What Company Should Apple Buy Next?

[Salvo]

Originally Posted by cellfish

Corel is a good idea for a purchase, and they seriously need to be exclusive to one market because they seriously aren't cutting it on the PC. Corel is trying to move into the Linux 'market', but how much money can you seriously make with WordPerfect on a platform that gives OpenOffice away for free?

The last time I used WordPerfect for Linux, It was such utter Crap, I immediately uninstalled it. For a background, I used to use WP Suite 7 and 8 in Windows, before Switching to Linux, and loved it. I hated having to use WinWord 6 or 95, since it didn't support "Reveal Codes" due to a design Flaw in the Word Document format.

Originally Posted by cellfish

Corel has decent graphics applications (Corel Painter being one of them) that OS X could use more frequent updates of and Corel Office is pretty darned good and it would be cool if that would be Apple's replacement for the (excuse the language) shitty Appleworks suite. Corel could sell its own PhotoPaint to replace Photoshop if ever Adobe decided that the Mac is no longer a profitable market. PhotoPaint isn't fantastic like Adobe's product, but it would definitely be a decent temporary alternative in a worst-case scenario.

One of my Clients deals in Promotional Goods. Everyone on the Consumer Level of Graphic Design Professionals in that industry uses CorelDRAW and PHOTO-PAINT rather than Illustrator or Photoshop. At AU$600 for the Suite, rather than AU$1200 each, it's the obvious choice. They get AI's and PSD's from their Designers and email then to me to convert.

Originally Posted by cellfish

I think Apple users would embrace the purchase of Corel because Apple users love to root for the underdog in general.

And Unlike Corel WP for Linux, Apple WordPerfect for Mac would be ported properly.

[Salvo]

I still think they should've bought Be Inc, but Palm beat them to it.
Palm got back what they paid for Be when the Be vs MS Court Case was Settled, and also got all the Be Engineers. They are now just sitting on the BeOS codebase and patents
When Palm go bust (hey, they dropped support for MacOS X, so it won't be long now) what is going to happen to these Developers and the Code they created?

[mi5moav]

How would Apple benefit buy buying IBM's consumer desktop laptop division? The world of work and play combined at last into a single company that lets you be in control. Black and White the yin and yang destiny at last. For $1 to $2 Billion someone is going to buy this up quickly.

[diablojota]

Why would they buy a PC maker company? Makes no sense. Doesn't fit in with their business model. Besides, OS X is not running on intel/amd anyway.

Not a chance. They would not gain much by buying it.

[AdmiralAK]

Wave 1 --. aquire SGI - take over it's market's and integrate the good IRIX parts into OS X

Wave 2 ---> Aquire Palmsource and it's BeOS and Palm intelectual propertu rights, get into PDA and Smartphone markets

Wave 3 --> strategic Allicance with Motorola and PalmOne

Wave 4 --> Aquire Roxio and their music business - make a better burner

Wave 5 --> ????

[aicul]

Microsoft is experiencing the same kind of thing now... they make alot of different products that are all bleeding the company and the only thing that brings in money are office and windows.

Back in the mid-90s, Lotus went through the same craze when they bought companies to make their SMARTSUITE (that was everything but smart). They ended-up being bought by IBM and only CORE business remains: Lotus Notes.

If I cannot propose a shopping list to Apple, I can suggest that they "finish" off their products for a starter. Here are some ideas:

iPhoto should support all media types that my digital camera can make. This includes short movies and sound recordings.

The new iMac should be shipped defacto with a bluetooth mouse and keyboard. Why make such a stylish product to have clumsy cables on the desk?

.MAC accounts should be more than 256Mb for the $100 cost. Yahoo eMail offers as much for free.

Configuring Macs with only 256Mb RAM is a joke. If you plan to use iLife, or any other graphics programs this is LOW.

A TV tuner should be included in all Macs

etc..

[fryke]

I second the thought of buying one of the big game makers. Atari would be funny, somehow.

I also second the TV tuner suggestion in the post above mine... *sigh* Apple's all about media, but a TV tuner's a no-go?

Apple's printers... Well: They went out of the printer business at the right time - maybe even a bit too late. Printers are dirt cheap nowadays and the business only makes sense if you also control the cartridge business. And I don't see Apple creating 'yet-another-cartridge' or people actually _buying_ an Apple printer that only takes Apple cartridges.

Apple _should_ think about mobile phones more. iSync wasn't the great thing. They're always a step behind. Newest mobile phones? Not supported. People here switch mobile phones on a yearly basis, because with a new contract, they get a new phone. Now: That new phone is probably only supported by iSync in the last three months before people get rid of them again in order to get a new one.
Now if iSync were kept more up to date (work with those guys, Apple! SonyEricsson, Motorola, palmOne, Nokia...) or if Apple would finally make up its mind and create _the_ mobile phone (iPhone, whatever...) to end the mobile phone wars... They could buy Nokia, for example.

[Ceroc Addict]

Apple should buy Archos

It would remove one of the few companies making a decent PVP (AV 500) from the market and gives Apple a big leg up towards creating their own portable video player.

Originally Posted by fryke

or if Apple would finally make up its mind and create _the_ mobile phone (iPhone, whatever...) to end the mobile phone wars... They could buy Nokia, for example.

I agree, but I think they should buy palmOne. This removes the Treo 650 (or rather, it's successors) from the market and Apple can create a Treo-like iPhone (step one: add a hard drive).

Kap