fredr

Microsoft's Office for the Web Will be Ready No Time Soon

First, you say it took 6 years to roll out vista. Vista was released 5 years to the day after Windows XP! Are you saying the rolling out of vista started before XP shipped? You shouldn't lie, even if it's meant as a joke. With XP SP2, they only worked 3 years on vista.

Secondly, about the comparison to Apple.

1) Microsoff MUST announce products months ahead of time, so that corporation can prepare, get in the programs, plan their budgets, etc. They are not making consumer products. This is how the corporate want Microsoft to be: warn them far in advance of what they're going to do, too early if necessary. The government also wants to see the three year plans for Microsoft.

Look how bad the MobileMe roll out was, when a company decides to launch complex services without preparing everyone and all the groups.

2) We heard of OS X Leopard for two years before it was released, and it was delayed by the iPhone. Now we keep hearing about SnowLeopard, and it's nowhere to be found.

Thirdly, we're in December, with the Christmas vacation coming up, there are only a few more days in 2008. Many blog entries right now are trying to create news around claims of delays. There is no point in launching any beta for anything right now, there won't be anyone there to handle the incoming problems, and few testers would be paying attention anyway.

Microsoft's Office for the Web Will be Ready No Time Soon

First, you say it took 6 years to roll out vista. Vista was released 5 years to the day after Windows XP! Are you saying the rolling out of vista started before XP shipped?

Secondly, the comparision to Apple. Microsoff MUST announce products months ahead of time, so that corporation can prepare, get in the programs, plan their budgets, etc. They are not making consumer products. This is how the corporate want Microsoft to be: warn them far in advance of what they're going to do, too early if necessary. The government also wants to see the three year plans for Microsoft.

Also, we heard of OS X Leopard for two years before it was released, and it was delayed by the iPhone. Now we keep hearing about SnowLeopard, and it's nowhere to be found.

Thirdly, we're in December, with the Christmas vacation coming up, there are only a few more days in 2008. Many blog entries right now are trying to create news about false delays. There is no point in launching any beta for anything right now, there won't be anyone there to handle the incoming problems.

Apple's 3 iPhone Considerations: Liability, Liability and Liability

That's pretty much correct. It doesn't matter if the SDK has restrictions. If you're a serious developers, you would contact Apple and negotiate a special agreement.

Research In Motion's Dream Run Comes to an End

"Corporate email is proven. It was tested w/ over 75 corporations starting in January. "

This statement (or something similar) by Apple during the keynote only meant that at least one person at 75 of these fortune 500 companies have tried the phone. Could have been an I.T. person, could have been a casual user.

We do not know at this point how well the phone implements corporate features. We only know it has been "looked at", and obviously that is a minuscule number of users compared to the installed base of RIMM, and these test users have not made statement about how they felt about the product.

Research In Motion's Dream Run Comes to an End

longapple,

Apple's track record in business is nil, and they have a poor track record in actually responding to user's need.

The proof? Apple iPhone 2.0 has still has no Copy/Paste.

Apple are very dogmatic and stick to one size fits all decisions for consumer.

The fact that RIMM targets a much narrower market is an advantage. Their goal is to fully please that audience, it is not merely an added bonus.

It odesn't matter if Apple sells a lot of iPhone to consumers, that doesn't affect RIMM much, it simply expands the market to people who would not have bought smartphones. Thats good for RIMM.

Apple is not better positionned than others for the corporate audience which they do not target, and they in fact do not have any track record to back that up.

No keyboard, no copy/paste. Why would one assume that the rest of the corporate experience is superior than Blackberry or even the current Windows Mobile market, just because Apple can make simple programs for consumers.

Research In Motion's Dream Run Comes to an End

The iphone is not 200$, it's 200$ when *subsidized* by the carrier. RIMM cannot 'slash rates' to compensate, it's in the hands of the carriers. Blackberries are already subsidized, and sometime as low as 0$ or 99$.

Also, the iPhone's position for corporate email is absolutely not proven yet, no one has used the serve and no one has made comparison to the features and ease of use compared to RIMM. The corporate email feature are certainly not the iPhone's streight, but rather a nice-to-have feature in its earliest version. It will be very similar to what all Windows Mobile phone already have, and therefore not a new threat.

The iPhone has no physical keyboard, this is a major deal-breaker. Corporate clients cannot have dogmatic or shallow consumer designs get in the way of their productivity. There is a lot of work that goes in a BlackBerry to make it a perfect email device.

My prediction: the iPhone will actually generate interest and more sales for RIMM's new blackberry bold, and its follow-up which hopefully will be touch screen. I believe the iPhone will take market from the weaker Windows Mobile phones rather than RIMM.

I believe the biggest risk comes from on the phone carrier. They can marginalize RIMM by making the Bold with the business plan too expensive for people not already addicted to these phones. AT&T will apparently have more expensive business plans for the iPhone in order to unlock the corporate email feature.

Avid Technology: Contrarian Position

Final Cut Pro is a software tool for prosumer and small productions.

Avid is not a prosumer company, it's main market is broadcast, hense the talk about video tapes. Avid also sells storage solutions which are replacing video tapes. Apple does not.

Avid has never made money from software. It makes money on hardware, turn key solutions, and service. Avid Media Composer has always been a loss leader.

Avid's future is in services, asset management for large entreprise, bigger contracts. Apple has no plans in that area, it is entirely concentrated on the prosumer market.

Avid's solution are not incompatible with final cut pro, they are complementary