Office 2008
Many Mac users seem to be quite excited by today’s release of Office 2008. The truth is that I couldn’t care less since. Like many Mac users, I switched to iWork long ago. However, when I started thinking about this, I quickly realized that I have abandoned not only Microsoft but also other large software companies like Adobe. On my Mac, besides iWork and iLife, all you will find are freeware and shareware products developed by small companies.
You may think that I switched to shareware simply to save some bucks. That isn’t really true, many of those products are top-notch. Take for example Coda, a great Web development tool developed by Panic (who also publish Transmit, a very compelling FTP client). This is probably one of the best tools available to design web pages for those of us who feel comfortable with HTML and CSS. Another great example is Pixelmator. I used to love Photoshop back in the version 3.0 days. After that it became a pro tool, too complex for the casual user. From my point of view, Pixelmator is basically Photoshop 3.0 with many great additional features at an unbeatable price. That is why this program has become my image editor of choice.
Today most end-users want simple programs to solve simple needs. I personally feel that the days of the large suites which pack thousands of features and are difficult to learn are long gone. That is why I no longer think that it makes any sense for Apple to buy large software company like Adobe. In the 90s such a move would have given Apple a significant competitive edge. Today the times have changed. Many things that could only be achieved with pro apps can now be done with consumer grade products, and as a result the market for pro-tools is stagnating or even shrinking. Apple knows the Adobe market pretty well as both companies share many customers. If Apple hasn’t made a move yet it is not just because Adobe is a pretty expensive company, it is primarily because it wouldn’t offer Apple the kind of rapid growth that Steve Jobs is obtaining by pursuing other strategies.