleworks could be retooled to be more office-like, and open office already exists....i think having a competitive browser would be a priority.
we know they've already hired the guy who founded the chimera mozilla project. i say, buy omni. for a small amount of jack you get their cocoa written web browser plus omnigraffle and outline (which can be folded into a new appleworks). apple needs a browser that is fully developed and fast. in IE's place, i don't see a fully viable alternative unless apple helps to make one.
buy omni. cheap and useful.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That's a great idea. Omni would be a good acquisition.
Adobe (will never happen - even though its clear that Adobe want to focus on wintel in revenge for iMovie, FCP etc)
Macromedia (where is director X? - of course apple could always rewrite Hypercard . . .)
Alias Wavefront
Discrete ( lets get that 3DS MaX )
The compnay I'm gonna set up (for $500M) </strong><hr></blockquote>
revenge for iMovie? iMovie is a consumer level product. All adobe's products are $100+. With emphasis on the '+'. iMovie in no way it eating into Adobe Prremiere sales. iMovie isn't a professional production suite. In case you didn't know, Windows has Windows Movie Maker too, maybe adobe should just shoot itself and drop out altogether, that would get revenge on both MS and Apple.
5. A company or two that port games over to the mac.
Oh yea... Maybe they could buy out a company such as soft pc, or someone who does windows emulation on the mac and build it into the operating system if possible. It is unix based so maybe they could get something out of the wine project who knows. If it's possible that would really rule for mac. However i bet its probably been tried before.
I too like the idea of them buying a game company. If Blizzard is affordable and for sale, that's the target. To my knowledge, they haven't released one unsuccessful game yet. Their attention to detail is amazing, even in games I don't like. Though I haven't tried Warcraft III yet.
I wouldn't mind seeing Apple purchase Palm, if only to make PDAs become better. But I think Jobs' comments about PDAs (that they're old news, and that their features are going to be folded into cell phones) means this isn't going to happen.
I suggested to Apple when they requested comments from recent Windows switchers (I switched in May/June 2002--meaning I ordered my first Apple iBook in May and received it in June) that they purchase Eudora from Qualcomm. If I have any regrets moving to the Mac, it's that Eudora absolutely sucked all of the sudden, where on Windows it was powerful, stable, and complete. Now that I've given up on Eudora (as well as Entourage after trying it with my day-job emails) for Apple's Mail.app, I no longer think purchasing Eudora is necessary, especially since Mail promises to be even better with the Jaguar version.
Hmm. I'd be intrigued if Apple purchased more developer tools. Like Codewarrior (from Qualcomm, isn't it?) or Director (from Macromedia--I can see this branded as Hypercard Director). They've purchased or developed their way into becoming music and film powerhouses. I think the next step to becoming the ultimate creative development platform (not that it isn't already) would be software development.
Or maybe more in the direction of Special Effects, cartooning, and digital animation. I don't think Adobe would sell After Effects, but there are smaller players out there. For animation, Maya might be possible, as would Toon Boom. I like Toon Boom's goal, but I don't like working in it. Any animation program with a more difficult learning curve than Flash from Macromedia has something to learn from Apple.
Seems like a waste to buy such redundant property. Besides, 3D MAX would require a complete rewrite. I think Apple has to think long and hard about buying an advanced 3D product because they are so unbelievably hard to develop and support. They make FCP look like pong.
1) Ableton - Makers of Live software for Os X/windows, could be turned into a great iApp, its audio engine and or integration into Logic would be phenominal...being able to work and move around audio objects without ever having to pause
2) Native Instruments - makers of some of the best software synths for os 9 and windows. there softynths are great. There mac support sux. And they have stated that they might not have all there software ported to OS X until the end of 2003 holding back many musicians from switching.
3) Waves - Makers of high quality effects. They pretty much have all bases of effects covered (I think apple already liscences Maxbass technology from them) their L1/L2 software is pretty much a standard in the industry for record production and multimedia
4) cycling74 - there Max environment is used to create effects and softsynths. Apple could give this away for free to encourage developement on Os X
Comments
<strong>
No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yes it would. If Microsoft saw an advantage that could be legally gained by buying Quark then I would understand. Software users are always getting the shaft. mTropolis users got shafted from Quark Live Picture got shafted after shelling out $4k and watching LP get neglected. Mac users got somewhat shafted by Bungie. This is business and honestly if an app is good enough people will follow it to another platform.
