by Steve Anglin (Wednesday April 18, 2001 2:35PM)
In this announcement, you’ll find the latest Web layer and XML release news on Tomcat, JAX-RPC, Jakarta-Taglibs, JSPTL, and JAXP 1.1 from Sun’s Java Platform Group.
Tomcat
Tomcat 4.0 beta 3 (implementing Servlet 2.3 and JSP 1.2) was released on
Monday, April 2, 2001. It includes all of the feature enhancements and bug
fixes of Tomcat 4.0 beta 2 (released the previous Friday), plus a fix for a
security vulnerability that was reported on Monday. Anyone who downloaded
Tomcat 4.0 beta 2 should replace it with the beta 3 release, which can be
acquired from:
JAX-RPC
JAX-RPC is a new JSR (101) targeted to provide Java APIs for XML-based
RPC and focused on inter-operability with existing (SOAP) and emerging
(XMLP) standards. The JSR got approved recently, and we just completed
forming the expert group, which has very wide industry support. We will
keep you posted as the work of the expert group progresses.
More…
Jakarta-Taglibs
The taglibs project at Jakarta has received a number of new tag
libraries recently. Some examples include:
- Tools - a new directory for tool support. New content is an UltraDev
extension to writing JSP pages that use tag libraries
- JDBC - updated - to read from and write to an SQL database
- Scrape - new - scrape or extract content from web documents
- i18n - localization tags
- mailer - JavaMail tags
There are several other very interesting tag libraries being discussed
and readied for integration. Stay tuned!
More…
JSPTL
JSPTL is the JSP Standard Tag Library that is being developed through
JSR-052. Pierre Delisle is now co-lead for this expert group and
several new members have joined. The newly invigorated group is making
very good progress. There will be a session at JavaOne to report on the
status.
More…
More…
JAXP 1.1
Java APIs for XML Processing 1.1 (JAXP 1.1) is now a final specification
done under the JCP2.0 (JSR 63). The FCS of the Reference Implementation
(RI) and the specification can be obtained from http://java.sun.com/xml.
The RI for JAXP 1.1 is based on code from the Apache Software Foundation’s
crimson parser and xalan 2. All J2EE 1.3 and J2SE 1.4 compliant products
require to support JAXP 1.1.
Additional info for JAXP 1.1 can be obtained from:
Source: Sun Microsystems, Inc. This news was re-printed with permission of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Liquidity Crisis and Bears on bourses will Help India consolidate in outsourcing
This weeks jitters at all world markets courtesy creadit liquidity crisis and bears will help indian economy more than anyone; when markets start swinging big time; corporates take safe bet and gets on cost cutting world. with all proven record and potential indian talent will have more future thn before.
iWork googleOffice all set to Dent Microsoft's empire
What's Behind Apple's iWork?
Microsoft's Office still dominates the market, but Apple's new software may signal a tectonic shift in the two behemoths' uneasy alliance
by Arik Hesseldahl
It's hard not to wonder if the relationship between Cupertino and Redmond isn't a bit more strained these days. But then again the two giants of the tech industry that reside in those locales have always had a rocky relationship.
Long Cold War-style rivals, Cupertino (Calif.)-based Apple (AAPL) and Redmond (Wash.)-based Microsoft (MSFT) fought a bitter campaign for the hearts and minds of personal computer users everywhere. Microsoft won more minds and wallets than did Apple, which won plenty of hearts, but not enough. Their struggle ended in a peace of sorts in 1997. Microsoft took a $150 million stake in Apple. Apple made Internet Explorer its default Web browser. And they settled a toxic patent dispute.
Making Another Run at Office?
At the time, Steve Jobs was just beginning his comeback as Apple's chief executive (he was called "interim" CEO). Key partnerships, he said, would go a long way toward restoring Apple to health, and none were more important than that with Microsoft. Saving Apple, he said, required getting beyond the insistence that for Apple to win Microsoft would have to lose. It was controversial but it was necessary.
And no application, from Microsoft, has been more important for the Mac's long-term survival than Microsoft Office. Ten years after that historic deal, Office for the Mac continues to be the best-selling piece of Mac software that doesn't come from Apple.
So it was a tad surprising that Apple announced on Aug. 7 a new version of its own office productivity software, dubbed iWork '08. Included in iWork, which will sell for $79, is a new application called Numbers, a spreadsheet application analogous to Microsoft Excel, but as with all things made for the Mac, Apple made it easier to use.
Previously, iWork had contained only Pages, a word-processing program comparable in many respects to Microsoft Word, and Keynote, a presentation program that is comparable to, but far better than PowerPoint. (Al Gore's infamous presentation that led to the film An Inconvenient Truth was created in Keynote, not PowerPoint, as many, including myself, have said.) Adding Numbers completed the circle.
The announcement from Apple also couldn't help but raise eyebrows in the wake of word from Craig Eisler, head of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, on Aug. 2 that the software giant will delay the release of its next version of Office for the Mac until January, 2008. It was at least the second announced delay for that product. Apple's move in 2005 from using chips from IBM (IBM) and Freescale Semiconductor to using chips from Intel (INTC) apparently contributed to the delay, plus a shift in the file format that Microsoft uses for Office documents complicated the job of updating that program.
So, as of this week, Apple has its own office software suite that does more or less the same things, is compatible with Office, and sells for just a little more than half of Office's starting price of $149.
A Move Toward Google?
