Apple iWrite?

[MacRumors]

As noted briefly on ThinkSecret, Apple appears to have trademarked a new name... "iWrite" with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

"iWrite" was filed for trademark on September 12, 2003 and is categorized under "Computer hardware; computer software".

Interestingly, the trademark is registered under "Appple Computer, Inc." (with an extra 'p') so will not come up on a routine search for "Apple Computer". The Attorney of Record, however, is consistent with an attorney that has filed previous trademarks for Apple. "iWrite" is also a pending trademark under the Australian trademark office (and listed properly under "Apple Computer").

There have been many long-standing rumors of a new Apple-branded word processor and office suite. Earlier rumors have labeled the word processing component as "Document".

Perhaps the most intriguing past information, however was Apple's recruitment of three developers from Gobe Software. Gobe developed an innovative office suite for Windows, Linux and BeOS, and -- after a brief disappearance -- seems to have returned.

Add to this recent reliable rumors of a new Apple application due as early as January. Any connection, however, is simply speculative. Readers should also remember that Apple has trademarked a number of terms in the past, not all resulting in shipping products.

 

[pimentoLoaf]

If the price is write then I'll buy it.

sorry about that pun...

 

[swissmann]

Bring it on.

Bring it on to compete with M$ and bring on the rest of an office like suite!

 

[Phobophobia]

OMG. No more word X!!!!

 

[Doctor Q]

I'm going to go to the Apple home page and click Reload every few seconds until they announce it, so I can order it as soon as it's announced.

Of course, I'm assuming it will be what we previously called Document. Maybe iWrite will turn out to be a new handwriting recognition program, in which case never mind.

 

[jasonpaul75]

What a blast!

Sure would love to see Apple hammer away at the competition with further innovation of the word processor. With the isight's fantastic microphone it would be forward thinking if the "app" would focus as heavily on voice based input methods. We have all heard that its impossible to be accurate with speech to text conversion. Still, one can certainly hope. If it was even 90% accurate in its processing and used a grammer / spell checker type utility to clean it up it would be very useful to me. Combine that with the input of tracks off of the ipod voice recorder attachment for transcription and you have what many students and professionals would consider to be a truly killer app. Add consistant output and input of word documents and another winner we would have.

 

[Sabenth]

this is getting reall intresting if its a word killer bring it on iam sick of it..

 

[Interiority]

Assuming that this is a word processor, it is strange that it is branded as an i-App, whereas Keynote is not? Part of an entry level AppleWorks replacement perhaps?

 

[uhlawboi80]

wellll, unless it has flawless compatibility, unlike Safari which still doesnt, im hoping they dont piss of MS and have them stop making Office X.

now before you all freak out on me, i dont like M$ anymore than the rest of you. BUT, i cant use the reply button or several other functions of exchange online. I also have trouble downloading attachments in hotmail and yahoo mail, though i typically use Mail and my .Mac account. but again, i hate getting .wpd documents that i cant open in Word X, i dont want that kinda crap happening with Word files in some new Apple program...just a thought.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Woo hoo bring on rampant speculation.
Folks reality check here. The day Apple brings out Office competition is the day Microsoft shrugs, says screw it and effectively kills any chance of Apple entering the enterprise environment. People NEED to realize that MS Office is THE standard when it comes to office productivity suites. People will not compromise compatibility.
Now this doesn’t mean Apple won’t bring out some neutered version that is a step up from Microsoft’s Wordpad. Maybe they are looking for basic compatability. What else would you need? I mean OS X natively reads PDF's so add Word Docs and you have a good majority of the doc files on the planet covered.

 

[zellin]

Don't jump to conclusions

It is classified under "Computer hardware; Computer software." HARDWARE. We have no idea that it is even software let alone a word processor. It could be anything, like a PDA. For all we know it could be a Wacom-like tablet, although that is pretty unlikely. But honestly, Microsoft is releasing a new version of Office for Mac at Macworld. Therefore, it would not be a good time to launch a brand new word processor. Another possibility is the rumored (and, apparently, confirmed) 5th application to iLife. iWrite could be for writing web pages. Or writing some other digital-media. And the fact that it is put under "Appple" is a bit odd. Any loser sitting at home could make a company called Appple Computers and file all the trademarks they want. Not that I am saying that that is the case, but we just have no idea.
EDIT: Oh and btw, I heard somewhere that the next version of Office/Mac would be the last... I'm probably just crazy but does anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[j33pd0g]

TextEdit can already open some word docs. That's good enough for me.

