Eudora Going OSS

[Ashley Aitken]

I think we would all agree that Apple want's core apps to have a real  
MacOSX look and feel with deep integration.

I think this may be a problem for non-Apple developers though.

For large software companies (like Adobe and Microsoft) they need to  
chase a larger market and hence need to be cross platform.  Adobe  
seems to have dropped the ball in this regard but, as Scott  
mentioned, they may have assumed there would only be one dominant  
platform going forward (and I guess there still mostly is).   
Microsoft seems to have done pretty well though, with Microsoft  
Office (mostly in Look and Feel, less with regards to the bloat and  
deep integration with OSX).  So it is quite a big ask for a cross  
platform development organisation to really customise and integrate a  
cross-platform application into a minority (in terms of market share)  
operating system.

For small software companies, a few developers, it is also  
problematic because how can they compete with the resources that  
Apple has, the inside information, and the leverage with the rest of  
the OS that Apple's custom application developers have.  Look at  
Camino, it had a pretty good MacOSX Look and Feel, but lacked deeper  
integration, probably because of a lack of resources and some insider  
access to Apple's new APIs etc (of course, they had access to  
anything that other MacOSX developer had).  I don't think smaller  
companies can really compete with Apple, even if they had some  
radical ideas for core apps because of these factors.

So that leaves mid-sized software companies, like Omnigroup perhaps.   
They have done really well with apps that have a real MacOSX look and  
feel and deep integration, but then they need to charge for their Web  
browser etc.

Just some thoughts.

Cheers,
Ashley.

PS  Delicious Monster with Delicious Library have shown that small  
software companies can produce amazing Mac apps, but then that is  
quite a niche product.

--
Ashley Aitken
Perth, Western Australia
mrhatken at mac dot com
Skype Name: MrHatken (GMT + 8 Hours!)