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http://www.insanely-great.com/news.php?id=1549
Op-Ed: Apple's iApp's Killing the Little Guys Softly?
By Remy Davison, Insanely Great Mac
January 19th 2003
Cupertino's application monopoly on the Mac platform is almost as pervasive as
Microsoft's.
A note from Subband Software, former developer of MacAmp, cropped up on Macintouch
recently. Here's a taste:
"Thanks to everyone who supported us over the years -iTunes just got to be far too
big, far too free, and far too bundled with the OS."
Is that what the iApps do, ultimately? We've touched on this theme previously at IGM,
but, increasingly, there's hard evidence to suggest that there's little incentive for
small, independent software developers to compete in the same market space as Apple.
We all complain - loudly - about Microsoft's monopoly. What alternatives are there to
Excel? To Office as a whole?
But equally, what retail alternatives are there on the Mac platform to iMovie? To
iDVD? To iTunes?
What's more, don't bother writing software plugins for iTunes: you'll be in violation
of the EULA if you use the Software Developer's Kit that way. And a letter will arrive
from Cupertino. XPress. And it won't be from Quark.
Rewind. Think back to OS 9 - if your memory's good. How many MP3 players were there
out there? SoundJam MP: swallowed up and repackaged at iTunes, complete with burning
functionality. SoundApp: brilliant, free, but no OS X version yet. Vamp: huh? Cabrio:
Who?
Yes, there's AirWhisper and MP3 Dock now for OS X, but there's little incentive to go
head-to-head with iTunes. Not at the price Apple sells it. Zero dollars.
Same with iDVD. Yes, Formac bundles its Devideon with its Pioneer-based DVD-R drives.
But, like iDVD, it only works with Formac's proprietary software. Likewise, when
Other World Computing innovatively developed software which would permit use of iDVD
with its own external DVD-R FireWire drives, Apple asked OWC to withdraw the software,
which it did.
iMovie? Can't think of too many alternatives, although I suspect I'd have to look
hard. And Apple's new Final Cut Express - its new Pro/Am entry in the DV capture &
edit market - is sure to make the potential competition count to ten and take two
steps backwards.
How about DiscBurner? I'd take bets that if Apple included the functionality Roxio
(courtesy of El Gato software) builds into Toast and, say, added desktop burning, like
DirectCD, Roxio would pick up its bucket and spade and go home. If Apple gave it away
like the rest of the iApps.
iPhoto? No small developer can put the amount of R&D into something that
sophisticated. And hope to win. Or, jeez, maybe even make some money.
And now we've got Safari. True, it points a single digit in the air in the general
direction of Redmond. But I wonder what all the folks over at Opera Software (who've
committed to the PPC and a 68K version of Opera, plus the X version), iCab and the
Omni Group think of all this? Not to mention to open-source Chimera people.
The iApps are tremendous, no question. No one can complain about free software of this
quality. It's part of the reason we use a Mac (or three).
You can now get MacAmp Lite X(for free). But don't go expecting any updates now.
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