Apple Extends Its Reach [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]
I finally think, ÒI get itÓ.
If iSynch works as advertised, then to me, a subscription to .mac would be worth TWICE its $99 annual price.
To be able to synch to my cell phone, synch to my Palm Pilot, synch calendars between my work and home computers (and my wife's computer and my children's in other states!) and backup my own computer to a remote site are all critical activities. To do these activities through a single, easy-to-use application is an absolute Godsend.
In fact, the most important part of a PDA, cell phone, iPod or any other mobile device is its ability to communicate home. The Òsecret sauceÓ is the synching capability!!! Communication between devices and some remote storage is where the real power comes from.
Scott McNealy has insisted for a long time ÒThe network is the computerÓ. For my personal devices, ÒSynching is the SystemÓ.
Let Sony-Erickson build the phone, let Palm/Handspring build the PDA. Let Apple provide my Òall-in-one-place personal address bookÓ and give me "one-button-hub-synch" to all my personal mobile devices, independent of manufacturer, and they have made my life much simpler. The common address book and synch, used locally on my system and over the intranet with other systems, are the missing link foundation for the critical applications in my system.
I hope that someone (Third Party? Apple?) Makes a product that will easily synch the address book in Microsoft Office v.X to the new centralized Apple Address Book. This one-last-little connection app is really necessary for anyone that wants to use one or two selected modules in the Microsoft Office suite, but not all of them. I like Word and PowerPoint. With an alternative to MicrosoftÕs proprietary address book and inter-suite communications protocol, I can easily choose other best-of-breed modules like Mail and Omniweb for my Òcustomized-office-suite-of-choiceÓ. But, I do want all the applications to communicate. I still have to connect in the parts of Office that I do choose to use. So, I still need this one-last-little connection app.
Bottom line: the Apple Address Book and iSynch, both with open APIs, are the solvent that removes the otherwise lock-in Microsoft Office Suite glue. As a Mac user, I am excited about this newfound freedom from the Òall-or-nothingÓ approach of the Microsoft Office suite on the Mac.
Similarly, some PC users must be similarly thrilled with the just-introduced Move2Mac software. Move2Mac provides PC users converting from Windows to Mac OS X an easy way to move preferences and data.
Mov2Mac and iSynch are solvents for Microsoft lock-in glue.
Wow! What a brilliant strategy for Apple. They have made me, the user happy, they have asserted their own control of inter-application communication on the Mac OS X platform vis-[radical]-vis Microsoft, and both the Address Book and synch have open APIs, so other independent software developers can take advantage of the new hub capabilities.
The iSynch announcement completely upstages Microsoft's announcement of a synch-to-Palm upgrade to Entourage that Microsoft hurriedly announced the week before Mac World New York.
I donÕt need the Entourage upgrade if I can synch to Palm using iSynch. No wonder Kevin Browne of Microsoft is POed. He's been surrounded by iSynch.
And, selling iPod software for the PC is also great strategy. This move, too, is probably not too popular with Microsoft.
Congratulations Apple. Great job!
7:57:00 PM 
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