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Apple iWrite?

Originally posted by shen
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."
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Actually, they turn a profit from four units: OS, Applications (Office), Enterprise, and Internet. (MacBU also makes a profit, but I think that gets folded into the others when they put their quarterlies out.*) Though I will say how they derive a profit from Internet is highly suspect and it'll be a big stretch to say that they can control prices in Enterprise so they don't have monopoly power there.

I'd say they have a dominant position in Windows desktop OS, Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer, Visio, Project, and Outlook. Visio and Project are a niche so they don't do much to maintain the main monopoly (the OS)--a program like Autodesk AutoCad does much more than both these two products combined.

If it wasn't for bundling and the library integration, IE's position would whither in about a year so it's hard to say this is a monopoly. Ditto for Outlook.

Also, don't discount OpenOffice/StarOffice. I know it looks like crap on the Mac, but it's doing very well. In fact, it does a better job at converting old Word documents than Word itself (so much for the "use MS for compatibility" argument). At the rate it's going, it'll at the minimum force Microsoft to rethink their Office strategy which has really stagnated for the last few years. If Apple introduces a Word competitor, I hope it supports OpenOffice.org's open XML document format, though given the size and licensing it would be unlikely for Apple to be able to base an "iWrite" or "Document" on it's code base.

I think that the name "iWrite" sounds to me like either a bundled AppleWorks editor replacement or a tablet pc/peripheral. Hopefully we won't have to wait as many years between the trademark registration and introduction of it as we did for Keynote.

Take care,

terry (who enjoys being able to open Word documents in TextEdit in Panther.)

* BTW, I believe Microsoft may still be the largest software vendor outside of Apple by revenue in the Mac market.
 
Originally posted by 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?
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I haven't read the whole thread (far too long, and I have an exam in less than an hour so I'm afraid to start), so forgive me if this has been said... but isn't this a possible scenario:

A word processor called iWrite--powerful enough to compete with MS Word--would come free with every copy of OS X, kinda like TextEdit now. For most people this is all they'd need, and it helps justify our yearly $129 OS upgrade ;-) not that exposé wasn't justification enough, but ... anyway ...

If you needed a full office suite, you could buy (unnamed spreadsheet app), FileMaker, and Keynote in a package which would integrate right with the iWrite that you already have.

Sorta like the iLife bundle... you can get iTunes, iPhoto, and iMovie for free online. You're buying a bundle of four programs, but in reality you're only buying the one (iDVD) that isn't free.

Except the Office bundle would only have one of its four major products for free (unless you want to count Address Book / iCal / Mail as an Outlook/Entourage equivalent). Sounds reasonable to me, especially with the iLife precedent.

That might explain the "i" in the name.
 
Originally posted by greenstork
At some point in the near future, the line will become blurred between Windows and Office, with the increased integration of XML. Apple, in a sense, is playing catch-up in this regard.
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This is total BS (no offense). Mac OS X is the only OS on the market with XML-based configuration files. It also has built in XMLRPC and SOAP libraries. Microsoft Word makes a joke of HTML and their new XML standard doesn't interoperate due to their abuse of DMCA and the hooks they left in for binary extensions. (Think about that last one for a minute, binary extensions... in XML.)

As for the intentional blurring Microsoft has engaged between Windows and Office... well that tight integration is why their platform is a security nightmare. Have we so quickly forgotten about the VBA macro viruses because our Outlook and default-on services are such an inviting vector?

Sure, when MS finally introduces Longhorn (in what, 2005? 2006?), the XML integration for remote installation of objects via SOAP may force Apple to play catchup to those people willing to lock themselves into DRM enforced on the hardware and BIOS level and lock themselves out of competing products like Linux because of it.

Personally, I question how popular this will be as each successful OS since 95 has had slower and slower uptake and Apache will have all-but-wiped-out IIS by that date.

Given what problems that the Microsoft/Office integration caused, I shudder to think what some evil person will do with Longhorn's SOAP API/OS integration.
 
Most people seem to think that iWrite will be the killer Word competitor app, a.k.a. "Document." This may be the case but the fact that it has 'i' at the start of the name surely denotes that it will not be?

If it is going to go hand in hand with Keynote and a future spreadsheet app, it will not have a name like 'iWrite,' which is inconsistent more than anything else anyway. As already mentioned also, the name iteself does not sound very professional - it sounds more like a little consumer app that may be free or not cost much.

I prefer the idea that some others have said, that iWrite is either an AppleWorks replacement or some new sort of handheld device. Time will tell.
 
Since it is categorized under hardware/software it could be a tablet Mac.

iWrite how about iNote? or GhostWriter/StyleWriter?

Now if it is a word processor I hope Apple dumps the whole 'i' thing. There's no need for a word processor to access the internet, we all know what trouble that brings... cough, cough, *M$ holes*...