It's tempting to think that Microsoft may be in trouble on the Mac front. That's not the case yet, but it could be. The Microsoft Office brand is still, by far, the most powerful one when it comes to basic business software. Say what you will about all the many confusing versions of Office that Microsoft has put out for Windows, when you have a PC, you gotta have Office. And the same thing is true when you have a Mac.
But will that always be the case? Take Google (GOOG), the search giant that has its sights set on toppling Microsoft's dominance. Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt is an Apple director, as is its special advisor Al Gore. And there are deeper ties between Apple and Google (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/30/06, "Time for an Apple/Google Mashup").
Google's Web-based office applications, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, are free, easy to use, and compatible with Word and Excel. They also work on a Mac. To use them, all you need is a fast Internet connection and a browser.
And besides Google, others are creating Web-based office applications such as ThinkFree and Zoho, both of which are, like Google Docs and Spreadsheets, perfectly Mac-friendly.
Office Market Share
Should Microsoft be worried? Certainly not yet. I checked with Chris Swenson, an analyst with NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks retail software sales. What effect if any, has there been on sales of Office for the Mac in reaction to Google, Zoho, and ThinkFree? "None. Zero. Zip," he said. Microsoft Office for the Mac enjoys a market share in the neighborhood of 91%, while its nearest competitor is Apple's iWork, which comes in at 9%.
You would think that Mac users would be the one market niche desperate to resist the Microsoft-ifcation of everything. Well, there certainly are some resisters. Jobs said at the Apple event on Aug. 7 that the company has sold 1.8 million copies of previous versions of iWork over its lifetime. That's a fair number when you consider that Apple sold 5.3 million Macs during its fiscal year 2006, and has already sold 4.9 million during the first three quarters of fiscal 2007.
Yet what's the first thing many new Mac owners buy before they walk out of the store? A copy of Office for the Mac, usually the $149 student version that allows you to install the software on three machines. (Apparently, no one ever checks for student ID.)
So why does Apple bother with iWork? It must have more to do with something as simple as "offering choice to our users." Apple's core marketing appeal right now for the Mac is to two main groups of people: established Mac users and new users who may be switching from Windows (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/15/05, "Apple's Growing Bite Of The Market"). "Switchers," who are new to the Mac, may be computer novices or computer experts with varying levels of comfort with Microsoft Office and perhaps even a limited need for it. So iWork offers that consumer-friendly option that anyone can use, with Office compatibility thrown in.
IWork complements iLife, also updated on Aug. 7, the suite of consumer-grade applications like iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, all of which are for fun things like managing photos, making home movies, and creating music. So between iWork and iLife, Apple can say it has a complete range of "essential" software applications, and thus can ensure those "switchers" that they'll be able to do everything they need to do without Windows.
You might also ask why Microsoft bothers building Office for the Mac? Because its profitable. Practically everyone who owns a Mac buys Office at one time or another. Assuming everyone buys that $149 student version, you're looking at sales in the neighborhood of $800 million in 2006, and perhaps as much as a $1 billion this year, assuming a strong back-to-school quarter.
Backing Off of Mac
Yet Microsoft has been reducing its commitment to Mac software overall. Gone is VirtualPC, a Windows emulator made more or less obsolete by virtualization software from Parallels and VMWare (EMC), which, along with Apple's Boot Camp, allow Mac users to run Windows and Windows versions of Office on a Mac.
Gone is Windows Media Player for the Mac. It has been replaced by Telestream's Flip4Mac, which allows Windows Media files to played in Apple's QuickTime. Gone is Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser, made irrelevant by Safari (now also available for Windows), Firefox, and Opera—and the general hostility of Mac users to Microsoft.
What's left? Microsoft Messenger, but most Mac users eschew it in favor of iChat, which supports both AOL's (TWX) instant messenger and GoogleTalk, or AdiumX, which supports more or less every instant-messaging scheme under the sun, including Microsoft's. There's Entourage, Microsoft's answer to Outlook for e-mail, calendaring, and so on, which can in most cases be replaced by Apple's freebie trio, iCal, Address Book, and Mail. You might think that Microsoft might get fed up with all these upstart competitors on the Mac, and walk away, focus on its core business, Windows—which, given the underwhelming reaction to Vista so far, seems to certainly need some attention.
Workplace Cred
But Apple still needs Microsoft, and especially Office, to remain on the Mac. Office gives the Mac the stamp of workplace respectability. Without it, sales into businesses would be all that much harder if only because customers will worry about compatibility issues with their PC-using vendors, customers, and so on. And that fact is only going to become more true as Microsoft migrates toward its new XML-based format. Expect some confusion to reign as more companies buy Office 2007 on Windows, while others languish behind on Office XP.
So why would Microsoft reduce its exposure to the Mac when the number of people using it is growing? Mac sales growth is ahead of the rest of the PC industry. So tell me where in the textbooks of business strategy does it say that the time to walk away from the market is when it's beginning to grow? If Microsoft is so passionate about the Mac, why is the Mac Business Unit down to producing one flagship application and a few others? That sounds to me like a great opportunity for Google. Perhaps the Cold War never really ended.
