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Summary: Above is a diagram of Apple’s software niches. Apple’s practice of producing equivalent consumer and professional applications suggests they may pursue professional versions of iWeb or iTunes. Their audio focus suggests a professional podcast, live radio, or live performance package. Their video focus suggests videocasting, video workflow, scriptwriting, or storyboarding. The Mac platform also has relatively limited 3D offerings that Apple may want to address.
Apple’s software offerings focus on the Creative market, as a strategy to make the Mac an excellent platform for creation and organization of any media. Apple has only a few software offerings, such as Filemaker, that don’t fit squarely in this model. The above diagram explores their strategy, and this article speculates on what future development Apple might pursue within this strategy.
At the top of the diagram are various software and input devices that create media. In the middle are listed the software packages that edit and organize media (some of the “creation” tools could also be placed in the middle as “edit” tools). At the bottom are the various output devices, and a couple pieces of software that are specifically designed to view the output (Safari and Front Row). Apple software is shown in green boxes and some 3rd-party software in orange boxes. In many cases, but not all, Apple has introduced new software that filled niches that weren’t served well by 3rd-party solutions, such as iPhoto. In other cases, such as the Final Cut Studio suite, Apple directly competes with existing software offerings. What interests me most about this diagram is the question of what new software Apple will introduce.
Comprehensiveness
Apple appears to be developing software primarily to ensure that the Mac platform has all its bases covered in terms of supporting all media and supporting an end-to-end workflow, from initial recording of media to final output of creative works. Their digital hub strategy ensured that the vast majority of digital input and output devices would work with their system. They also focus on an integrated approach that considers hardware, OS support, application software, online tools, and services -- the iPod/iTunes/iTMS solution being the most obvious and complete example.
While Apple creates some software to fill holes that 3rd parties aren’t adequately servicing, such as iPhoto and iMovie, they’ve sometimes created software that aggressively competes with other developers, Final Cut Pro being the most obvious example. What new areas will they choose to expand into?
iText, i3D, and iAnimate. The biggest advantage of creating software for new types of media is the ability to integrate it with their other existing software. For instance, the Media palette at right, which exists in some form throughout the iLife suite, is a great scrapbook of media, but it is noticeably missing text media, and so there may be great benefit to eventually creating an “iText” application for collecting scraps of text. Perhaps 3D and animation would also be logical media types.
Professional Equivalents
Apple has a number of examples where they have created equivalent consumer and pro software, and a logical direction for them to go is to fill in the obvious holes where they have a consumer or pro app but not the corresponding pro or consumer app.
iWeb Pro. The most obvious recent example came with the introduction of iWeb, the consumer web page editor. Macs are a popular platform for web developers, and it makes a lot of sense for Apple to introduce a professional web development tool, especially if they can capitalize on their audio, video, and photo tools.
iTunes Pro. I’ve always imagined Apple would develop other software that would complement iTunes, and one obvious area is to create an “iTunes Pro” app that incorporated all the fancy features musicians, audiophiles, and other obsessed music collectors want. It would enable Apple to raise more revenue toward iTunes development and give them even greater differentiation from iTunes competitors, while enabling the basic iTunes to stay focused on mainstream consumer needs without the clutter of niche features. I know I’d buy it.
iTunes Pro Store. Once the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) introduced video in addition to music, it begged the question of what other media they might start selling. Photos were the obvious idea, but really, how often do consumers want stock photos? My bet is that the iTMS will next move into selling games. But it would make sense for Apple to open up a separate store specifically designed for creative professionals. An iTunes Pro Store could sell fonts, clipart, stock photos, audio loops, and audio and video effects.
Audio & Music Market
Podcaster Pro. I’ve been a bit surprised at Apple’s pace in creating music software. I had been expecting them to create software specifically for podcasters, but then they decided to integrate podcast creation into GarageBand. Still, a logical next step would be to develop a Podcaster Pro app. I imagine it targeted to professionals in the radio broadcasting industry, and it would focus on integrating live broadcast radio and internet streaming radio with podcasting. Features might include scheduling, rights tracking, live queue up, and podcast archiving.
Performance & Rehearsal Software. I also imagined Apple would go after the largest markets for audio software. I imagine there’s a role for live performance software. Also, I have no doubt that software for learning and rehearsal would have a huge market in secondary and higher education.
Video Market
3D Professional Software. Apple has a very complete suite of solutions in video. In movie production, their most glaring weakness is that Apple produces no 3D graphics tools, and the 3D software industry appears to favor the Windows platform. As Hollywood shifts to 3D, I see this as the biggest threat to Apple’s dominance in video software. Up to now, I saw a huge conflict of interest in this regard: Pixar sells 3D software, and Steve Jobs would be in a very awkward position if Apple started competing with Pixar. But has this situation changed with Disney’s acquisition of Pixar? 3D seems like an obvious area that Apple could tremendously excel in.
Screenwriting, Storyboarding, Videocasting, and Workflow. What other video applications might be logical to develop? A good, clean scriptwriting tool would make sense with Final Cut Pro integration -- imagine filming to the script and being able to line them up on the timeline. I only wonder whether the market for scriptwriting tools is large enough. Storyboarding is also a big area, though I wonder if Final Cut already serves the needs of storyboarders well. Just as I suggested supporting radio broadcasters, I can imagine Apple creating a nice professional tool for video broadcasters that supported live video broadcasts, online streaming video, and video podcasts. Finally, I’d suggest software to support the video workflow, especially sharing video between separate locations, such as the edit room, various on-site film crews, and supporting animation and effects houses. Such a tool could, for example, share realtime preview clips while scheduling full-resolution transmission for overnight periods.
Neglected Media
Not all creative domains command enough of a market to justify software development, and I don’t expect Apple to introduce iDance, for instance.
Fonts. An example of a small market that they should care about at least a bit is fonts. FontBook is a nice tool, but confusing and very limited, and it doesn’t seem well-supported in other applications. Apple’s standard font palette is incredibly inefficient and much worse than font selection previous to OS X. A lot of work needs to happen there, and building a professional font application might be part of the story.
Major competitors in drawing, animation, and publishing. Adobe and Quark dominate the creative markets for design and illustration, animation, and professional publishing. Apple essentially has nothing in those domains, and it’s not clear that it would be wise for them to enter the domains with weaker products that might get Adobe or Quark to drop the Mac platform. Nevertheless, since these markets are dominated by Adobe and Quark, Apple is fairly vulnerable to them, and as such, it may be wise for them to have some products in development in case they need to create a compelling offering on the Mac platform. One approach is to develop “unrelated” software that ensures they have the expertise and technologies and that might slowly encroach on these domains. For instance, Pages is a consumer-end publishing tool and has some drawing features that might be expanded on. Motion does animation, though not for the Web, but at least gets Apple in that direction.
iPaint. I honestly don’t understand why Apple, creator of MacPaint, doesn’t have a consumer drawing program at all. I can imagine it being developed for iWork. Apple could easily create a fun and innovative drawing program.
Conclusion
With all these possibilities in mind, I’d say that a pro version of iWeb is the most likely application that Apple has in the works. A pro version of iTunes is probably the most marketable idea of all of these. And strategically, I’d strongly suggest that Apple enter the 3D professional software business as a way of continuing their tradition of great creative software while guarding against any erosion in their video software business.
Links to this article:
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‣MacDailyNews “Where might Apple go next in their software strategy?” has a lot of reader feedback to this article.
Follow-up to this article:
Apple creative & media ecosystem
Saturday, July 22, 2006