I'd prefer calling it Apple Wordpad or something without the 'i' thats catchy. I just hope this new office suite is made up of separate applications and not like AppleWorks where its all integrated and messy.

Word Processing: Apple WordPad
Presentation: Apple Keynote
Flow Charts/Project Management/Organization/Planning (Like Visio): ???
SpreadSheet: ???
Database: ???
Accounting: ???
E-mail: Apple Mail

Oh, and Apple should buy Nisus Writer. But then again Apple is a "hardware" company. :rolleyes:

-backdraft
 
I found an old version.

For some reason i felt the need to look up iWrite on Google, and the first thing i get is an old OS 8.1 piece of software that does....
“iWrite is a feature-packed text editor that can do everything from writing most of a document in a few mouseclicks, to sending e-mail, to allowing you to export to any file format you wish. If you write documents: letters, stories, articles, code, anything; you can use iWrite.”
now...maybe they are bring back this, i don't know, just informing you. It is at this address.
http://www.atpm.com/7.07/iwrite.shtml
 
Originally posted by tychay
(Think about that last one for a minute, binary extensions... in XML.)
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hehe... Well XML wasn't meant to handle binary, the way around that is base64...

-backdraft
 
i is not just for internet...

The original iMac may have stood for 'internet Mac' but that doesn't mean that metaphor has to continue today.

The 'i' in front of everything could also stand for imagination, intelligent, I (as in you or me), interactive, and a whole lot more things - whatever you want it to be.

I think its good for consumer-related things.
 
iWrite is a pretty awkward name to pronounce. Most of the other iProducts have a hard sound after the 'i', but this is an 'i', then a soft sound, then another 'i'. Maybe it's just my accent, but it just doesn't roll off the tongue like the others.

It's also ususual in that it's a verb rather than a noun. iProducts seem to go with nouns unless there isn't a suitably descriptive one available (e.g. iChat, iSync), so if there were a word processor in the works, I'd expect the name to be along the lines of iDoc.

I've never been a huge fan of iNames, but this one is pure ugly. I hope it doesn't surface on any Apple product, particularly a WP.
 
I'm surprised about how many people here seem to like Word. I hate it, it's very counter-intuitive and gets in the way all the time. A true Microsoft product, in other words.
 
Originally posted by tychay
Actually, they turn a profit from four units: OS, Applications (Office), Enterprise, and Internet. (MacBU also makes a profit, but I think that gets folded into the others when they put their quarterlies out.*)
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Actually it would be more accurate to say that Microsoft's major profits (Mid to high 80%) are generated in order of: Windows, Office, Server, (All the other stuff.) The amount of money generated from the Mac BU, which obviously is mainly comprised of Office, has to be insignificant compared to Office for Windows. Since MS Office for Mac is pretty much a total rewrite for OS X I really wonder how much return on investment they get vs. Window's Office return on investment. In the long run it could, I'm sorry to say, be beneficial for MS to scale back office for the Mac for multiple reasons.
 
How about this:

Microsoft announces at MacWorld: "I have some good news, and some more good news. Microsoft has just come out with a new version of Office. This will be the last version that Microsoft makes. After that, all Mac Business Unit operations will be transferred to Apple. We believe that Apple is the most innovative computer company, and Apple is dedicated to finally fixing all the bugs in Office for Mac. Instead of calling it office, it will be called Apple Office, with iWrite, Mail, Keynote, and Database. Everything will be faster, easier to use, and generally much better."

Steve adds: "Oh, and one more thing. Here's the PowerBook G5. It comes in the 2.4, 2.6, and dual 3.0 Ghz varieties. The low end model has an 80GB hard drive, 1 GB of PC3200 DDR RAM, and a new ATI Radeon 990 Pro with 128 MB VRAM.":D
 
Need MS Office/Office X...

Interesting thread, but I can say that I'd be one switcher who would switch right back if MS stopped supporting Word and Excel for Mac OS. WordPerfect was a very good product at one point, but it died (or will soon die except for being bundled with IBM computers) because everyone in my business (legal) uses Word and Excel, and the file conversions between the Word and WP were not perfect. Maybe 95%+, but not perfect, and nobody is going to put up with cleaning up that 5% over the long haul. As close as Apple (or any other company) may come to 100% compatibility, I very much doubt they could hit 100%, and that is a problem nobody should underestimate. Also, Word is flat out a good program. I have used both WP and Word extensively on PCs, and Word is miles better once you master its complexities (e.g., style sheets).

While it may make sense for Apple to come up with a good product to replace AppleWorks, it would be insane for it to do anything that would cause MS to stop supporting Office X. I love my two Macs, but I'd buy another PC laptop if I didn't have the ability to use Word and Excel on my Mac.
 
Another iWrite possibility

iWrite might be a blogged application or service. Apple actually has offered a completely client-side-based third-party blog tool called iBlog; they might want to build on this. It makes more sense to me than competing with MS Word, and the "i" (Internet) name would agree with that, too.
 