Google Completes Office Suite with PowerPoint Product
Rob Hof
Google CEO Eric Schmidt used his brief appearance at the Web 2.0 Expo today to announce the company this summer would add a PowerPoint editing tool to Google Apps, its Microsoft Office suite, with the help of Tonic Systems, a startup it just acquired. Oh wait, Schmidt says the still-to-be-named service isn't competitive with PowerPoint. To which interviewer John Battelle replies: "C'mon!" Indeed. Yes, Google Apps isn't a clone of Office, since it has only a fraction of the features and is aimed at collaboration. But still. Another stick in Microsoft's eye. I like Nick Carr's description of Google Apps:
You first use them as add-on tools for manipulating and sharing Microsoft files online, and then, eventually, you find that you don't need the underlying applications anymore. Google Apps, in other words, is designed not as an Office Killer but rather as a kind of Office Bodysnatcher. Google doesn't want to fight the Microsoft apps head-on. It wants to get inside them, and slowly take them over.
Speaking of Microsoft, Battelle asked Schmidt what he thought of Microsoft raising antitrust concerns about Google's just-announced deal to buy DoubleClick. "Microsoft?" Schmidt asked, his voice dripping irony. "AND AT&T?" His assessment: "They're wrong. C'mon, they're wrong, gimme a break."
Time for an Apple/Google Mash-up
The two titans are drawing closer together. If they would just combine their offerings, they'd pose a real threat to Microsoft
Today I've been thinking of a spot that those of a certain age will remember well: Two guys walking, one eating chocolate, the other, inexplicably eating peanut butter out of a jar. They bump, and the chocolate drops into the jar. The rest, of course, has become marketing history, summed up by the jingle for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: "Two great tastes that taste great together."
Funny, the ad comes to mind in the wake of an announcement that Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt is joining the board at Apple Computer (AAPL). It's the latest indication these two Silicon Valley stalwarts are getting closer all the time. And the possibilities for cooperation between the two are legion.
FAMILY TIES. The companies' interconnections are a study in six degrees of Silicon Valley separation. Former Vice-President Al Gore is an Apple director and senior advisor to Google. Intuit (INTU) Chairman Bill Campbell too is both an Apple director and Google advisor. And Genentech (DNA) CEO Arthur Levinson sits the boards of both companies.
The ties don't end there. Paul Otellini, CEO of chipmaker Intel (INTC), which supplies Apple's microprocessors, sits on Google's board. So does Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, an early Google investor who also wrote The Little Kingdom, a 1984 book on the founding of Apple. And who at Sequoia was an early investor in Apple? Founder Don Valentine. Sequoia partner Mark Kvamme also has a history with Apple, having served in management for its French operations. Kvamme's father, Floyd, is an emeritus partner at Kleiner Perkins and was once a VP of sales at Apple. Perkins is also home to John Doerr, an early Google investor and now one of its directors. He also happens to be a director at Intuit.
There are also several Google executives who have time at Apple on their resumes, and those were just the obvious ones listed on Google's executive bios page. I'm sure there are more and certainly plenty of folks at Apple who have spent time at Google.
REDMOND RIVALS. I ran through this litany for a reason: The ties that run between 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino and the Googleplex in Mountain View are deep, and will only get deeper now that Schmidt is on Apple's board. It all makes me wonder what interesting things they could do together, not as a merged entity (though I admit the thought has occurred) but as closely allied partners.
Consider an element absent from the list. There's a conspicuous dearth of connections to Microsoft (MSFT), a common rival. For the first time in a long time, Apple's Macintosh computing platform has a shot at eroding, ever so slightly, the dominance of Windows as the computing platform of choice among rank-and-file consumers (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/15/06, "Apple's Growing Bite of the Market"). Over time, Macs with Intel chips, the ability to run Windows, the substantially smaller threat from viruses and spyware, and the iPod’s halo effect will combine to make the argument for owning a Mac much stronger among consumers who have never owned one before.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is readying a renewed offensive into territory that Apple currently controls: online music and media. Apple, I'm certain, is ready to respond to the competitive gauntlet, but could certainly use some additional strategic thinking. That's something Schmidt, himself a veteran of the Microsoft wars from his days at Sun Microsystems (SUNW), can provide.
MUTUAL BENEFITS. What else might they do together? The Mac is cool. So is Google. Look at all the interesting moves by Google of late. It has introduced GoogleTalk and Google Earth and acquired the Writely Web-based word processor. There's also Google Calendar, a new batch of hosted services.
Think of ways these and other Google tools could be made more Mac friendly. There's no official GoogleTalk client for the Mac, for instance, although Apple's iChat supports it, as does the Mac-based multiprotocol chat program Adium. And it took a while before users of Apple's Safari browser could log into Gmail accounts.
I love Google's applications, but am sometimes left wanting. Gmail, for instance, is great for its storage capacity, but its interface is weird. Help on that front from Apple would improve it greatly. Brilliant at interface design, Apple's often a little weak on features. A wide-ranging collaboration in these areas would work wonders on both sides. Tight OS-level integration with some of Google's best stuff could really widen the appeal of Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X.
.MAC MIGRATION? Meanwhile, Google is giving Mac users plenty of reasons to ditch their .Mac accounts. Why bother paying Apple $99 a year for services that Google offers for free—does better in the first place? Gmail offers essentially limitless e-mail storage (2.75 GB and growing, as of Aug. 30), while Mac.com e-mail starts at 1 GB and allows you to upgrade to 2 GB for an extra fee.
Meanwhile, as good as Apple's iCal may be, Google Calendar is pretty compelling, and supports the iCal standard anyway. Why not find a way to shift users of .Mac (Apple's dotmac blog says there are more than 1 million) over to Google-based services, and then team up with Google for further improvements?
