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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=660
The Browne Strikes Back at Schiller
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
July 16th 2002
Perhaps we should say ''Kevin Beige''.
Responding in an email to MacUser UK, MacBU General Manager, Kevin Browne, expanded on
his comments, which were published yesterday in the Wall Street Journal, which IGM
reported yesterday.
In his email to MacUser, Browne said he had "concerns about the long term" and that
Apple "has not focused on moving the Mac installed base to Mac OS X".
Browne also voices his concerns on Apple''s marketing, arguing that iPod has had more
media space than OS X.
Browne called for "investment" by Apple in marketing OS X outside its installed user
base, citing empirical and anecdotal data that suggests many in the Mac user base do
not know what to think of OS X, or whether to upgrade to it.
In response to Phil Schiller, Apple''s VP of Worldwide Marketing, who yester said that
pricing of Office v.X was an issue, Browne responded that the Office suite packaged
four applications for less than the price of many individual pro applications.
Revealingly,Browne noted that Office 2001 "continues to outsell Office X today", with
around 900,000 units sold in its first year, versus around 300,000 for Office X.
Analysis: If the more cynical among you suspect that Browne''s comments and the
avalanche of MS announcements this past week are connected - well, you''re probably
dead right.
Casting doubt on the future of Office on OS X literally hours before one of Apple''s
biggest shows; making comments to a journal - not just any journal, but the Wall
Street Journal - well, that sounds like a well-conceived, targeted marketing exercise
to us.
The WSJ is where MS can do most damage, given the paper''s reputation and its
influential readership. Microsoft, unfettered by petty government anti-trade cases, is
now free to what it pleases. And Apple''s media visibility - with plaudits for XServe,
OS X versus XP, and now QuickTime - has reawakened the Redmond giant''s paranoia.
No MS doesn''t ''need'' Apple anymore, as it did in 1997 when it faced serious
monopoly charges.
But what MS are doing is foolish; Office suites make much more money than individual
Windows licenses. Gates said some years ago, referring to his 1985 advice to Apple to
license the Mac OS, "we would have sold fewer copies of Windows, but we would have
sold more applications." That''s where the serious money is.
As many IGM readers commented yesterday, it''s the price of Office which inhibits
acceptance. A $199 price point is good. $499 for a new license is not going to move a
lot of people.
Post your comments at:
http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=660
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