Comment Articles

Apple: It's the software, stupid

David Coursey AnchorDesk

Published: 10 Feb 2003 15:50 GMT

About a month ago at Macworld, Apple introduced two new notebooks, including one using the same 17-inch landscape screen that's in the high-end iMac (check out the video). More recently, Apple has revamped its entire desktop line, bumping up performance and lowering prices. The company is also beefing up its Xserve server offerings as it makes a run at specific markets, like science and film/video, where its Unix-based OS X may have opened some doors.

All that hardware is, of course, important and has generally been well-received. But Apple hardware doesn't sell itself. For Apple, like the rest of the struggling PC industry, the old adage is true: software sells hardware. And as Apple's market share has eroded, that software increasingly comes from Apple itself.

At least in consumer markets, Apple has become a software company that also sells the hardware necessary to run its applications and OS. So today I want to update you on Apple, the software company, and its increasingly troubled relationship with Microsoft, still a major publisher of Mac software.

In addition to the new hardware, Apple also introduced at Macworld its new iLife, a package that includes iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, and iTunes, as well as the Safari browser, and a new presentation program called Keynote.

Before Macworld I wrote a column saying, essentially, that the show as we know it needs to die because it messes up Apple's development efforts. The reason: the company is forced to roll out products when there's a show, rather than when those products are really ready.

After playing with Keynote for two weeks, I think that's exactly what happened to it. I'd describe it as very "version 1". The presentation app had problems with some video cards that caused it to crash, bugs that have subsequently been ironed out. (Although, given all the fun Apple has had at Microsoft's expense over crash issues, Jobs & Co. probably deserve a hit on this one. What is it about charismatic computer execs who live in glass houses?)