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Even if these apps could get internal mindshare, sustaining development flies in the face of internal review and reward practices.
That said, I think you left out some really useful Microsoft services that don't (as far as I know) have equivalents from Apple: Live Sync (formerly FolderShare), Mesh, and Zune Social. The first two actually work really well.
I've used Sync extensively for syncing oft-used files on multiple computers, making work files available for telecommuting without RAS/VPN access, and even for creating real-time off-site backups of personal files. Mac client, too, BTW.
Mesh is similar, and the poor differentiation between Mesh and Sync confuses a lot of people. But it works well as an ad-hoc file sharing system. My work group used it to share production files between vendors in NY, OR, and India. Not perfect, but quick and easy when we needed it.
Zune Social, in conjunction with Zune Pass, has a lot of potential that E&D really failed to deliver on. I should be able to suggest songs and share playlists more easily (which would instigate more people to get the pass for access to all those songs). There should be easier discoverability for friends. There should be better integration with social networks. All of these have the potential for building up a Zune network effect and self-priming marketing.
But really, what's needed is a Live Writer equivalent for Mac OS and iPhone. How powerful of a blow would that be against Windows?
Microsoft needs to dedicate more people to incubation projects. Songsmith may not get much respect, but it's a marvelously fun product and example of what more should come.
What you're proposing by saying a 3rd party developer should clone iLife is a gargantuan task - you would need a software house with extensive experience in audio, video, image and web content processing and creation. The closest fit i can think of is Adobe and even they would need to catch up or acquire audio technology. Who else is there that i'm missing, other than Apple obviously...?
Unrealistic technical expectations aside, a smaller software developer would probably also be loathed to sink millions of RnD/acquisition dollars into an area that's such an obvious candidate for a Microsoft software suite to appear and promptly send you bankrupt.
On the Windows side, most programs are measured in terms of the number of features. These look good on paper but don't have the ease and elegance of the iLife applications.
The benefit to iLife in my opinion are the ability to do something in one app and they easily export or import by another app to do other editing or stuff...
How about this scenario on the Windows. Microsoft create the dashboard with workflow hook enviroment, standardize it and allows Pinnacle Home Studio (movie), Adobe Photoshop Element (picture) and other media related tools from 3rd party to hook up to this suite which can be sold for X amount of dollars. Within that bundled, it will allow work 'seamlessly' through some kind of export or import mechanism through the dashboard enviroment, sort of like a bridge.
3rd party suite just need to hook it up to the standard and Microsoft can simple work that out and decide on the variation of the suite. Get OEM manufacturer to bundle that with every Windows 7 or later machine... It's tested, it's integrated and it's working right out of the box for customer. Everyone company in those bundled suite benefits by the volume of sales.
Updates to the application should be through that dashboard. I don't know how feasible is that or how complicated it would be... but that certainly leave the experts like Adobe and Pinnacle to get their entry level suite out to as many home user as possible. Advance tools should be not hurt by this as the features are obviously lacking on those entry level tools, which are by the way very polish.
Will it work?
New stuff from that are is Photo Pro Tools. from MS Research there is also Photo Collage
Live Writer is indeed a GEM that also accept Plugins. i use 10 of them in WLW and its just marvelous. Blogo for the mac or Zoundry Raven are a very distant second place compared to WLW.
Windows Live Movie Maker final will be launched with Windows Live Wave 4 as i was supposed to be Project Monaco (garage band equivalent) but it think the later may not arrive until wave 5. i have no clue what other thing they will include with WLS wave 4.
Windows DVD Maker is the way it is because of two things that Microsoft will not risk on:
1.-AntiTrust
2.-Anti Competitive Behavior with competing Products and with Partners..
DVD Maker existence alone was damn struggle as i understand, it was meant to be more powerful actually but Microsoft backtracked because of the reasons above.
The very same happened with OneCare and even if it was a EXCELLENT product that had a low cost of 1 to 1.5 dollars per computer a month for a suite that did everything and that once set the user had to do nothing for a entire year. they were forced to back out of the market by force via its antitrust overseeing, OEMS and Security companies
there is Lifecam Show but you forgot that there is a complementing service called Live Video Messages.that is meant as complement of lifecam show
There is also the omission of DeepZoom Composser from Expression.
Live Mesh and Live Sync as already stated by other commenter.
And yes WLS IS MEANT to be the iLife and Google Desktop Services from Microsoft. but it has a project road path of 5 Waves in order to get to what it is supposed to be the finished Rooster of software offerings.
Does this post indicate that you might regret dumping the Macs?
P.S. Did you try Dell Mega Picture Video Storage Library? I don't hear great reviews but it might be worth a shot if you are stuck.
