iApps

[Karsten Kühn]

>
> On Saturday, January 4, 2003, at 01:18 PM, Peter Nacken wrote:
>
>> According to this recent c-net article .. Apple is to charge 50$ for 
>> the
>> next bundle of updates for iMovie, iPhoto and iDVD ..
>>
>> And it royaly pisses me off (excuse my french ) ..
>>
>>
> It's an unfortunate sign of the times, as the article at Cnet/News.com
> pointed out. It also mentions the possible backlash a la Jaguar.
> I understand where you're coming from, but you will no doubt be duly
> reminded that Apple has a bottom line, nothing's for "free" anymore
> (Although it never really was ; the cost was built in. Sorta like 0%
> financing on cars?)
> I'm just hoping that an inducement to get folks to keep or join .Mac
> will be updates included with membership. That would be smart.
> Donald
>
>
Well, paying for something which you were accustomed to get for free is 
really a frustrating thing.
But beyond this frustration there are other things to discuss:

- Are the iApps really free?
I think they aren't, they are funded by the other hard- and software 
sales.
Whenever you buy a Mac or a piece of software you also pay for the 
iApps. Even if you are absolutely sure you will never use them.
Sure, iMovie and iDVD and iCal are absolute fantastic programs. But  for 
most of us, they are of no use.
We use our macs in a SoHo environment. A home office is not the right 
place to play with your holiday pictures and movies.
It's rather a place you are dealing with  eMails, Office Documents and  
a place you regularily print.
As far as I can see, this last aspect, the printing, is one thing which 
really drives Mac users mad.
Read the discussion groups at www.apple.com and you will find dozens of 
really frustrated and angry users, who, like me, are not able to print 
correctly with their macs.
So, I think, Apple has no other option than putting the money they have 
into solving these and all the other problems rather than giving away 
free software.

iTunes really is no surrogate for the ability to print graphics.


Another important aspect is:
- What do these iApps really offer to you?
Well, the only two iApps I regularily use are iTunes (watching the 
visuals to calm  after suffering from postscript errors) and iPhoto. 
ITunes really is a program which offers features, no other software for 
the mac offers to you.
Yes, Audion is also a great program, but it does lack some of the iTunes 
features and it is also not for free.

iPhoto on the other hand is nice. But that's it. Compare it for example 
to the German shareware graphicconverter and you will notice the 
difference. To me, iPhoto has almost no use for me. Nevertheless, it had 
cost Apple quite  a fortune to program it.
If Apple starts to ask money for it, iPhoto will definitely enter 
competition and to support sales for this program Apple would have to 
add a lot mor extra features to it. Or, perhaps, customers would quit 
using iPhoto and instead would buy Graphic Converter or Photoshop 
Elements allowing these both programs to improve.


One last aspect is, that Apple is expected to give the iApps away for 
free if you buy a Mac. So, for all the switchers, there would be no 
problem at all.

kakue