Even if that doesn't happen, Google now has more reason than ever to make sure that every new application is Mac-ready. Take Writely, for instance. This free word processor is excellent, compatible with Microsoft Word, and completely Mac friendly. Since most Mac users buy Microsoft Office just so they can get their hands on Word, why not make a Writely sign-in an optional feature on .Mac, or a default bookmark on Safari? Same goes for Google Spreadsheets.
REMOTE PRESENTATION. Now I know Apple makes iWork, which includes Pages, its own word-processing application. Why not get Pages and Writely talking to each other, so you could create a document in Pages and automatically save it to your Writely account? And export your tables straight to Google Spreadsheets.
And don't forget Keynote, Apple's vastly superior answer to PowerPoint. Throw a Google-hosted virtual meeting service into the mix, and the possibilities are astounding. Let's call it Google Conference. Upload your Keynote presentation—fancy cuts, transitions, and all—to Google Conference, and deliver your presentation virtually, while talking into the iSight camera embedded in your Mac. Your audience could be thousands of miles away, while your video image and voice walk them through your brilliant slides from the comfort of your office. Google handles the back end, Apple handles the front end. Both show Microsoft a thing or two.
The thought of those peanut butter cups is getting more appealing all the time.
Microsoft's Office still dominates the market, but Apple's new software may signal a tectonic shift in the two behemoths' uneasy alliance
by Arik Hesseldahl
It's hard not to wonder if the relationship between Cupertino and Redmond isn't a bit more strained these days. But then again the two giants of the tech industry that reside in those locales have always had a rocky relationship.
Long Cold War-style rivals, Cupertino (Calif.)-based Apple (AAPL) and Redmond (Wash.)-based Microsoft (MSFT) fought a bitter campaign for the hearts and minds of personal computer users everywhere. Microsoft won more minds and wallets than did Apple, which won plenty of hearts, but not enough. Their struggle ended in a peace of sorts in 1997. Microsoft took a $150 million stake in Apple. Apple made Internet Explorer its default Web browser. And they settled a toxic patent dispute.
Making Another Run at Office?
At the time, Steve Jobs was just beginning his comeback as Apple's chief executive (he was called "interim" CEO). Key partnerships, he said, would go a long way toward restoring Apple to health, and none were more important than that with Microsoft. Saving Apple, he said, required getting beyond the insistence that for Apple to win Microsoft would have to lose. It was controversial but it was necessary.
And no application, from Microsoft, has been more important for the Mac's long-term survival than Microsoft Office. Ten years after that historic deal, Office for the Mac continues to be the best-selling piece of Mac software that doesn't come from Apple.
So it was a tad surprising that Apple announced on Aug. 7 a new version of its own office productivity software, dubbed iWork '08. Included in iWork, which will sell for $79, is a new application called Numbers, a spreadsheet application analogous to Microsoft Excel, but as with all things made for the Mac, Apple made it easier to use.
Previously, iWork had contained only Pages, a word-processing program comparable in many respects to Microsoft Word, and Keynote, a presentation program that is comparable to, but far better than PowerPoint. (Al Gore's infamous presentation that led to the film An Inconvenient Truth was created in Keynote, not PowerPoint, as many, including myself, have said.) Adding Numbers completed the circle.
The announcement from Apple also couldn't help but raise eyebrows in the wake of word from Craig Eisler, head of Microsoft's Mac Business Unit, on Aug. 2 that the software giant will delay the release of its next version of Office for the Mac until January, 2008. It was at least the second announced delay for that product. Apple's move in 2005 from using chips from IBM (IBM) and Freescale Semiconductor to using chips from Intel (INTC) apparently contributed to the delay, plus a shift in the file format that Microsoft uses for Office documents complicated the job of updating that program.
So, as of this week, Apple has its own office software suite that does more or less the same things, is compatible with Office, and sells for just a little more than half of Office's starting price of $149.
A Move Toward Google?
It's tempting to think that Microsoft may be in trouble on the Mac front. That's not the case yet, but it could be. The Microsoft Office brand is still, by far, the most powerful one when it comes to basic business software. Say what you will about all the many confusing versions of Office that Microsoft has put out for Windows, when you have a PC, you gotta have Office. And the same thing is true when you have a Mac.
But will that always be the case? Take Google (GOOG), the search giant that has its sights set on toppling Microsoft's dominance. Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt is an Apple director, as is its special advisor Al Gore. And there are deeper ties between Apple and Google (see BusinessWeek.com, 8/30/06, "Time for an Apple/Google Mashup").
Google's Web-based office applications, Google Docs and Spreadsheets, are free, easy to use, and compatible with Word and Excel. They also work on a Mac. To use them, all you need is a fast Internet connection and a browser.
And besides Google, others are creating Web-based office applications such as ThinkFree and Zoho, both of which are, like Google Docs and Spreadsheets, perfectly Mac-friendly.
Office Market Share
Should Microsoft be worried? Certainly not yet. I checked with Chris Swenson, an analyst with NPD Group, a market research firm that tracks retail software sales. What effect if any, has there been on sales of Office for the Mac in reaction to Google, Zoho, and ThinkFree? "None. Zero. Zip," he said. Microsoft Office for the Mac enjoys a market share in the neighborhood of 91%, while its nearest competitor is Apple's iWork, which comes in at 9%.
You would think that Mac users would be the one market niche desperate to resist the Microsoft-ifcation of everything. Well, there certainly are some resisters. Jobs said at the Apple event on Aug. 7 that the company has sold 1.8 million copies of previous versions of iWork over its lifetime. That's a fair number when you consider that Apple sold 5.3 million Macs during its fiscal year 2006, and has already sold 4.9 million during the first three quarters of fiscal 2007.