If someone sends me a Word doc in the email, it is our departments policy to trash it. So I don't have to worry about it. People that can't send plain text, or PDF's are lame anyway. JM2C

 

[kangaroo]

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Woo hoo bring on rampant speculation.
Folks reality check here. The day Apple brings out Office competition is the day Microsoft shrugs, says screw it and effectively kills any chance of Apple entering the enterprise environment. People NEED to realize that MS Office is THE standard when it comes to office productivity suites. People will not compromise compatibility.
Now this doesn’t mean Apple won’t bring out some neutered version that is a step up from Microsoft’s Wordpad. Maybe they are looking for basic compatability. What else would you need? I mean OS X natively reads PDF's so add Word Docs and you have a good majority of the doc files on the planet covered.

ditto that.

btw, would someone kindly explain the logic of Apple's use of i as in iTunes or iWrite? Why not iKeynote? Also, does 'i' stand for a word like 'interactive'? Inquiring minds...

 

[arn]

Re: Don't jump to conclusions

Originally posted by zellin
. And the fact that it is put under "Appple" is a bit odd. Any loser sitting at home could make a company called Appple Computers and file all the trademarks they want. Not that I am saying that that is the case, but we just have no idea.

Well, it's also registered in Australia and the European Union under "Apple Computer"

arn

 

[nuckinfutz]

Apple has no choice. Both doors lead to no Office.

Option A- Apple has phenomenal success breaking into the Enteprise. Microsoft feels threatened and cripples Office X

Option B- Apple develops a silky smooth Office Suite. Microsoft is pissed and cancels office development.

Both are plausible scenarios. On on hand you have Apple being openly adversarial. On the other Apple is getting into bed with Apple and trust me it isn't microsoft who will be screwed.

Success in the Enterprise can only happen with your own tools. Apple entering the Enterprise based on Microsofts tools reminds me of the story about the "Scorpion and the Turtle"

Personally I don't think iWrite is the best name. I think the whole "i" craze has really gotten boring.

 

[arn]

Re: Don't jump to conclusions

Originally posted by zellin
It is classified under "Computer hardware; Computer software." HARDWARE. We have no idea that it is even software let alone a word processor.

fwiw, Keynote was trademarked by Apple under the same category ("Computer hardware, computer software")

See: https://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/10/20021013024617.shtml

arn

 

[anodized]

iThink that the "i" in iWhatever means 'intenet' from the first iMac = internet mac since the information superhighway was just starting to really gear up for consumers.
as for right now, iDon't know why they keep using nor the real meaning of it now.

If McDonald's can name McNuggets and McMacs, apple can use their "i." right?

hey... Mac? Big Mac? Can't Apple team up with MickeyDees so we can get little G5's in toy form?

 

[greenstork]

IMO, Microsoft Office is the glue that holds the monopoly together. It is the killer app in the consumer market and to a large extent, the enterprise market. If anyone can make a viable product to compete with Office, it will be the straw the breaks Microsoft. They already face enormous pressure from bad press over security, monopoly investigations worldwide, and a virtual open source revolution outside the U.S. If their killer app (Office) loses ground, they will lose notable market share.

Assuming this is a word processor (and that's a big assumption at this point), I pray that Apple gets it right the first time. Keynote was innovative but the key with any Office competitor will be seamless compatibility. If they can't deliver this from day one, I'd say don't bother even releasing it. And by seamless I mean that formatting between Word and iWrite need to look exactly the same, not "close," but the same.

If this turns out to be a word processing application, this is the biggest rumor since Panther and the G5.

Apple should release this on as many platforms as possible, including Windows.

edit: As for MS pulling Office from the Mac, I don't think this would ever happen. They would have the justice dept. breathing down their neck in no time. Especially in light of the fact that MS has always claimed that the MBU was profitable.

 

[snofseth]

Re: What a blast!

Originally posted by jasonpaul75
Sure would love to see Apple hammer away at the competition with further innovation of the word processor. With the isight's fantastic microphone it would be forward thinking if the "app" would focus as heavily on voice based input methods. We have all heard that its impossible to be accurate with speech to text conversion. Still, one can certainly hope. If it was even 90% accurate in its processing and used a grammer / spell checker type utility to clean it up it would be very useful to me. Combine that with the input of tracks off of the ipod voice recorder attachment for transcription and you have what many students and professionals would consider to be a truly killer app. Add consistant output and input of word documents and another winner we would have.

The voice to text would be awesome if it worked. I can see it now me sitting in class with my powerbook not paying attention at all but it is taking down all that its being said, I think i had one of those programs like 5 years ago it was terrible but if this one worked and needed no callibration so it could take down anyone for taking notes in class I would even pay $1000 that is a rediculous price but for that it would make my life much easier having a bad day dont feel like paying attention well you dont have to. Actual voice recorders are to hard to come back to i tried that but notes are not then with pathers auto summerize instant summerize notes withuot paying attention at all!!!!!!! Awesome!!!
Hey if this doesn't sound real I can dream!!

