# What Company Should Apple Buy Next?



## Clie (Jul 24, 2003)

MacCentral is commenting on an article "Apple's Music Lessons" written by David Zeiler (full rticle ://www.sunspot.net/technology).
The gist of the article is that Apple is diversifying via digital media, no new news there. Let me offer what I think should happen next.

If Apple wants to drive more consumers to it's hardware. It should provide audible and video media. The first step would be to buy Audible.com.  I know they have a business relation that allows audible.com downloads to iPods but I think there's room for more. Such a move would be the stepping off point to more grander schemes.

In my quest for the digitial hub of nervanna, I'd love to be able to program a device that gathered the news and entertainment media that I wanted and not have that decision made for me by some media conglomerate, think of a Tvio for video, internet, and audible media. I think such a device will be marketed by Apple at some point in the future. The benefit to producing such a device for Apple is to own the means of producing some of the content the device would use. 

Currently Apple owns some very effective media creation tools but very little content. I think Apple is uniquely positioned to provide the platform, tools, and the content. Audible.com is the audible media provider, Apple would then need to acquire the video equivilant. The execution of this strategy would deplete some of that cash they're hording but it would also drive up hardware sales and increase market share. 

There's my 2 cents. ::ha::


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## serpicolugnut (Jul 24, 2003)

I think Apple should make two purchases, in seperate fields...

First off, they should buy Roxio. Roxio will be entering the online music biz with a revamped Napster, and will probably be Apple's biggest competition (outside of MS, whenever they decide to jump in to the fray). In a Roxio purchase, Apple would also get the excellent Toast software, which sells quite well on the Mac. Also, they get a whole crop of Windows programs for burning, video and dvd creation. Roxio has the lions share of the CD burning software market on the PC, and Apple could effectively control that. Apple would also get some great engineers who could assist in bringing iTunes to Windows...

The other purchase I believe Apple should make is in Silicon Graphics. SG would get Apple in the door in some high end creative markets that Apple has been lusting after for some time. Merging together the best parts of both Apple and SG would produce a 3D powerhouse company. Apple would also get Alias Wavefront's Maya out of this deal, which would be huge.  With Maya, FCP, and Shake, Apple would have a pro digital content creation lineup second to none...

Of course, it's all just wishful thinking....


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## Randman (Jul 24, 2003)

I agree with Serpi. And while I think audible.com has some great stuff, I wonder if Amazon has a stake in it since they're now linked as well.
  I'd also like to see Apple take over Real.


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## Arden (Jul 28, 2003)

Apple should buy Adobe!  No... 

I think Apple should buy Real and disband it.  It's a horrible media player that is incompatible with anything else.

Apple should buy BuyMusic.com so they can get rid of their greatest yet crappy competitor to the Music Store.  Then they could market it the way it should be.


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## Decado (Jul 28, 2003)

Apple should buy Microsoft 
No seriously, i think they should buy id Software and/or Atari (infogrames). Some mayor PC game producer anyway. And then make every release both pc and mac compatible (so you could buy your mac games everywhere)


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## chevy (Jul 28, 2003)

If someone kills Real, it will be Microsoft. No need for Apple to bother.

I don't see Apple doing the content... I may be wrong.

But Apple could remarket more of the peripherals, and not limit itself to iPod, screens, keyboards and mice. Why no graphic tablets, cameras (oh yes, they have on fixed one, but why not a portable one), headsets (they tried with loudspeakers, why not continue). And later PDAs, cell phones.... (Newtons ?).... 
watches...


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## Decado (Jul 28, 2003)

If i remeber correctly from the early nineties:
Apple making a lot of products was NOT a good thing. they had cameras and printers and PDAs. there was a reason they stopped with all that stuff. 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.

Let the camera makers make cameras and the printermakers make printers. 
And apple make computers, OS, iPods, applications and displays  enough is enough


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## chevy (Jul 28, 2003)

I agree Decado... I don't think Apple should develop all these products... they should remarket these... (I don't think they develop screens or iSight... they just sell these).


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## Mat (Jul 28, 2003)

The resurgence we have seen in macs since the introduction of the iMac, is because Apple dropped all of the PDAs, printers etc. and focussed on what they do best...making computers.