Yet what's the first thing many new Mac owners buy before they walk out of the store? A copy of Office for the Mac, usually the $149 student version that allows you to install the software on three machines. (Apparently, no one ever checks for student ID.)
So why does Apple bother with iWork? It must have more to do with something as simple as "offering choice to our users." Apple's core marketing appeal right now for the Mac is to two main groups of people: established Mac users and new users who may be switching from Windows (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/15/05, "Apple's Growing Bite Of The Market"). "Switchers," who are new to the Mac, may be computer novices or computer experts with varying levels of comfort with Microsoft Office and perhaps even a limited need for it. So iWork offers that consumer-friendly option that anyone can use, with Office compatibility thrown in.
IWork complements iLife, also updated on Aug. 7, the suite of consumer-grade applications like iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, all of which are for fun things like managing photos, making home movies, and creating music. So between iWork and iLife, Apple can say it has a complete range of "essential" software applications, and thus can ensure those "switchers" that they'll be able to do everything they need to do without Windows.
You might also ask why Microsoft bothers building Office for the Mac? Because its profitable. Practically everyone who owns a Mac buys Office at one time or another. Assuming everyone buys that $149 student version, you're looking at sales in the neighborhood of $800 million in 2006, and perhaps as much as a $1 billion this year, assuming a strong back-to-school quarter.
Backing Off of Mac
Yet Microsoft has been reducing its commitment to Mac software overall. Gone is VirtualPC, a Windows emulator made more or less obsolete by virtualization software from Parallels and VMWare (EMC), which, along with Apple's Boot Camp, allow Mac users to run Windows and Windows versions of Office on a Mac.
Gone is Windows Media Player for the Mac. It has been replaced by Telestream's Flip4Mac, which allows Windows Media files to played in Apple's QuickTime. Gone is Internet Explorer, Microsoft's Web browser, made irrelevant by Safari (now also available for Windows), Firefox, and Opera—and the general hostility of Mac users to Microsoft.
What's left? Microsoft Messenger, but most Mac users eschew it in favor of iChat, which supports both AOL's (TWX) instant messenger and GoogleTalk, or AdiumX, which supports more or less every instant-messaging scheme under the sun, including Microsoft's. There's Entourage, Microsoft's answer to Outlook for e-mail, calendaring, and so on, which can in most cases be replaced by Apple's freebie trio, iCal, Address Book, and Mail. You might think that Microsoft might get fed up with all these upstart competitors on the Mac, and walk away, focus on its core business, Windows—which, given the underwhelming reaction to Vista so far, seems to certainly need some attention.
Workplace Cred
But Apple still needs Microsoft, and especially Office, to remain on the Mac. Office gives the Mac the stamp of workplace respectability. Without it, sales into businesses would be all that much harder if only because customers will worry about compatibility issues with their PC-using vendors, customers, and so on. And that fact is only going to become more true as Microsoft migrates toward its new XML-based format. Expect some confusion to reign as more companies buy Office 2007 on Windows, while others languish behind on Office XP.
So why would Microsoft reduce its exposure to the Mac when the number of people using it is growing? Mac sales growth is ahead of the rest of the PC industry. So tell me where in the textbooks of business strategy does it say that the time to walk away from the market is when it's beginning to grow? If Microsoft is so passionate about the Mac, why is the Mac Business Unit down to producing one flagship application and a few others? That sounds to me like a great opportunity for Google. Perhaps the Cold War never really ended.
Google Completes Office Suite with PowerPoint Product
Rob Hof
Google CEO Eric Schmidt used his brief appearance at the Web 2.0 Expo today to announce the company this summer would add a PowerPoint editing tool to Google Apps, its Microsoft Office suite, with the help of Tonic Systems, a startup it just acquired. Oh wait, Schmidt says the still-to-be-named service isn't competitive with PowerPoint. To which interviewer John Battelle replies: "C'mon!" Indeed. Yes, Google Apps isn't a clone of Office, since it has only a fraction of the features and is aimed at collaboration. But still. Another stick in Microsoft's eye. I like Nick Carr's description of Google Apps:
You first use them as add-on tools for manipulating and sharing Microsoft files online, and then, eventually, you find that you don't need the underlying applications anymore. Google Apps, in other words, is designed not as an Office Killer but rather as a kind of Office Bodysnatcher. Google doesn't want to fight the Microsoft apps head-on. It wants to get inside them, and slowly take them over.
Speaking of Microsoft, Battelle asked Schmidt what he thought of Microsoft raising antitrust concerns about Google's just-announced deal to buy DoubleClick. "Microsoft?" Schmidt asked, his voice dripping irony. "AND AT&T?" His assessment: "They're wrong. C'mon, they're wrong, gimme a break."
Time for an Apple/Google Mash-up
The two titans are drawing closer together. If they would just combine their offerings, they'd pose a real threat to Microsoft
Today I've been thinking of a spot that those of a certain age will remember well: Two guys walking, one eating chocolate, the other, inexplicably eating peanut butter out of a jar. They bump, and the chocolate drops into the jar. The rest, of course, has become marketing history, summed up by the jingle for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups: "Two great tastes that taste great together."
Funny, the ad comes to mind in the wake of an announcement that Google (GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt is joining the board at Apple Computer (AAPL). It's the latest indication these two Silicon Valley stalwarts are getting closer all the time. And the possibilities for cooperation between the two are legion.
