Software Destinations

Brett Arends at Boston Herald would like to see Apple pick up Palm for the $1.1 Billion its supposed to be worth, but I dont see this happening.

What is Palm now? Palm sold its operating system to Access Corporation of Japan. Access has a long term business in the OEM market for phone-internet integration in Japan and Java oriented solutions. A smart buy for Access as this would likely seem to herald the first real penetration of the PalmOS into the Japanese phone market. Without Sony selling PDAs based on PalmOS, where was Palm anyway in Japan? They were quite late to market when the iron was hot in the US, and never did seem to recover there. At the time, the only real player in the market was the Sharp Zaurus, a very powerful handheld that was not only expensive but very difficult to develop applications for; Palm had the opportunity to get into the market quickly but elected not to.

There’s no reason for Apple to acquire Palm. Apple’s brand is on the rise;Palm’s brand is on the wane (WinCE devices slowly but steadily filling up the void). Apple already has an underlying operating system that runs on the iPod. What would Palm provide at $1.1 billion that Apple couldnt create itself for much less?

Apple Computer introduced today a new professional photo product called Aperture. Priced at $499, its $100 less than Photoshop CS2. The price point is facinating, both of Aperture and of Photoshop. And Im certain that, while most reviews will certainly indicate that Aperture doesn’t have the feature set of Photoshop, it will certainly make full use of the graphics toolbox underlying the MacOS X operating system. (more…)

In an efford to increase revenue by tapping every dollar earned off of the iPod eco-system, Apple is increasing pressure on ipod peripheral makers to pay up their 10% in the Made for iPod program, according to a report on News.com. Apparently to gain access to critical information regarding a new port, you have to pay to play. Apple is not without precident in doing this. Microsoft, for example, intends on tapping peripheral makers for a percentage for the xBox 360.

eWeek’s Channel Insider takes a look at the state of Mac value-added resellers. This rehashed a lot of the anxiety and “Tell on Apple” gripes that Apple Specialists have had for the last several years. But the emphasis on services, especially for PCs is interesting for software vendors.

I get mixed signals from my channel contacts when it comes to margins on Macs: a very wide variance between what’s been told to me by a big boy reseller vs what the small time Apple Specialists get. Across the board though, they say that customers can take a retail quote from a retailer and have it matched by the Apple Store. There’s no real option for competing on price. Channel Insider’s article also reiterates that Mac only shops have to depend on services to survive (some small timers would say this is based on the tiny margins they get on a CPU).

So what’s the story on software? I think you’ll find almost all the little stores buy from the same distributor, and there’s little there for variation on pricing (this same distributor serves the Apple Store as well). There’s no mistaking the service angle. Resellers I know have said Apple’s been telling them to do that for years. It is a smart way to add value. But with software, Ive never see a reseller carry the same or more titles as an Apple Store or CompUSA for that matter, even though carrying differentiating software titles could be another way that differentiates them from the Apple Store. In other words, don’t take Mac VARs hunger as a signal they will buy your software product — even though they should. They seem content, for the most part, to sell whatever is on the shared distribution menu.

I just read Michael Panda’s rant article How Apple iTunes 5.0 Almost Ruined My Life and can totally relate where he is coming from, having put in six years in Japan myself. This seems like a classic business infrastructure vs technology problem that is at the heart of issues surrounding international distribution. At the heart of this is that good development can solve problems but they cannot resolve territorial issues. (more…)

Cnet’s article Apple offers Mac Mini ‘grab bag’ reports on an otherwise unreported speed bump on the Mac Mini. This looks like a duck and cover on Apple’s part, since the Mac Mini just saw an announced revision with the addition of the previously optional Bluetooth and Wi-Fi support in the high end model. (more…)

Mark Baard at Wired News is reporting on hackers who have figured out a way to get the proto version of MacOS X for Intel machines to work on non-Apple hardware. Apple must be loving the extended attention from the open/free software crowd. (more…)

Just when I was thinking Apple had out-Microsoft Microsoft on licensing, Microsoft strikes back! Microsoft will use a security system built into the xBox 360 to ensure that only peripherals made by royalty paying licensees will actually work with the xBox 360. Earlier this year, Apple announced its logo program to extract a 10% royalty from iPod accessory makers. But Microsoft takes it a step further by securing their hardware against pikers. (more…)

Earle Castledine over on DevX.com wrote an interesting article about AJAX (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) about how it can be used for nefarious purposes. AJAX lets a web page act much more like an application, in that it doesnt necessarily require you to hit a “submit” button to get a response out of page code or, from a server. The way the web has worked, you click the button and you are commited (unless you are using almost any version of Internet Explorer which commits you to an open door for a lot of viruses just by loading a web page); prior to that, your web page was a passive thing, waiting for stimulus. Not any more. (more…)

MacOS online communities are generating a lot of noise over this statement on the Sony UK website, regarding the operating system support on the PlayStation 3. It means nothing. (more…)