I am now becoming a little afraid that they are going to branch out again and lose sight of what they do best.  If Apple continues into iSights and other cameras and things it seems very likely to happen again.

Mat


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## Arden (Jul 28, 2003)

I was recently wondering what happened to the Apple printers.


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## Randman (Jul 29, 2003)

Apple should buy Creative.


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## Perseus (Jul 30, 2003)

Apple should buy Pringles so the people in the office get a lifetime supply of tasty potato chips.


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## Arden (Aug 1, 2003)

D'huyah, what?  Why? 

If the title of this thread were missing the first 2 words, I would say, "They already did."


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## malexgreen (Aug 25, 2003)

I think Apple should buy COREL's code for wordperfect 11 and it's draw programs. They should then Carbonize it, plug it into iCal, Addressbook, and Mail in the next 6 months to 1 year and call it Apple iOffice. They should sell this at 1/2 the price of MS Office X.

The they should convert this to Coccoa in the next 1-2 years, add some neat features (real time data update from databases, more XML support, better linking with iLife, link to Exchange servers, Applescript, etc, etc.) and call it Apple iOffice 2005, or something like that.


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## Arden (Aug 25, 2003)

http://www.apple.com/appleworks/

Unlike Microsoft Works, this product actually does.


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## malexgreen (Aug 26, 2003)

> _Originally posted by arden _
> *http://www.apple.com/appleworks/
> 
> Unlike Microsoft Works, this product actually does. *



Appleworks doesn't come close the the functionality in MS OFFICE. Just thinking the shortest path to an Apple office suite could be by buying COREL. COREL would love to license it's IP (they need the $$'s), and Apple wants its own office suite to boot MS off the island, so to speak.  I don't think Appleworks is a good candidate in the short term.


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## Clie (Oct 28, 2003)

Hot Damn! I can't believe this thread is still alive. Cool. I think there is great energy in a lot of these ideas. I wonder what the likelyhood that anyone at One Infinate Loop lurks this board. Wishful thinking. 

- Rixio, and Corel certainly stir my juices, however I pull back at the thought of an Apple Office product. Its my opinion that the only reason MS doesn't slit Apple's throat is because of the dependable revenue stream Mac Office provides. Should that cash flow ever deminish, the relationship (love/hate) such as it is will tilt toward hate/destroy. Four billion dollars cash in the bank verses fourty-eight billion in the bank, is not the type of odds I'd want to go up against, my love for underdogs not withstanding. I would hate for Apple to become distracted because of having to magage it's relationship with Redmon from an even more negative vantage point.

- I agree that the reason Apple exist today is because they refocused on who they are at their core. It would not shock me if you saw Apple spin off the iTune, iPod venture after a succession of profitible quarters (say 8-12 quarters). Apple would of course keep a controlling interest in the new entity.

Hey, I'm always happy to offer pennies two at a time.


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## cogito (Nov 3, 2003)

In the most logical sense, apple should buy IBM.  It would boost apple productivity accross the field.  IBM is an innovative powerhouse... just imagine the IBM thinktank under apples controll...


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## Arden (Nov 4, 2003)

Clie said:
			
		

> Hot Damn! I can't believe this thread is still alive. Cool. I think there is great energy in a lot of these ideas. I wonder what the likelyhood that anyone at One Infinate Loop lurks this board. Wishful thinking.
> 
> - Rixio, and Corel certainly stir my juices, however I pull back at the thought of an Apple Office product. Its my opinion that the only reason MS doesn't slit Apple's throat is because of the dependable revenue stream Mac Office provides. Should that cash flow ever deminish, the relationship (love/hate) such as it is will tilt toward hate/destroy. Four billion dollars cash in the bank verses fourty-eight billion in the bank, is not the type of odds I'd want to go up against, my love for underdogs not withstanding. I would hate for Apple to become distracted because of having to magage it's relationship with Redmon from an even more negative vantage point.
> 
> ...



 A)  You have to close tags for them to work; you can't just leave a [font=] tag open.

B)  I don't think Georgia is one of the supported fonts for viewing text on this board.