I used to think Apple buying a Game Developer would be a good thing but I'm not too sure it's worth the envolvement. Producing games is expensive and risky if the game bombs. Bungie was Apple's best chance and they slept on them. The nice thing about games is they show off the power of your system and competing developers never complain because there's always room for good games in the consumers mind. Let's get Moki to pitch Ambrosia to Apple for say 15 Million
<strong>
No arguments about strategy. My concern is for all users of software [regardless of platform]
Put it another way. Would it be right for MS to buy Quark and cease MacOS support?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Since the largest professional group os Mac users are design professionals, graphic designers, 3d modelers, etc. , Apple is trying to build up that market on themselves. MS was trying to get all user peroid to rally to them with the browser wars and such. Apple is trying to get all of a selected crowd of the people with the current buy-outs.
They are trying to solidify Apple's market position. If Apple relies on other companies like that, then those companies can always up and drop Mac support and leave Apple up a creek without a paddle.
My best analogy is that MS tried to get a monopoly on gas, something that everyone needs to use (see web browsers and word processors). Apple is just trying to get a monopoly on Diesel Fuel. deisel fuel only affects some people, but not the majority of people (I'm not taking into account the higher prices of products that are shipped by truck due to raises in diesel fuel prices). Not a great analogy, but you get the point. MS wanted the whole pie, while Apple is just vying for a piece of it and trying to make sure they keep that piece.
<strong>
Let's get Moki to pitch Ambrosia to Apple for say 15 Million
If the deal goes through, what kind of percentage will we get?
But how about this one...?!?
CONFIRMED!!! APPLE PURCHASES ID SOFTWARE!!! DOOM3 TO BE MAC ONLY "FOR NOW..." SAYS JOBS.
Nothing like a little payback for micro$loth pulling that little Bungie thing...!
;^p
<strong>What a load of cobblers. When somebody decides a company has a majority right to a format etc, you cross the line.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Put yourself in Emagics place. You've spent enormous resources developing your software and the next thing you know PC users have cracked your Copy Protection and are using your product illegally. You make this sound like it wasn't a mutual decison. All I know is that Apple put 30million on the table for exclusive rights to emagic products and they scooped it up. Don't be made at Apple. Business is Business.
<strong>What a load of cobblers. When somebody decides a company has a majority right to a format etc, you cross the line.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Who are you talking to? Not to my post I hope...my post never mentions that companies have any rights, I just explain the reasoning.
And by the way, at this point not too many people would cry if Quark were suddenly removed from existance. It's taking Quark 2 full years since OS X's release to get an OS X version of Quark out the door (Quark 6, available a year from now). That's absolutely laughable. The mass migration to InDesign has begun... Quark is dead in the water, they just don't know it yet.
Adobe (will never happen - even though its clear that Adobe want to focus on wintel in revenge for iMovie, FCP etc)
Macromedia (where is director X? - of course apple could always rewrite Hypercard . . .)
Alias Wavefront
Discrete ( lets get that 3DS MaX )
The compnay I'm gonna set up (for $500M)
we know they've already hired the guy who founded the chimera mozilla project. i say, buy omni. for a small amount of jack you get their cocoa written web browser plus omnigraffle and outline (which can be folded into a new appleworks). apple needs a browser that is fully developed and fast. in IE's place, i don't see a fully viable alternative unless apple helps to make one.
buy omni. cheap and useful.
<strong>if i were apple, i'd be trying to create a hedge against microsoft pulling out of the mac market. apple needs to secure the existence of a good office-like productivity suite as well as a browser. given that appleworks could be retooled to be more office-like, and open office already exists....i think having a competitive browser would be a priority.
we know they've already hired the guy who founded the chimera mozilla project. i say, buy omni. for a small amount of jack you get their cocoa written web browser plus omnigraffle and outline (which can be folded into a new appleworks). apple needs a browser that is fully developed and fast. in IE's place, i don't see a fully viable alternative unless apple helps to make one.
buy omni. cheap and useful.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That's a great idea. Omni would be a good acquisition.
