Apple, Google, Sun, the future, and MS BU being led to slaughter
WWDC is near and I can't help but think that Apple has been laying a foundation to expand their growth and possibly compete side by side with MS in the years to come. A revelation I know!! I see a strong Apple-Google-Sun partnership / cooperative spirit coming down the road in the next few years that will be as strong and possibly stronger than anything MS has or will have besides being embedded in the corporate server market as the main OS of choice and even that has potential to decline by a large margin.
What we know:
iPhone will support PUSH email from Yahoo
iPhone will support some google features (maps being the well publicized one)
Leopard will have ZFS support ( as Sun creation)
MS BU bumps Roz Ho[/b]
Google Apps offers small companies the fancy intranet option over the internet
Various hardware upgrades before WWDC that are better than bumps but not Keynote worthy
Leopard will have ZFS support (a Sun creation)
I don't think Apple will purchase Sun in the near future as some have suggested as a good move for Apple. Apple usually either plays nice with you (i.e. parallels so far and definitely MS) or just craps on you and builds their own solution, i.e. iPod market, widgets and soon to be Superduper by way of Time Machine (not sure how that will affect SD).
iPhone will support PUSH email from Yahoo
Based on what we know, doesn't it seem weird that Yahoo, who may be purchased by MS is the first at bat to offer PUSH email services for the iPhone. Google must be dragging their feet. Anyone see .Mac offering PUSH email on the iPhone?
Google Apps offers small companies the fancy intranet option over the internet
My company uses Google for our intranet because it's free and pretty nice for a small organizations that do not want to hire IT people or screw with setting up and maintaining complicated server solutions. We have a calendar available anywhere shared among all our users and email access from anywhere with our reply to email the same as normal. We don't use the Document or Spreadsheet services because we will never put business sensitive stuff that important on the Web/Internet <- let's not argue about that
iPhone will support some google features (maps being the well publicized one)
Google maps will be on the iPhone even if Steve took credit for building the front end. Google tends to move more and more slowly these days but they are as innovative as Apple if not more so on some of the stuff they are working on.
MS BU bumps Roz Ho
This was unexpected but funny how she gets the bump days before WWDC. You think The Steve had anything to do with this? Does this signal the beginning of the end of MS Office development on the Mac? I don't think Apple just gives MS the finger one day out of the blue with a new Office suite of their own but I could be wrong.
Various hardware upgrades before WWDC that are better than bumps but not Keynote worthy
iPhone delivery date...Check
AppleTV update soon...Check
MBP gets new chips and better screen with improved battery life...Check
Something big awaits us...Leopard
Hopes and thoughts
I can't help but think that GMail will have PUSH email soon.
Apple partners with Sun and gets Star/Open Office on the Mac within the next 3 years. The need for MS Office on the Mac is reduced to having it because you are use to it.
I don't see Sun giving up their O/S anytime soon to put OS X on their hardware but I could see Apple buying a big share of the company and eventually moving into the server market high end hardware when Apple gets their act together with corporate business on their mind. Maybe an Apple/Sun hybird OS that would be worthy of the OS Eleven title. I can't believe Apple doesn't have more support for this market segment. There are countless small businesses needing an easy to configure network server solution that does big things. It wouldn't surprise me if there is more money to be made off the small business segment than the super companies when you look long term.
Google is just a good ally to have when doing anything internet.
Apple, Google, and Sun have the chance to make a major shift in the Tech market and how we think about technology in general over the next 10 years.
*Rant* Text Edit needs an "Export to UBB Code" option.
What we know:
iPhone will support PUSH email from Yahoo
iPhone will support some google features (maps being the well publicized one)
Leopard will have ZFS support ( as Sun creation)
MS BU bumps Roz Ho[/b]
Google Apps offers small companies the fancy intranet option over the internet
Various hardware upgrades before WWDC that are better than bumps but not Keynote worthy
Leopard will have ZFS support (a Sun creation)
I don't think Apple will purchase Sun in the near future as some have suggested as a good move for Apple. Apple usually either plays nice with you (i.e. parallels so far and definitely MS) or just craps on you and builds their own solution, i.e. iPod market, widgets and soon to be Superduper by way of Time Machine (not sure how that will affect SD).
iPhone will support PUSH email from Yahoo
Based on what we know, doesn't it seem weird that Yahoo, who may be purchased by MS is the first at bat to offer PUSH email services for the iPhone. Google must be dragging their feet. Anyone see .Mac offering PUSH email on the iPhone?