 

[restiffbard]

For the love of god

Please, Please let this be the new app released at MWSF. Please let it be a word processor. Please!!!

I could give two rats' asses if it causes Word to go away. I haven't used Word in ages. Not since "clippy" the helpful idiot.

And to the rest of you saying I shouldn't get my hopes up. Cut it out. Let a man dream.

 

[3.1416]

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Folks reality check here. The day Apple brings out Office competition is the day Microsoft shrugs, says screw it and effectively kills any chance of Apple entering the enterprise environment. People NEED to realize that MS Office is THE standard when it comes to office productivity suites. People will not compromise compatibility.

Absolutely. While I have no doubt Apple has a kick-ass Cocoa office suite in development, I can't see them actually releasing it unless provoked by MS.

 

[shen]

IMO, Microsoft Office is the glue that holds the monopoly together. It is the killer app in the consumer market and to a large extent, the enterprise market. If anyone can make a viable product to compete with Office, it will be the straw the breaks Microsoft.

bingo.

M$ makes money from only two units, and ask any company why they buy windows and don't look at linux and they say "Office."

now Macs run office too, but why spend more money to get the same thing?

yes, WE have good reasons, but what companies do?

now, if apple starts to make a push for companies, they need 1) a cheap headless and 2) office suite. they have a world class chip now, and a world class OS. it won't matter to companies that want cheap machines though.

here is an idea, can they write the thing to run on linux/BSD? sure! will they make a lot of money on that? not a penny from home users, but what about companies? sun is betting on it, should Apple?

if so, what is to stop them from suggesting linux terminals and servers but Apple desktops? isn't that a smart move for a company to make? why have flaky windows servers and high license costs when you can have linux in back? but linux isn't that friendly on the desktop, so why not put some Macs up front for the desktop users? that could be very good for sales...

and hey, IBM would be more than happy to provide servers with linux for those companies. and slip a knife in M$s back at the same time. could be very good.

 

[iThought]

iWrite: not something to write home about?

If you've checked out the history pages, you'll notice that the Gobe folks were tied to ClarisWorks which was tied to StyleWorks.

The interesting thing about this is that the concepts haven't changed much. Sure, slight improvements here and there, but nothing significant.

Bascially: Gobe Productive = AppleWorks = ClarisWorks = AppleWorks GS = GSWorks.

I truly hope that if the Gobe guys are working on this that they threw out the paradigm they've been stuck to for the past 10 years, otherwise it'll just be a tweaked version of AppleWorks (perhaps written in Cocoa). That's nothing to get excited about.

 

[Westside guy]

Well I've got to risk some flames here...

There are a LOT of things Microsoft does poorly - but Office is not one of them. Certainly they've added everything plus the kitchen sink to it, but at the base it's a great suite. Unlike most other MS products that are now de-facto "standards", this one didn't get to that point by MS abusing the power of their monopoly - Office has never been all that cheap, after all, compared to its competitors.

I'm sure Apple can make a great office suite if they put their mind to it, but this is the one area where Microsoft can effectively compete in terms of quality.

 

[ITR 81]

Originally posted by SiliconAddict
Woo hoo bring on rampant speculation.
Folks reality check here. The day Apple brings out Office competition is the day Microsoft shrugs, says screw it and effectively kills any chance of Apple entering the enterprise environment. People NEED to realize that MS Office is THE standard when it comes to office productivity suites. People will not compromise compatibility.
Now this doesn’t mean Apple won’t bring out some neutered version that is a step up from Microsoft’s Wordpad. Maybe they are looking for basic compatability. What else would you need? I mean OS X natively reads PDF's so add Word Docs and you have a good majority of the doc files on the planet covered.

Textedit is pretty much wordpad so I doubt it's that unless it's a replacement for Textedit.

This can only be few things:

Replacement for Textedit

New word processor

hand writing recon. software for future tablet or PDA(highly unlikely if you've been keeping up with whats SJ's been saying in recent interviews).



This only leaves a word processor or Textedit replacement.

I would lean more toward a word processor app. just because if they didn't want to piss off MS then they would've never came out with Keynotes and having Keynotes 2.0 coming out in Jan.

Also MS will not pull out because when people speculated MS would not renew it's contract to support Mac it cause backlash from all around the world and bring anti-trust cases from all over the world and would probably end up Office being split from the company or cutting up MS.

MS knows this and thats one of the reasons it renewed it contract for the Mac.
MS doesn't want anymore PR then it already has.