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Why is Bento not integraded into Mac OS X?

MacFabulous

MacFabulous

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 15, 2007
48
58
Copenhagen, Denmark
Why is Bento (filemaker pro "sibling") not a truly part of the mac experience, as in, out of the box? It should be a layer of convinience in Mac OS X, when shipped. It would make life on your mac so much easier! I love iLife and iWork, but why an "orginizer" like Bento isn´t an integraded part of the OS is a mystery to me? That would be a big selling point, as it would make your Mac even more intuitative and easy to use in daily life. The Mac is known for having convinient and usefull software right by your hand, out of the box. Why is the most usefull tool missing? It has to be a part of Mac OS in the future, if you ask me. In some form or another. Am I right? Do you see this happen?

Apple has made some of the features in Bento available for the Mac environment, but not fully and to a really usefull point yet... :(

Any words on this...? :)
 
I think it's because OS X is already intuitive and easy to organize all your files. It would also be lost profit for Apple (or, more likely higher prices for us). I don't need Bento--so while it'd be nice if it was free--it most likely wouldn't be included without driving up the price which is a big NO for me.
 
Bento doesn't fit in all that well with iLife imo. but what confuses me about it is why it is not a part of iWork, where it would fit seemlessly and be a boon.
 
MacFabulous said:
Why is Bento (filemaker pro "sibling") not a truly part of the mac experience, as in, out of the box? It should be a layer of convinience in Mac OS X, when shipped.
Click to expand...
Unlike iLife or iWork, Bento isn't owned by Apple. Apple doesn't bundle third-party applications in Mac OS X.
 
ggjstudios said:
Unlike iLife or iWork, Bento isn't owned by Apple. Apple doesn't bundle third-party applications in Mac OS X.
Click to expand...

They do. Flash comes preinstalled as does Java, and I'm sure Tiger used to ship with a 3rd party unarchiever (though could be wrong about that, I just remember using Tiger out of the box and being able to unzip and unrar things).
 
Kilamite said:
They do. Flash comes preinstalled as does Java, and I'm sure Tiger used to ship with a 3rd party unarchiever (though could be wrong about that, I just remember using Tiger out of the box and being able to unzip and unrar things).
Click to expand...
Those are quite different than an end-user application. To offer a web-browser without Flash would be foolish. Those are enabling technologies, quite different from a specific need application like Microsoft Office or Bento or Audacity.
 
PlaceofDis said:
Filemaker is owned by Apple.
Click to expand...
It is still operated as an independent subsidiary, still under the brand name of Filemaker. The point is, if Apple started bundling end-user applications with Mac OS X, there would be significant anti-trust issues. Can you imagine the lawsuits from all the software companies, saying, "If you bundle their apps, you have to bundle mine, too." It's not going to happen!
 
ggjstudios said:
The point is, if Apple started bundling end-user applications with Mac OS X, there would be significant anti-trust issues. Can you imagine the lawsuits from all the software companies, saying, "If you bundle their apps, you have to bundle mine, too." It's not going to happen!
Click to expand...

No there wouldn't. It is similar to Apple using 3rd party iPhone apps to sell the iPhone in TV ads.

Reason Apple doesn't do that is because they give you stuff you need, not crap you don't. One of the Get A Mac ads was making the point that PC's come with so much crap installed that you don't want.
 
ggjstudios said:
It is still operated as an independent subsidiary, still under the brand name of Filemaker. The point is, if Apple started bundling end-user applications with Mac OS X, there would be significant anti-trust issues. Can you imagine the lawsuits from all the software companies, saying, "If you bundle their apps, you have to bundle mine, too." It's not going to happen!
Click to expand...

its a wholly owned subsidy of apple. this is well known across developers. and i understand what you are saying. my contention is that they shouldn't have given the app to Filemaker to release and instead should have put in in the iWork bundle. i agree with you about having it pre-installed at this point.
 
ggjstudios said:
It is still operated as an independent subsidiary, still under the brand name of Filemaker. The point is, if Apple started bundling end-user applications with Mac OS X, there would be significant anti-trust issues. Can you imagine the lawsuits from all the software companies, saying, "If you bundle their apps, you have to bundle mine, too." It's not going to happen!
Click to expand...

Hang on, Microsoft is getting in trouble for bundling even its OWN apps, and Apple isn't. Why would there be any anti-trust issues here?

Stupid EU... :p
 
ggjstudios said:
Unlike iLife or iWork, Bento isn't owned by Apple. Apple doesn't bundle third-party applications in Mac OS X.
Click to expand...

