QuarkXPress 6.0 Hits Store.Apple.com


Quark XPress 6.0, the OS X-native version of the dominant page-layout application, is front-page news at apple.com, and it can now be ordered at the AppleStore online. Estimated shipping time is 7-10 days.

An open secret for many months, the only thing unknown about the OS X version was its release date. Apple CEO Jobs described Quark as "laggards" when opening his January MWSF keynote. But now Apple is pulling out all stops to publicise the X version - possibly the biggest PR push for Quark Apple has ever launched.

QuarkXPress 6.0 retails for $899.95 at the AppleStore. Upgrade pricing ranges from $199 to $499.

Analysis: A critically-important app, not so much in terms of volume, but in that it shores up that vital Apple niche market of desktop publishing. Shops who have been thinking of a move to Windows/InDesign need fret no longer; with XPress, Panther and the 970 Macs coming soon, this should give Power Macs a giant push. But a word of caution - given the state of the US, European and Japanese economies, the advertising market, which drives digital publishing, is flat, and there won't be the kind of shop purchases we saw in the '90s forthcoming until genuine economic recovery is in sight.