Re: 64-bit G5?

From: Bruce Hoult (bruce_at_hoult.org)
Date: 10/13/03 

Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2003 13:05:41 +1300

In article <5627c6fa.0310120651.51592cd4@posting.google.com>,
 tayss_temp@yahoo.com (Tayss) wrote:

> Also there are defacto network effects on the Windows platform. No
> Kazaa -- which is a killer app. Apple's answer is basically iTunes.

I haven't tried it, but I believe there is a Mac client for Kazaa.

> Developers have every reason to question whether Apple's 3%
> marketshare is worth catering to. Perhaps that 3% is more price
> insensitive, but then again they paid a lot of their cash for their
> Macs + Office.

There is also the question: "3% of *what*?". Lots more Windows machines
are being sold than Macs, but the vast majority are probably going into
offices, where they will never again take part in the software market --
they get Office or some vertical market app on them and then nothing
more.

I think we'll see an excellent example of this when the Windows version
of the iTunes Music Store opens. Windows users will probably buy more
than Mac users, but *not* twenty times more. Even all the different
Windows-compatable music stores put together won't sell twenty times
more than the Mac version of the iTunes Music Store. I fact I'm picking
they'll struggle to total better than five times more.

Note also that Apple is now up to something like 9% of current sales in
the laptop computer market.

> Further, their actions against loyal companies is another factor of
> that calculation developers must make:
> * Karelia (whose utility they clearly ripped off)

You're going to have a *really* hard job to convince people that being a
Windows developer is any safer!

> * Adobe (Apple competes with video editing software)

Adobe isn't loyal to anyone but Adobe (and nor should they be). Look at
their recent (pre G5) ads saying that Photoshop is better on Windows.
And their video editing software was/is crap.

> * Omnigroup (Safari competes with its browser)

They're switching to *using* the Safari rendering engine, with their own
interface.

I could be wrong, but I think Apple would *prefer* to have strong apps
from 3rd parties, but if they want to see something good in some niche
and no one is filling that niche, or they are filling it with crap, then
Apple are prepared to roll up their sleeves and do it themselves.

-- Bruce

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