CNET Suggests Possible Apple/Sun Alliance for StarOffice
CNET News.com is reporting that Sun Microsystems and Apple Computer are collaborating on a version of StarOffice for OS X. Such a product would provide competition for Microsoft Office v.X.
The article touches briefly on the dispute between Microsoft and Apple over a legal agreement they struck several years ago when Steve Jobs returned to Apple as CEO. This agreement resulted in the development of Microsoft Office v.X, a product with a number of innovative features that has never sold as well as Microsoft and Apple originally expected.
Microsoft has publicly criticized Apple for its tepid marketing of Microsoft Office v.X. Meanwhile, Apple has succeeded in selling an increasing number of Macintosh computers to people who use them for multimedia creation and videography, rather than as general-purpose office computers.
Sun has a unique perspective on this. A senior Sun executive is quoted in the article as saying, "I don't want to sell StarOffice for OS X.... I want Apple to bundle it. I'll give them the code. I'd love it if I could get the team at Apple to do joint development and they distribute it at no cost--that it's their product. Nobody makes a product more beautiful on Apple than Apple."