|
The Quicken Wars: Over? (4/23/98)
|
 
|
| | |
The fur flying over Intuit's recent decision to axe Quicken development on the Mac side may soon subside. Steve Jobs announced on Wednesday that he and Intuit CEO (and Apple board member) Bill Campbell had "discussed" Intuit's decision, and a joint announcement about the resolution is slated for next week. In the meantime, a Mac OS Rumors source has an interesting perspective on the possible solution.
Intuit may essentially have blackmailed Apple into agreeing to a bundling arrangement, wherein every Mac shipped will include Quicken preloaded on the hard drive. Apple knows that Quicken is a required application for any platform that ever hopes to compete in the home computer market. And Intuit knows that Apple knows that. Since Intuit wasn't too happy with its Mac Quicken upgrade sales of late, it put the screws on Apple by threatening to cancel the whole thing. The solution? Intuit agrees to continue Quicken on the Mac, if Apple agrees to pay to preinstall Quicken on every Mac it ships.
If true, it's kind of sleazy that Intuit forced Apple's hand this way, but that's business. We hear that Quicken is an essential enough application to the consumer market that it is crucial for Apple to keep it growing on the Mac platform; in fact, the bundling agreement might even help consumer sales of Macs, since Apple and resellers will be able to advertise Quicken on every Mac. Besides, as Rumors mentions, the potential reversal of policy may also be entirely due to Apple finally clueing Intuit into its future plans to push heavily into the consumer space. We'll presumably all know more when the actual announcement is made next week.
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (652)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/23/98 episode: April 23, 1998: Could Intuit have backed Apple into a consumer-market corner by threatening to axe Quicken? Meanwhile, former cast member Gil Amelio continues to rack up martyr points in the press, and a certain gap-toothed goofball from Indiana may figure heavily in a publicity situation for Apple...
Other scenes from that episode: 653: Strange Days Indeed (4/23/98) The media coverage of Gil Amelio's tragic year and a half at Apple continues, fueled by his recent steamy tell-all On the Firing Line: My 500 Days at Apple. A Washington Post article reveals Amelio's feeling that he and Apple were a "mismatch," which we at AtAT would classify as probably the biggest understatement of the year. Amelio, who once had the chutzpah to demand a $27 million compensation package for taking the CEO spot, is now pictured as somewhat humbled by his experience at Apple... 654: Ready For My Close-Up (4/23/98) Hmmm, this might be the way that Apple's going to get back solidly in the public vision-- according to MacCentral, the "Man on Fire" segment a couple of nights ago was sponsored by "Elite Computer" of Cupertino, who are Apple Computer specialists...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
