Today, as you’ve probably read everywhere, Apple has officially announced that
Tiger will be unleashed
on the 29th April 2005. We all know how revolutionary this new operating system
is going to be as it will further improve users’ computing experiences.
Let’s hope that you are ready for the new era and will not get caught off guard. There’s a segment of the Mac software development industry that I feel greatly for: those involved in desktop search.
Ever since the desktop search mania, the major developers have been launching numerous applications for the Windows operating system and they of course ignored the Mac marketplace as they consider it to small to bother with. Mac software developers jumped on the “missed opportunity†to cater to Mac users.
However,
until today none of them have created enough momentum to seriously contend with
Tiger’s imminent Spotlight.
Spotlight has the obvious advantage to be part of the OS 10.4 operating system
but it will also benefit greatly from the publicity that its launch is going
to generate.
In other words, those involved in Mac desktop search software development are in for rough time.
Now that I have given you the hard harsh reality of the forthcoming situation what can these software developers do to stay in the game?
Forget about competing directly with Spotlight. In other words: attempting to market the application as the ultimate desktop search for the Macintosh environment. To stand a chance in the game, they must figure out a way to specialize in on of the features that Spotlight will offer.
For instance, I read that Spotlight will be able to find text in PDF file,
a job that even Adobe Acrobat does not do perform well IMHO. I don’t know how
well Spotlight will perform but if a development house or individual came up
with a Mac software that *only* does PDF files search (and does it very
well of course), it would have more of a chance of survival (sales) than an
overall Mac desktop search software attempting to go head to head with Spotlight.
Yes, this may sound simple but that how small software firms should wage war with big established companies or worse the operating system maker. Goliath’s life was over after David’s single and simple stone throw. Not bad from a little guy who was fighting an armor-dressed giant!
The message to Mac desktop search software developers is that all hope is not lost. You just need to change your strategy to survive the arrival of the Tiger. Good luck!