Re: Need MS Office/Office X...

Originally posted by JulesK
While it may make sense for Apple to come up with a good product to replace AppleWorks, it would be insane for it to do anything that would cause MS to stop supporting Office X. I love my two Macs, but I'd buy another PC laptop if I didn't have the ability to use Word and Excel on my Mac.
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You make it sound like you can't write without Word on a computer. DOC compatibility is built into most other text editors and it is no big deal importing and exporting.

If Office X gets cancelled Apple should have a word processor out to fill the software gap. It is possible that Microsoft would package the Windows version of Office with Windows and Virtual PC 7 and sell it to Mac users at a higher price than what PC users would pay for the stand-alone Office.

If Apple were to offer their own office package it could easilly be cheaper and better than what Microsoft will likely offer.
 
Apologies if this has been covered already, but a lot of you who are pissed off by M$ Word could do an awful lot worse than Nisus writer Express, a Cocoa WP that reads and writes Word documents (not 100% perfectly, but all but the most complex documents come through OK).

Oh, and it's got a live word count.

Cheers,

Tim
 
If it is a word processor, will the format be open?

What the world doesn't need is another closed file format that is useless if the product fails. At least OpenOffice.org's file format is native xml that is zipped.

The file format for .doc is where the power in Microsoft's office is. If the Justice Dept had forced MS to open their format, it would have done more to eliminate the MS monopoly than anything else.
 
Re: iWrite

Originally posted by tex210
It's my tablet. Come to me...
humming my mantra of manifestation.
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I was thinking this too, 'cept that: why bother? Unless they bought the battery-less pen rights from Wacom, the Graphire, Intuos, et al are the de facto tablet standard on the market, and fit the bill quite nicely.

As in, there's a perfectly good, robust product that already works (well) as a tablet.

It's not like video editors, mp3 players, presentation software etc. that all could use some major tweaking.

Oh well - I think it's just something else they can own so they can go after all the shareware programs that have and will call themselves iWrite. :p
 
Originally posted by geerlingguy
How about this:

Microsoft announces at MacWorld: "I have some good news, and some more good news. Microsoft has just come out with a new version of Office. This will be the last version that Microsoft makes. After that, all Mac Business Unit operations will be transferred to Apple. We believe that Apple is the most innovative computer company, and Apple is dedicated to finally fixing all the bugs in Office for Mac. Instead of calling it office, it will be called Apple Office, with iWrite, Mail, Keynote, and Database. Everything will be faster, easier to use, and generally much better."

Steve adds: "Oh, and one more thing. Here's the PowerBook G5. It comes in the 2.4, 2.6, and dual 3.0 Ghz varieties. The low end model has an 80GB hard drive, 1 GB of PC3200 DDR RAM, and a new ATI Radeon 990 Pro with 128 MB VRAM.":D
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Sir. Please step away from the crack pipe.
 
Further reality check needed...>

Your reasoning only reinforces my argument. MS doesn't care if Apple comes out with an alternative to Office. MS Office is the standard in the business world. MS is a software company first and foremost. They don't care what platform you are running their software on. Sure, they may lose some Office sales to the Mac faithful, but as long as the business world remains committed to MS products, they will make Office X. They would be stupid not to. Gates may be many things (greedy, arrogant, etc.), but stupid isn't one of them. ;)



Originally posted by SiliconAddict
People NEED to realize that MS Office is THE standard when it comes to office productivity suites. People will not compromise compatibility.
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:D :D
 
Please give me an example of a pro-user level application with the usage of "i" in it...

That's right (or maybe, "write") - no where! iWrite will be a consumer product for the family crowd.

Possibly even a .Mac offering?
 
Re: Safari style?

Originally posted by g.money
I have no idea as to the legalities and such, but isn't it possible that Stevey can pull off an open source app--a la Safari--but this time with OpenOffice?
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or the KDE office apps. or gnome. lets not narrow the choices here....
 
MS got the business/enterprise market by default.

It was that IBM partnership in the beginnning. They used to be a saying in the business world. "No purchasing agent ever lost his job for buying IBM or Xerox products." It was the safe bet in the '80s.


Originally posted by bensisko

There was a point where MS and Apple had a choice to make. MS went after the Enterprise/Business market, and Apple went after education/creative. Had they made different decisions, Apple could very well be the king and MS the underdog.
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Originally posted by the future
I'm surprised about how many people here seem to like Word. I hate it, it's very counter-intuitive and gets in the way all the time. A true Microsoft product, in other words.
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Amen to that. I hate the fact that Word replaces what I want with what it *thinks* I want. Yeah, I know you can turn all that stuff off (I have). I switched to LaTeX (using TeXShop as the front end). It has a steep learning curve, but the output is gorgeous and it gives you awesome ability to fine-tune layout. Better yet, it's free. Bye, bye Word.

I like Excel, though. It's the only Microsoft program I still use.
 
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