Google Apps offers small companies the fancy intranet option over the internet
My company uses Google for our intranet because it's free and pretty nice for a small organizations that do not want to hire IT people or screw with setting up and maintaining complicated server solutions. We have a calendar available anywhere shared among all our users and email access from anywhere with our reply to email the same as normal. We don't use the Document or Spreadsheet services because we will never put business sensitive stuff that important on the Web/Internet <- let's not argue about that
iPhone will support some google features (maps being the well publicized one)
Google maps will be on the iPhone even if Steve took credit for building the front end. Google tends to move more and more slowly these days but they are as innovative as Apple if not more so on some of the stuff they are working on.
MS BU bumps Roz Ho
This was unexpected but funny how she gets the bump days before WWDC. You think The Steve had anything to do with this? Does this signal the beginning of the end of MS Office development on the Mac? I don't think Apple just gives MS the finger one day out of the blue with a new Office suite of their own but I could be wrong.
Various hardware upgrades before WWDC that are better than bumps but not Keynote worthy
iPhone delivery date...Check
AppleTV update soon...Check
MBP gets new chips and better screen with improved battery life...Check
Something big awaits us...Leopard
Hopes and thoughts
I can't help but think that GMail will have PUSH email soon.
Apple partners with Sun and gets Star/Open Office on the Mac within the next 3 years. The need for MS Office on the Mac is reduced to having it because you are use to it.
I don't see Sun giving up their O/S anytime soon to put OS X on their hardware but I could see Apple buying a big share of the company and eventually moving into the server market high end hardware when Apple gets their act together with corporate business on their mind. Maybe an Apple/Sun hybird OS that would be worthy of the OS Eleven title. I can't believe Apple doesn't have more support for this market segment. There are countless small businesses needing an easy to configure network server solution that does big things. It wouldn't surprise me if there is more money to be made off the small business segment than the super companies when you look long term.
Google is just a good ally to have when doing anything internet.
Apple, Google, and Sun have the chance to make a major shift in the Tech market and how we think about technology in general over the next 10 years.
*Rant* Text Edit needs an "Export to UBB Code" option.
Comments
I expect that Apple and Google will indeed get cozy in ways we're not even guessing right now. Remember that rumor about Apple getting access to some Google security features
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...i_tie_ins.html
I have no idea what the Roz Ho situation entails. I'm not sure how serious Apple is about business applications. Of course I'd love to see an Apple business level suite but again they could be getting cozy with Sun regarding StartOffice. Although I think Apple will only be interested in using someone elses suite with heavy modification.
So for instance if Apple offers it's own productivity apps that tout seamless cross-comptability with (PC) Office, in house or modded Star Office or whatever, how easy is it for MS to sabotage that, and how hard is that for Apple to fix?
The only way Apple can get off the Office train is to have something that a) works as well or better and b) transparently opens and saves Office docs with formating intact.
Obviously it can be done, for the most part, but a genuinely competitive Apple Office replacement means that MS has incentive to make their next release not play nice, so I'm wondering how far they could go with that, or if there are always work-arounds.
I guess this isn't critical as it once was with the various Windows options we now have on Macs, but no doubt there are ways to monkey-wrench with even that, no?
I see a strong Apple-Google-Sun partnership / cooperative spirit coming down the road in the next few years that will be as strong and possibly stronger than anything MS has or will have besides being embedded in the corporate server market as the main OS of choice and even that has potential to decline by a large margin.
It's starting to look like that way to me too. I think Apple's tactics are going along the lines of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Microsoft have enough strong rivals that are in different fields for Apple to partner with and take them on. They will of course never take them down because of the hardware model but Apple's market share might go up a point and that makes them happy.
Google Apps offers small companies the fancy intranet option over the internet
Various hardware upgrades before WWDC that are better than bumps but not Keynote worthy
Yeah, Google have that whole office thing. Apple sorely need a decent word processing application and if they can get Google software that would be great. It would have to be offline though for both privacy/security and the fact that networks are not 100% reliable.
MS BU bumps Roz Ho
This was unexpected but funny how she gets the bump days before WWDC. You think The Steve had anything to do with this? Does this signal the beginning of the end of MS Office development on the Mac? I don't think Apple just gives MS the finger one day out of the blue with a new Office suite of their own but I could be wrong.