C)  I doubt Microsoft could do much to touch Apple without being smacked up with anti-trust legislation like the DoJ's own personal bitch.  Sure, they would hate for Apple to cut off their bloated, overpriced cash cow of MS Office, but Apple has every right to make their own, _competing_ office suite.  Microsoft may stop supporting Macs very well, but then there's nothing new in that arena.


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## mi5moav (Jun 2, 2004)

ProQuest... I think they have great backing and a great future. But then they are a public traded company and what was the last public traded company apple bought.


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## Randman (Jun 2, 2004)

Belkin. The Media Reader and voice-recording are perfect for Apple's iPod. Ok, Griffin too, for the iTrip.


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## cellfish (Jun 2, 2004)

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? 

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. 

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


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## mdnky (Jun 2, 2004)

Sun Microsystems...Nextel...AOL


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## Randman (Jun 3, 2004)

AOL? God forbid. I still say Real.


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## Salvo (Jun 3, 2004)

cellfish said:
			
		

> 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.


			
				cellfish said:
			
		

> 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.


			
				cellfish said:
			
		

> 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.


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## Salvo (Jun 3, 2004)

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?


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## mi5moav (Dec 3, 2004)

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.


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## diablojota (Dec 3, 2004)

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.


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## AdmiralAK (Dec 3, 2004)

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 --> ????


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## aicul (Dec 9, 2004)

> 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..


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## fryke (Dec 9, 2004)

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.


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## Ceroc Addict (Dec 9, 2004)

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.



			
				fryke said:
			
		

> 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


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## AdmiralAK (Dec 9, 2004)

Let them buy palmsource - now with the power of linux lol. They will have PalmOS, beOS and Linux OS licenses  - If they buy nokia they control 40% of Symbian - kinda cool


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## Ceroc Addict (Dec 9, 2004)

AdmiralAK said:
			
		

> Let them buy palmsource - now with the power of linux lol. They will have PalmOS, beOS and Linux OS licenses  - If they buy nokia they control 40% of Symbian - kinda cool


 I don't what the big deal is with Symbian (I've never seen it) - can anyone clue me in? It just seems to be the new kid on the block (just like Palm OS was in the day). I'm hoping most of these toy operating systems die off within the next few years.

 Kap


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## g/re/p (Dec 10, 2004)

Apple should buy Kellogg's and put 25mb secure digital cards filled with iTunes music files in every box of raisin bran!


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## AdmiralAK (Dec 10, 2004)

Ceroc Addict said:
			
		

> I don't what the big deal is with Symbian (I've never seen it) - can anyone clue me in? It just seems to be the new kid on the block (just like Palm OS was in the day). I'm hoping most of these toy operating systems die off within the next few years.
> 
> Kap




Symbian has been around for quite a while young lad. It's had been used as "EPOC" on psion devices, and before that as  OS3 (or whatever they called it).  Now Symbian is a consortium of companies that develop a base OS (Symbian OS). On top of that you've got interfaces. The UIQ and Series 60 interfaces are the most prolific. There are the Series 80 and Series 90 interfaces that are closed off and only used in certain symbian smartphones. UIQ and Series 60 phones are found in GSM, wCDMA and FOMA networks around the world  Symbian is not going away anytime soon.


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## qwikstreet (Dec 12, 2004)

Apple should partner up with XM Satelitte Radio and integrate it into their iPods. An iPod with satellite radio would be awesome.


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## CharlieJ (May 17, 2006)

they should buy microsoft and then close it down hehe


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## Lt Major Burns (May 17, 2006)

that's like trying to eat your own head.


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## CharlieJ (May 20, 2006)

true (lol)
cool expression.


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## hawki18 (May 24, 2006)

First you got to have the money to by Microsoft and Apple does not have that kind of Cash, but it is nice to dream!


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## ElDiabloConCaca (May 24, 2006)

I think the facetiousness of that "Apple should buy Microsoft" comment was lost on ya...


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## hawki18 (May 24, 2006)

No it was not lost on me I am just looking it as real life and who Apple could really buy out.  I hope that we all know that buying  Microsoft was a joke and wishful thinking.


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## davebz (Jun 15, 2006)

Guess what?  SGI is going into chapter 11.  Are you listening Steve?

This would be a fantastic opportunity for Apple to get into some more technologies.  Let's hope Apple takes advantage of this before M$ does.


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