What is Apples strategy for OS X Application software? Leaving development to others?
The hugely dissappointing Pages13, which, apart from its Cloud capabilities, is much less capable than Pages09, really has me wondering if Apple is giving up on developing high end application software for OS X. Let's face it, Pages09 did not do that well in terms of features and capabilities when compared to Mac Office. Now, after a 4 year wait, we get something considerably weaker than Pages09 as a document generating tool. This underwhelming effort follows other big retreats, such as pulling the plug on the popular iWeb software, and leaving that important application area to other software vendors. The lack of real innovation in the OS X application arena is really odd when Apple is still making big and very innovatives strides on computer hardware, including their soon to be released desktop computer. Why this asymmetry of effort? Could it be that Aple is consciously abandoning high capability application software for the Mac, and focusing on the compatability of pretty basic software running on iOS and OS X, just to show that this can be done (and leaving others to do it at a non-iPod, non-iPad level)?. If so, I can't help thinking that this is a mistake. Computers serve a different market than iPods, iPads and iPhones, and despite the great importance of the iOS arena, computers are not going away. Integration of these technologies is important, but so is the distinction between them. I had hoped that Pages13 would have blown by Mac Office, not retreated from the low water mark previously made by Pages09. There are so may ways to do so much better than Office, both in terms of useful features and usability. I am wondering if Apple is having a crisis of confidence as a high end software developer, or just giving up?
Comments
You do realize that they got the arrow endpoint directions wrong in iWork09 right? I thought it was a major improvement between the two but it's still just a productivity suite that doesn't sell, and who uses iWeb? Not to say its terrible but it is a WYSIWYG development application that also doesn't sell. They don't innovate, they perfect whats already been created and brand the hell out of there shit. With having said that Apples the shit and puts taste into computers!
Well, Microsoft Word may not be as hot as the iPhone, but is still makes a lot of money. Maybe that's because it was better than Pages09? And given that Pages13 is much less functional that Pages09, might it not be that Apples lack of iWork sales is in large part because (unlike its hardware) its OS X application software really isn't that good? I am sure Apple could make a dynamite version of iWork, and that many tens if not hundreds of millions of people would use it. But if Apple does not invest in its application software, because it thinks it won't sell a great many copies, is that not something of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
Keep in mind, an extremely specialized mathematical software package like Matlab is said to have 3 million users. Mathematica has maybe 1 million users. Some statistical software (e.g. Stata), probably has a similar user base. For each person using one of those packages, there must be a hundred or more using software for document presentation (and not on an iPad!). The market for Pages/Word is not small. But perhaps it is as you say, and Apple is only interested in megamarkets, not just big markets. But if so, why not give up on computers entirely and focus 100% on iOS devices?
So Apple does not provide the office productivity software that you want? Boo-hoo. If there were a market for software that you want, then other developers would satisfy it. There is nothing to stop them but the lack of demand. From where I sit, people do not want an Apple productivity suite. Those who want Apple software want an Apple plug-compatible version of [B]Microsoft Office[/B].
You are new here. Take the time to research earlier posts about [B]Pages[/B]. Ninety-nine percent of those posts are about [B]Word[/B]-compatibility. Look at the productivity software market on Windows computers. [B]Wordperfect[/B] used to be the end all and be all. Today, it is an afterthought. IBM purchased Lotus whose [B]Lotus 1-2-3[/B] revolutionized the spreadsheet category. [B]Lotus 1-2-3[/B] is part of IBM's [B]Lotus Smart Suite[/B]. How many Windows users even know it exists?
There are people who are perfectly satisfied with opensource offerings like [B]OpenOffice.org[/B] and its siblings. However, [B]OO.o[/B] and siblings are free. The sad truth is that there are two major cross-platform developers whose products people are willing to pay for. They are Microsoft and Adobe. The titles from both are grossly overpriced.
There are many loyal Mac developers like Nisus whose wonderful [URL=http://nisus.com/pro/][B]Nisus Writer Pro[/B][/URL] has been available for more than 20 years. However, you don't even know it exists and, worse, you don't care. Until you are willing to support quality software produced by Apple's third-party developers, you must content yourself to using what Microsoft deigns to produce. If not, then shop for the best cheese to go with your whine.
So wait a few months.
If you were actually wondering, your wonderings would take you to the literally surface-level information that makes wondering obsolete here.
Let’s face it, you don’t know what you’re on about.
Hilarious.
It will by mid 2014.
Do I sense hostility and indignation? It must be interesting to see everything in black and white. Lighten up, dudes!
Yeah. It must. Tell us what it’s like sometime.