FileMaker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple. They are kept at arms length, but are still "part" of Apple.
 
Kilamite said:
No there wouldn't. It is similar to Apple using 3rd party iPhone apps to sell the iPhone in TV ads.
Click to expand...
Mentioning popular apps in advertising is quite different from actually bundling it with a Mac or iPhone.
PlaceofDis said:
my contention is that they shouldn't have given the app to Filemaker to release and instead should have put in in the iWork bundle. i agree with you about having it pre-installed at this point.
Click to expand...
I agree there should be a database app. Not even Microsoft Office includes Access for Mac. It would be great if more of the popular db apps were available for Mac.
larkost said:
FileMaker is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apple. They are kept at arms length, but are still "part" of Apple.
Click to expand...
Exactly. In other words, treated like any other 3rd party developer.
 
ggjstudios said:
Mentioning popular apps in advertising is quite different from actually bundling it with a Mac or iPhone.
Click to expand...

I was referring to your point about there being a lawsuit because of the whole "you advertise theirs so advertise ours" idea (I know you said bundled, I was just highlighting my point).
 
Well, Apple has "robbed" Filemaker, Inc. (formerly Claris) before. They did this by moving ClarisWorks 5 under Apple corporate and renaming it AppleWorks 5. Since iWork is the successor to AppleWorks, it stands a chance that Bento could face a similar fate.

In fact, I think it would be good for Bento to be absorbed into the iWork fold.

ggjstudios said:
The point is, if Apple started bundling end-user applications with Mac OS X, there would be significant anti-trust issues.
Click to expand...

Really? Well I guess Safari, Mail, iCal, Front Row and iTunes (among others) aren't end-user applications? They're all included on a default Mac OS X install. Additionally, iPhoto, iDVD, iMovie, iWeb and Garageband are included on every new Mac sold. This has nothing to do with anti-trust concerns (after all Apple's operating system market share is still below 10 percent), and everything to do with business strategy.

Filemaker has always had a very loyal community behind it, and I would imagine it sells well. The only reason it remains its own subsidiary is because Apple corporate doesn't know what else to do with it. A database program doesn't really fit into anything else they do. Not to mention, it's one of only a handful of applications that are developed on both Windows and Mac. But, then again, they have no reason to kill it.

There have been lots of calls to move Filemaker back in-house. But where would it fit?

http://www.macsimumnews.com/index.php/archive/time_for_apple_to_bring_filemaker_back_in_house

http://www.red-sweater.com/blog/435/filemaker-goes-indie
 
Tallest Skil said:
Hang on, Microsoft is getting in trouble for bundling even its OWN apps, and Apple isn't. Why would there be any anti-trust issues here?

Stupid EU... :p
Click to expand...

It is perfectly simple. You can quite easily remove the Apple applications. The issue was that Microsoft made Internet Explorer impossible to uninstall. Plus they were abusing a dominant market position.

Don't forget it was the US not the EU that brought the first anti-trust case against Microsoft.
 
ggjstudios said:
... It would be great if more of the popular db apps were available for Mac.

...
Click to expand...
FileMaker Pro is the most popular database management system on the Mac and the second most popular DBMS for Windows. Cross-platform 4th Dimension originated on the Mac and is one of the most powerful DBM systems available.
 
MisterMe said:
FileMaker Pro is the most popular database management system on the Mac and the second most popular DBMS for Windows. Cross-platform 4th Dimension originated on the Mac and is one of the most powerful DBM systems available.
Click to expand...

They're obviously referring to Microsoft *shudder* Access *shudder*.


:(
 
ggjstudios said:
Apple doesn't bundle third-party applications in Mac OS X.
Click to expand...

Apple has bundled third party apps with Macs before. As far as I remember my MacBook came with OmniOutliner, Comic Life and Big Bang Board Games.

It came bundled with the computer though, not the OS (just like iLife).
 
rainydays said:
Apple has bundled third party apps with Macs before. As far as I remember my MacBook came with OmniOutliner, Comic Life and Big Bang Board Games.

It came bundled with the computer though, not the OS (just like iLife).
Click to expand...

True point, i got those apps with my first intel i think. Do they still bundle those (demo) apps or similar with recent machines? If filemaker is a part of apple-ish, im surprised they dont bundle demo software ;)!
 
I think Bento would make a nice addition to iLife. Apple could include some slick templates to catalog your DVDs/movies, software, home inventory etc.

I wonder if it's selling well. I think it's a great little app.
 
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