Release of Apple TV may bring iPhoto for Windows
It was almost unthinkable that Apple would port one of their applications to Windows. I am of course talking about iTunes which made its debut for Windows way back in 2003. I remember that day well, the tag line on Apple’s homepage read “Hell froze over, iTunes for Windows.” Fitting and appropriate and I wouldn’t be surprised if it had frozen over.
Before iTunes on Windows there was MusicMatch with the iTunes plugin for Windows users who wanted to use an iPod. Apple did not tolerate that arrangement very long. History may be about to repeat itself if what has been said at Apple Matters comes to bear fruit (pun intended). It seems to be the ruling opinion over there that Apple will port iPhoto over to Windows because of the Apple TV.
What does Apple TV have to do with iPhoto? Well, current PC owners have to use Adobe PhotoShop Elements or Adobe Album on a PC to prepare their images for use with the AppleTV. How long will Apple tolerate us poor left out PC users stuck with using Adobe applications when the real gem is iPhoto.
I’ve been clamoring for iPhoto on Windows since I do use a Mac occasionally and I like iPhoto, it’s simple, effective and does everything most people need it to do. The closest you can come to iPhoto on Windows right now is Picasa but it’s just not the same.
If Apple does for some reason port iPhoto over to Windows because of the Apple TV it benefits not just Apple TV owners but everyone unless they require you to enter your Apple TV serial code as authentication before you download iPhoto, who knows, I tend to doubt very much Apple would do something like that.
On the other hand this would mean that two of their core iLife applications are now available to PC owners which could go one of two ways, it could backfire and make potential switchers stay on the PC side or it could encourage switching because people will want to get the whole Apple instead of just two slices of it.
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April 19th, 2007
Interesting thought. We all know that iTunes was ported over to sell more iPods. Now that there is (sorta) a piece of hardware you can bundle with iPhoto in the Apple TV, it may make sense.
If this does happen then it will be the biggest and most direct sign that Apple is completly moving to be a consumer electronics company that happens to make the world’s best software. They will no longer be a computer company.
What would be next? Apple selling OS X for any old PC or would they port the Pro apps to Windows?
April 19th, 2007
I do think Apple is moving towards a consumer based electronics company more… but I do not think they will move away from computers. They will be a computer company that happens to make consumer electronics.
As for selling OSX for any old PC, that is not likely to happen. That would give OSX some of the same problems that Windows has, crashes caused by drivers, hardware compatibility issues and so on. All Macs basically use all the same hardware, this allows Apple to tightly control the code that goes into OSX they would not have that control if they sold OSX on any old PC.
Of course they could go to have a system whereby OSX could be preinstalled on a PC through an authorized builder (like Dell). A similar strategy was tried back in the late 90s, it failed. But they might have more success with it now.
I’m just going to sit around and see what happens.
October 5th, 2007
Free Software Downloads
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article, but it sounds interesting