I doubt Roz Ho's departure from that role is anything significant. She didn't leave Microsoft, she moved to another department and was replaced. I didn't really warm to her when she appeared at the Apple events anyway so let's hope the replacement is better.
It's starting to look like that way to me too. I think Apple's tactics are going along the lines of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Microsoft have enough strong rivals that are in different fields for Apple to partner with and take them on. They will of course never take them down because of the hardware model but Apple's market share might go up a point and that makes them happy.
Agreed. I bet if Apple and Sun did pair up for OS XI you would start to see progress toward more OS platforms making it. In other words, the better Apple does the better the open source community does, the less Market share MS will have. This could lead to a large reorganization or more timely releases of paid OS updates at MS when funds start drying up.
Yeah, Google have that whole office thing. Apple sorely need a decent word processing application and if they can get Google software that would be great. It would have to be offline though for both privacy/security and the fact that networks are not 100% reliable.
But it's just not the Office thing. It's the calendar, contacts, and email access anytime you have web access. I even get notification emails to my Blackberry (Soon to be iPhone) letting me know about different calendar changes and updates. In a manufacturing business, this is critical for me.
I doubt Roz Ho's departure from that role is anything significant. She didn't leave Microsoft, she moved to another department and was replaced. I didn't really warm to her when she appeared at the Apple events anyway so let's hope the replacement is better.
You may be correct. They may be moving her up the ladder of success for her hard work and dedication before they wind things down. Wouldn't you move your most talented people into divisions of the company that are lacking (i.e. zune, entertainment). I think they are just getting the talent out while they can. The hard work is probably over by now (going universal or totally Intel only for Macs). So I don't imagine it is like the new guy will be working miracles or speeding up deadlines. I doubt the Mac BU is hardly yeled at for being late on deadlines.
How difficult is it for MS to "break" Office compatibility for other suites?
I would have no idea but I can say that MS is opposing the Open Document Format standard every chance they get. Especially here in the states. Our Norwegian friends are pushing for adoption an ODF format and OOXML (Open Office XML format) marriage in the middle. ODF is ISO approved but MS has yet to achieve this ISO rating. Source
So for instance if Apple offers it's own productivity apps that tout seamless cross-comptability with (PC) Office, in house or modded Star Office or whatever, how easy is it for MS to sabotage that, and how hard is that for Apple to fix?
The only way Apple can get off the Office train is to have something that a) works as well or better and b) transparently opens and saves Office docs with formating intact.
I don't think you will see Apple come blazing out of the gates with an office suite unless they want to commit total suicide in the business segment and stunt their total growth of Mac sales all together. You have to believe that Mac Office by MS has pushed a considerable number of people to just consider the switch. While not being the big decision maker but more of a warm and fuzzy feeling for them. More of a Parallels type analogy where people will switch just because they know they can run windows if they have too. Almost a safety net.
A gradual entrance into the market would be a better long term strategy supporting OpenOffice and NeoOffice type projects. Those programs do a great job of opening and saving most basic Word and Excel documents. Eventually doing what Apple does best and lend a billion helping hands and come up with a total solution for us diehards.
I do believe though you will not see Apple show their hand until either they are confident they can tell MS to take a hike or the ODF and OOXML debacle shakes out.
Don't forget Leopard is also bringing in another Sun Microsystem technology in Xray the Sun DTrace based code analyisis program.
I expect that Apple and Google will indeed get cozy in ways we're not even guessing right now. Remember that rumor about Apple getting access to some Google security features
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles...i_tie_ins.html
I have no idea what the Roz Ho situation entails. I'm not sure how serious Apple is about business applications. Of course I'd love to see an Apple business level suite but again they could be getting cozy with Sun regarding StartOffice. Although I think Apple will only be interested in using someone elses suite with heavy modification.
I had no idea they were bringing more from Sun. I have no idea what Xray the Sun DTrace based code analysis program is but any partnership with Sun has to be a good one at this point. Yes, Apple and Google sleeping together is a great thing. I can't wait for further announcements. It is reassuring that a lot of the people I have seen interviewed at Google are Mac users.
As you stated and I stated above, I agree with you about StarOffice. They will start out in a helping hand to the opensource community and turn it into a cash cow that does more than MS Office could do.