I made a choice of hardware applications, where Windows PC features met needs Macs don't. My Sony VAIO wasn't a cheap purchase, costing around $1,900 as a discounted outgoing model. It wasn't a price choice. The Z590 offers much better screen resolution, integrated Sprint modem and other features I couldn't get from Apple in a notebook of this size and weight.
For my daughter, she had used a loaner MacBook that I planned to send back, and Apple asked returned after I was laid off from eWEEK seven weeks ago. I found her a comparable Sony laptop, and pink, for about $500 less than the MacBook she used. However, if the $1,199 MacBook Pro had been available then, I would have paid the extra hundred bucks for it. She was accustomed to the Mac and using iLife. But I didn't have that option two months ago.
For me, Windows 7 precipitated the switch. Windows 7 achieves an acceptable level of performance and stability so that I can just work, rather than waste time troubleshooting glitches. Most of the applications I use either run fine on Windows, or there are Windows equivalents close to Mac applications (like Adobe Lightroom swapped for Apple Aperture) or I use a Web-based app or service.
There are many things I miss about the Mac. Do I have major regrets? No. Will I when Snow Leopard ships? We'll see.
I will say this about Windows applications: Email client selection sucks, and Microsoft deserves blame for that. I've used many, many email clients over the years, and Outlook is at the bottom of the pile. Unfortunately, Outlook's market success--pushed on by businesses running Exchange--made the pile smaller. There are few good choices left. I'll soon be taking all my email, and much of everything else I do, to the cloud. But that's topic for a future blog post.
you also have the choice to use Windows Live Mail or outlook alternatives like Evolution or even Thunderbird or Zimbra Desktop.
Where are the Windows equivalents of these applications?
Garage Band - Great for recording podcasts, I don't think that there is anything which is as easy to use on Windows. Even you borrowed your wife's Mac to record your last audio podcast.
iMovie - I think you have proven there is no competitor on Windows.
Time Machine - Windows Backup and Volume Shadow Copy are nowhere near Time Machine in their usability or backup capability. The registry is still a thorny issue.
Proper user privileges - Both Mac and Linux have proper account separation and the applications are designed with this in mind so you rarely see a password dialog. Windows just uses a placebo to make it look like it is secure when UAC is nothing to do with security.
Web Browser - IE8 is junk, to get a good browsing experience on Windows you have to install a third-party browser which lacks the integration of IE8. Doesn't it seem strange to you that Microsoft cannot write a decent browser?
Which applications did you want when you bought all of the Windows PCs? Your answer did not mention applications at all (except Windows 7 which is not really an application). Otherwise how do you justify your statement that people buy applications?
P.S. All email clients are broken, email is broken. Once you are in the cloud you might start looking at Google Wave for your blogging and communication. The demo looked very cool for bloggers.
I don't think Microsoft needs iLife for Windows anymore than Apple needs Live Essentials for Mac. What I think the real question should be, is why doesn't Apple include a series of short and simple games for the Mac? Do they not realize how important Solitaire and Mine Sweeper are to Windows users? But no. All Apple offers is Chess. So if I have an hour or two to spare, I can pull that up. Nothing beats a good, quick game of FreeCell, and that's why Windows has 95% market share.
I enjoy playing Bejeweled 2 Deluxe on my Macs, very nice indeed.
Your point remains though (if the initial assumptions were right).
Microsoft has 88% of the market.
70% of the market is Enterprise computing.
OS X and Linux have 12% of the market
So my figures of 18% vs 12% remain.
the funny thing is the whole story of OneCare.. i already detail part of it. but before the whole struggle started it was starting to do better in retail channels and it also began to get ahead of all free av and basic home solutions. OneCare is still the engine of security for Hotmail and there going to be OneCare for small businesses, server and for WHS that never went to be. i hope that they allow installing of Microsoft Security for those scenarios now.
The biggest loss in Microsoft Security is for XP and Vista since it don't comes with managed firewall.
Windows Advisor(beta) is what was supposed to replace the part of onecare that did tune ups and it also meant as a way to resolve conflicts for XP.. it has not been updated.. so who knows if it is still going to be released.
But as i said OneCare 2.5 was just awesome. really sad to see it go all because of symantec, mcfee and OEM's pressure (since symantec and mcfee paid a lot to bundle trails with new machines)
But as i also said. just they being able to make DVD maker does what it does was a fight since that is another market with lots of OEM money and Companies like nero, roxio, windvd, etc,etc. that is how things are unfortunately.
I still find 18% vs 12% in home computing is unrealistic. You assume that 100% of enterprise computing is on Windows (the 70% is a subset of the 88%), but I don't think that's true. And if that's the case, then the 18% becomes larger and the 12% becomes smaller.
And all Enterprise computing is not entirely Windows, but I would imagine that both Linux and OS X would find it hard to stretch to 1% worldwide given the numbers involved.