FAMILY TIES. The companies' interconnections are a study in six degrees of Silicon Valley separation. Former Vice-President Al Gore is an Apple director and senior advisor to Google. Intuit (INTU) Chairman Bill Campbell too is both an Apple director and Google advisor. And Genentech (DNA) CEO Arthur Levinson sits the boards of both companies.
The ties don't end there. Paul Otellini, CEO of chipmaker Intel (INTC), which supplies Apple's microprocessors, sits on Google's board. So does Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, an early Google investor who also wrote The Little Kingdom, a 1984 book on the founding of Apple. And who at Sequoia was an early investor in Apple? Founder Don Valentine. Sequoia partner Mark Kvamme also has a history with Apple, having served in management for its French operations. Kvamme's father, Floyd, is an emeritus partner at Kleiner Perkins and was once a VP of sales at Apple. Perkins is also home to John Doerr, an early Google investor and now one of its directors. He also happens to be a director at Intuit.
There are also several Google executives who have time at Apple on their resumes, and those were just the obvious ones listed on Google's executive bios page. I'm sure there are more and certainly plenty of folks at Apple who have spent time at Google.
REDMOND RIVALS. I ran through this litany for a reason: The ties that run between 1 Infinite Loop in Cupertino and the Googleplex in Mountain View are deep, and will only get deeper now that Schmidt is on Apple's board. It all makes me wonder what interesting things they could do together, not as a merged entity (though I admit the thought has occurred) but as closely allied partners.
Consider an element absent from the list. There's a conspicuous dearth of connections to Microsoft (MSFT), a common rival. For the first time in a long time, Apple's Macintosh computing platform has a shot at eroding, ever so slightly, the dominance of Windows as the computing platform of choice among rank-and-file consumers (see BusinessWeek.com, 6/15/06, "Apple's Growing Bite of the Market"). Over time, Macs with Intel chips, the ability to run Windows, the substantially smaller threat from viruses and spyware, and the iPod’s halo effect will combine to make the argument for owning a Mac much stronger among consumers who have never owned one before.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is readying a renewed offensive into territory that Apple currently controls: online music and media. Apple, I'm certain, is ready to respond to the competitive gauntlet, but could certainly use some additional strategic thinking. That's something Schmidt, himself a veteran of the Microsoft wars from his days at Sun Microsystems (SUNW), can provide.
MUTUAL BENEFITS. What else might they do together? The Mac is cool. So is Google. Look at all the interesting moves by Google of late. It has introduced GoogleTalk and Google Earth and acquired the Writely Web-based word processor. There's also Google Calendar, a new batch of hosted services.
Think of ways these and other Google tools could be made more Mac friendly. There's no official GoogleTalk client for the Mac, for instance, although Apple's iChat supports it, as does the Mac-based multiprotocol chat program Adium. And it took a while before users of Apple's Safari browser could log into Gmail accounts.
I love Google's applications, but am sometimes left wanting. Gmail, for instance, is great for its storage capacity, but its interface is weird. Help on that front from Apple would improve it greatly. Brilliant at interface design, Apple's often a little weak on features. A wide-ranging collaboration in these areas would work wonders on both sides. Tight OS-level integration with some of Google's best stuff could really widen the appeal of Leopard, the next version of Mac OS X.
.MAC MIGRATION? Meanwhile, Google is giving Mac users plenty of reasons to ditch their .Mac accounts. Why bother paying Apple $99 a year for services that Google offers for free—does better in the first place? Gmail offers essentially limitless e-mail storage (2.75 GB and growing, as of Aug. 30), while Mac.com e-mail starts at 1 GB and allows you to upgrade to 2 GB for an extra fee.
Meanwhile, as good as Apple's iCal may be, Google Calendar is pretty compelling, and supports the iCal standard anyway. Why not find a way to shift users of .Mac (Apple's dotmac blog says there are more than 1 million) over to Google-based services, and then team up with Google for further improvements?
Even if that doesn't happen, Google now has more reason than ever to make sure that every new application is Mac-ready. Take Writely, for instance. This free word processor is excellent, compatible with Microsoft Word, and completely Mac friendly. Since most Mac users buy Microsoft Office just so they can get their hands on Word, why not make a Writely sign-in an optional feature on .Mac, or a default bookmark on Safari? Same goes for Google Spreadsheets.
REMOTE PRESENTATION. Now I know Apple makes iWork, which includes Pages, its own word-processing application. Why not get Pages and Writely talking to each other, so you could create a document in Pages and automatically save it to your Writely account? And export your tables straight to Google Spreadsheets.
And don't forget Keynote, Apple's vastly superior answer to PowerPoint. Throw a Google-hosted virtual meeting service into the mix, and the possibilities are astounding. Let's call it Google Conference. Upload your Keynote presentation—fancy cuts, transitions, and all—to Google Conference, and deliver your presentation virtually, while talking into the iSight camera embedded in your Mac. Your audience could be thousands of miles away, while your video image and voice walk them through your brilliant slides from the comfort of your office. Google handles the back end, Apple handles the front end. Both show Microsoft a thing or two.
The thought of those peanut butter cups is getting more appealing all the time.
Ten Wonders of the New China
It's a hotbed of innovative architecture, from diaphanous theaters to buildings heated and cooled by water. China's current building boom is doing more than sucking up the world's supply of steel -- it's creating a stage for some of today's boldest architecture and engineering. Take a tour of the 10 of the most intriguing examples.
