Speculation: Wither AppleWorks?


Liberation.fr, an online Frencn journal of a kind, is carrying a scatological piece by former Apple executive and Be Inc founder Jean-Louis Gassee which discusses, among other things, his Steveness' state-of-the-Mac address before the gathered houses of Mac in San Francisco.

Along with a passel of analytical wanderings on current and upcoming Apple products, Mssr Gassee states that in 2001 Apple hired the coding team behind the GoBe office suite, which was written for Linux, Windoze and, unsurprisingly, Be OS.

According to a related article on Mac Rumors, GoBe was a widely admired (though it never gained traction among the sweaty Microsoft throngs) chunk of code.

This once-upon-an office suite reportedly was similar in foundation to Apple's still humiliating OpenDoc foray in that it supports plug-n-play functionality -- ie you can interactively build a spread sheet-based tabled into your word processor document without using a spread sheet application.

AppleWorks' angst

Meanwhile rumors of an AppleWorks refresh circle and circulate, but sightings have to date been non-existent. The need however for an X-specific rewrite or, at the merciful least, update is wincingly apparent to all that use the app.

Personally, I think AppleWorks' 7, GoBe 4... whatever is already in the can and that Keynote is merely one part of that overall package. I think the mothership is offering Redmond one last kow-tow before unleashing their own suite that's sure to be lathered in sticky Cocoa and Aqua GUI goodness.

It would seem unlikely to this pundit that Apple would announce a complete refresh of their own productivity suite concurrently with M$' extension of reduced Office X pricing. That possibility is all the less likely given that the mothership and the (egregious) monopoly that Bill built are actually co-conspirators in the Office X promo...

Where's Appleworks? You make the call!