Then they could have QuickTime support the Real codecs as well, and get all the Real channels to pull more switchers.
<strong>Apple should buy :
Adobe (will never happen - even though its clear that Adobe want to focus on wintel in revenge for iMovie, FCP etc)
Macromedia (where is director X? - of course apple could always rewrite Hypercard . . .)
Alias Wavefront
Discrete ( lets get that 3DS MaX )
The compnay I'm gonna set up (for $500M)
revenge for iMovie? iMovie is a consumer level product. All adobe's products are $100+. With emphasis on the '+'. iMovie in no way it eating into Adobe Prremiere sales. iMovie isn't a professional production suite. In case you didn't know, Windows has Windows Movie Maker too, maybe adobe should just shoot itself and drop out altogether, that would get revenge on both MS and Apple.
1. Newtek - Lightwave
2. Maya
3. 3ds max
4. A game developer, Blizzard, Id, Maxis, Valve
5. A company or two that port games over to the mac.
Oh yea... Maybe they could buy out a company such as soft pc, or someone who does windows emulation on the mac and build it into the operating system if possible. It is unix based so maybe they could get something out of the wine project who knows. If it's possible that would really rule for mac. However i bet its probably been tried before.
[ 08-14-2002: Message edited by: MicrosoftOsXp ]</p>
I wouldn't mind seeing Apple purchase Palm, if only to make PDAs become better. But I think Jobs' comments about PDAs (that they're old news, and that their features are going to be folded into cell phones) means this isn't going to happen.
I suggested to Apple when they requested comments from recent Windows switchers (I switched in May/June 2002--meaning I ordered my first Apple iBook in May and received it in June) that they purchase Eudora from Qualcomm. If I have any regrets moving to the Mac, it's that Eudora absolutely sucked all of the sudden, where on Windows it was powerful, stable, and complete. Now that I've given up on Eudora (as well as Entourage after trying it with my day-job emails) for Apple's Mail.app, I no longer think purchasing Eudora is necessary, especially since Mail promises to be even better with the Jaguar version.
Hmm. I'd be intrigued if Apple purchased more developer tools. Like Codewarrior (from Qualcomm, isn't it?) or Director (from Macromedia--I can see this branded as Hypercard Director). They've purchased or developed their way into becoming music and film powerhouses. I think the next step to becoming the ultimate creative development platform (not that it isn't already) would be software development.
Or maybe more in the direction of Special Effects, cartooning, and digital animation. I don't think Adobe would sell After Effects, but there are smaller players out there. For animation, Maya might be possible, as would Toon Boom. I like Toon Boom's goal, but I don't like working in it. Any animation program with a more difficult learning curve than Flash from Macromedia has something to learn from Apple.
Interesting thoughts throughout this thread.
Alex.
<strong>If it were up to me I would buy:
1. Newtek - Lightwave
2. Maya
3. 3ds max
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Seems like a waste to buy such redundant property. Besides, 3D MAX would require a complete rewrite. I think Apple has to think long and hard about buying an advanced 3D product because they are so unbelievably hard to develop and support. They make FCP look like pong.
1) Ableton - Makers of Live software for Os X/windows, could be turned into a great iApp, its audio engine and or integration into Logic would be phenominal...being able to work and move around audio objects without ever having to pause
2) Native Instruments - makers of some of the best software synths for os 9 and windows. there softynths are great. There mac support sux. And they have stated that they might not have all there software ported to OS X until the end of 2003 holding back many musicians from switching.
3) Waves - Makers of high quality effects. They pretty much have all bases of effects covered (I think apple already liscences Maxbass technology from them) their L1/L2 software is pretty much a standard in the industry for record production and multimedia
4) cycling74 - there Max environment is used to create effects and softsynths. Apple could give this away for free to encourage developement on Os X