International Design
The Commune, BeijingFirst phase completed 2002, expansion scheduled for completion in 2010
Even if the Commune didn't sit beside that wonder of the ancient world, the Great Wall of China, it would still qualify as a wonder. The complex includes houses by 12 of Asia's leading architects. It was conceived by married real-estate developers Zhang Xin and Pan Shiyi, who gave each architect a $1 million budget. Shigeru Ban, the Japanese architect most famous for the paper houses he designed for refugees of the Kobe earthquake, designed the Furniture House, featuring the laminated plywood typically used for modular furniture, and China's Yung Ho Chang created the Split House, which takes the idea of a boxy dwelling, slices it in half, and spreads it out like a fan.
The Commune is now operated as a boutique hotel by the Germany luxury hotel group Kempinski, which is responsible for an upcoming expansion, which will feature 21 homes (including replications of the originals). One element will remain untouched in the new development: the Commune's private pedestrian trails, which trace untouched sections of the Great Wall.
Beijing International Airport, BeijingFoster & Partners. Under construction, to be completed in late 2007
According to the U.S. Embassy to China, the country will be building 108 new airports between 2004 and 2009 -- including what will be the world's largest: the Beijing International Airport, designed by Foster & Partners. Set to open at the end of 2007, in time for the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the airport terminal will cover more than 1 million square meters, giving it a bigger footprint than the Pentagon.
It's designed to handle 43 million passengers a year initially and 55 million by 2015, figures that will probably push the new facility into the ranks of the top 10 busiest airports, going by the 2004 numbers from the Airports Council International. Given the scale and traffic, Foster & Partners focused on the traveler's experience, making sure that walking distances are short, for instance.
Shanghai World Financial Center, ShanghaiKohn Pederson Fox Architects. Under construction, completion scheduled for 2008
Rising in the Lujiazhui financial district in Pudong, the Shanghai World Financial Center is a tower among towers. The elegant 101-story skyscraper will be (for a moment, at least) the world's tallest when completed in early 2008.
One of the biggest challenges of building tall is creating a structure that can withstand high winds. The architects devised an innovation solution to alleviate wind pressure by adding a rectangular cut-out at the building's apex. Not only does the open area help reduce the building's sway but it also will be home to the world's highest outdoor observation deck -- a 100th-floor vista that will take vertigo to new heights.
National Swimming Center, Beijing
PTW and Ove Arup. Under construction, completion scheduled for 2008
The striking exterior of the National Swimming Center, being constructed for the 2008 Olympic Games and nicknamed, the "Water Cube," is made from panels of a lightweight form of Teflon that transforms the building into an energy-efficient greenhouse-like environment. Solar energy will also be used to heat the swimming pools, which are designed to reuse double-filtered, backwashed pool water that's usually dumped as waste.
Excess rainwater will also be collected and stored in subterranean tanks and used to fill the pools. The complex engineering system of curvy steel frames that form the structure of the bubble-like skin are based on research into the structural properties of soap bubbles by two physicists at Dublin's Trinity College. The unique structure is designed to help the building withstand nearly any seismic disruptions.
Central Chinese Television CCTV, BeijingOMA/Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas. Under construction, scheduled for completion in 2008
The design of the new Central Chinese Television (CCTV) headquarters defies the popular conception of a skyscraper -- and it broke Beijing's building codes and required approval by a special review panel. The standard systems for engineering gravity and lateral loads in buildings didn't apply to the CCTV building, which is formed by two leaning towers, each bent 90 degrees at the top and bottom to form a continuous loop.
The engineer's solution is to create a structural "tube" of diagonal supports. The irregular pattern of this "diagrid" system reflects the distribution of forces across the tube's surface. Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Ole Scheeren and engineered by Ove Arup, the new CCTV tower rethinks what a skyscraper can be
Linked Hybrid, BeijingSteven Holl Architects; Li Hu, lead architect. Groundbreaking on December 28, 2005, scheduled for completion in 2008
Linked Hybrid, which will house 2,500 people in 700 apartments covering 1.6 million square feet, is a model for large-scale sustainable residential architecture. The site will feature one of the world's largest geothermal cooling and heating systems, which will stabilize the temperature within the complex of eight buildings, all linked at the 20th floor by a "ring" of service establishments, like caf?s and dry cleaners. A set of dual pipes pumps water from 100 meters below ground, circulating the liquid between the buildings' concrete floors.
The result: The water-circulation system serves as a giant radiator in the winter and cooling system in the summer. It has no boilers to supply heat, no electric air conditioners to supply cool. The apartments also feature gray-water recycling -- a process that's just starting to catch on in Beijing in much smaller buildings -- to filter waste water from kitchen sinks and wash basins back into toilets.
Dongtan Eco City, DongtanMasterplan by Arup, for the Shanghai Industrial Investment Corp. In planning stages, first phase to be completed in 2010
Developed by the Shanghai Industrial investment Corp., Dongtan Eco City, roughly the size of Manhattan, will be the world's first fully sustainable cosmopolis when completed in 2040. Like Manhattan, it's situated on an island -- the third-largest in China. Located on the Yangtze River, Dongtan is within close proximity of the bustle of Shanghai.
By the time the Shanghai Expo trade fair opens in 2010, the city's first phase should be completed, and 50,000 residents will call Dongtan home-sweet-sustainable-home. The goals to be accomplished in the next five years: systems for water purification, waste management, and renewable energy. An infrastructure of roads will connect the former agricultural land with Shanghai.
Olympic Stadium, BeijingHerzog & de Meuron. Under construction, to be completed in 2008
Sports stadiums have long followed the enduring design of one of the original wonders of the world, Rome's Coliseum. Herzog & de Meuron's National Stadium in Beijing is an attempt to rethink the classic sports-arena layout for more ecologically correct times.
The Swiss architects (of Tate Modern fame) wanted to provide natural ventilation for the 91,000-seat structure -- perhaps the largest "eco-friendly" sports stadium designed to date. To achieve this, they set out to create a building that could function without a strictly enclosed shell, yet also provide constant shelter for the audience and athletes alike.
To solve these design problems, they looked to nature for inspiration. The stadium's outer grid resembles a bird's nest constructed of delicately placed branches and twigs. Each discrete space within the facility, from restrooms to restaurants, is constructed as an independent unit within the outer lattice -- making it possible to encase the entire complex with an open grid that allows for natural air circulation. The architects also incorporated a layer of translucent membrane to fill any gaps in the lacy exterior.
Donghai Bridge, Shanghai/Yangshan IslandChina Zhongtie Major Bridge Engineering Group, Shanghai # 2 Engineering Co., Shanghai Urban Construction Group. Officially opened in December, 2005
A key phase in the development of the world's largest deep-sea port was completed when China's first cross-sea bridge -- the 20-mile, six-lane Donghai Bridge -- was officially opened in December, 2005. Stretching across the East China Sea, the graceful cable-stay structure connects Shanghai to Yangshan Island, set to become China's first free-trade port (and the world's largest container port) upon its completion in 2010.
To provide a safer driving route in the typhoons and high waves known to hit the region, Donghai Bridge is designed in an S-shape. The structure, reported by Shanghai Daily to have cost $1.2 billion, will hold its title of China's -- and one of the world's -- longest over-sea bridge for only a couple of years, though. In 2008, the nearby 22-mile Hangzhou Bay Transoceanic Bridge, which also begins (or ends, depending on your journey) in Shanghai, will earn the superlative.
National Grand Theater, BeijingPaul Andreu and ADP. Under construction, to be completed in 2008
Located near Tiananmen Square, the 490,485-square-foot glass-and-titanium National Grand Theater, scheduled to open in 2008, seems to float above a man-made lake. Intended to stand out amid the Chinese capital's bustling streets and ancient buildings, the structure has garnered criticism among Bejing's citizens for clashing with classic landmarks like the Monument to the People's Heroes (dedicated to revolutionary martyrs), the vast home of the National People's Congress, or Tiananmen Gate itself (the Gate of Heavenly Peace).
French architect Paul Andreu is no stranger to controversy -- or to innovative forms. A generation ago, in 1974, his untraditional design for Terminal 1 of Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport was criticized for its unusual curves, yet Andreu's groundbreaking, futuristic building later was seen to distinguish de Gaulle from more generic European and international air hubs. (The same airport's Terminal 2E, also designed by Andreu, gained attention in 2004 when it collapsed, tragically killing four people.)
Beijing's daring National Grand Theater is as much a spectacle as the productions that will be staged inside in the 2,416-seat opera house, the 2,017-seat concert hall, and the 1,040-seat theater. At night, the semi-transparent skin will give passersby a glimpse at the performance inside one of three auditoriums, a feature that highlights the building's public nature
What do I care for most deep down in life?
What do I care most deep down in life? was Aruns question to audience on ending note of his 2 hours session at Kirloskar Brothers Ltd office @ udyog bhavan.
Reached venue @ 5.10pm; Pratima was about to finish Introduction of Arun Maira (chairman boston consulting group, india); Arun started sharing his thoughts on todays topic of Innovations.
As this was a interactive session; to keep it that way he asked audience on what they think of as Innovations; Enterprenuership, areas audince would like to know more in todays ession. Plenty of questions came on How to make sure Innovations happen in traditional companies; How do deliverables processes and innoation coexist; how to get work out of ordinary people and so many.
As most of audience were engineering background; he started explaing Innovations with the second law of Thermodynamics, Evolution, and Probability.
After this it was a good talk on what organization consists of and healthy behavious all 4 attributes
After this it was issue with traditional thinking organizations and even Big Blue IBM and how sheer size kills motivated innovation within and market forces act on this organizations to reengineer them to make sure momentum is gained again.
Greek term 'Neotism'(holding onto your youth) on bell curve was discussed.
Also how most affected section on curve makes big deal about change and policies was talked about.
'Living Company' was discussed too.
Reached venue @ 5.10pm; Pratima was about to finish Introduction of Arun Maira (chairman boston consulting group, india); Arun started sharing his thoughts on todays topic of Innovations.
As this was a interactive session; to keep it that way he asked audience on what they think of as Innovations; Enterprenuership, areas audince would like to know more in todays ession. Plenty of questions came on How to make sure Innovations happen in traditional companies; How do deliverables processes and innoation coexist; how to get work out of ordinary people and so many.
As most of audience were engineering background; he started explaing Innovations with the second law of Thermodynamics, Evolution, and Probability.
After this it was a good talk on what organization consists of and healthy behavious all 4 attributes
After this it was issue with traditional thinking organizations and even Big Blue IBM and how sheer size kills motivated innovation within and market forces act on this organizations to reengineer them to make sure momentum is gained again.
Greek term 'Neotism'(holding onto your youth) on bell curve was discussed.
Also how most affected section on curve makes big deal about change and policies was talked about.
'Living Company' was discussed too.
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