Steve: Skip iLife ‘07
Steve, listen to a guy who teaches people iLife one on one everyday. Please take this year off and think hard about the iLife suite. I’ll forgo the year in exchange for a free downloaded update for more features/fixes to ‘06.
Here is why:
10.5. 10.5 presumably is the middle child in a series of fine operating systems. Vista is coming out soon, and it’s a good chance Microsoft is going to push it’s hardware partners to promote it. A product Microsoft has put close to a decade into developing isn’t something they will not pay attention too.
Right now there is an edge into gaining some ground; Boot Camp and Intel help a lot, as well as the attention put into the Mac software up to this point(not just Apple there…). Perhaps but hard to prove, is the few million iPods sold over the last couple of years giving a bit of a boost in sales.
iLife ‘06 is great in many aspects. As Thurrott said, unmatched in the PC world is iLife ‘06. Apple could do us a favor and take this year off to work on just catching up to what this thing can do for us. Honestly, many .Mac members are not using the full capability of the service and I think a year of rest would help them find out just how convienient and fun it is to use.
We expect you to put out ‘07 in six or eight months, and it will have iWeb 2 and more bling bling than Snoop D-O-Dubble-Guhzizzle. So do what is unexpected, give us a break on the upgrades! I would rather see Apple extend things than see iLife ‘07. Where can you go on the web and get free or low cost themes for the iLife apps? People look to Apple for these, and are let down when they find that what the package comes with is all Apple provides. Why not create a portal on apple.com that hosts additional things for iLife such as themes, loops, and graphics?
#1 Steven Teskey says:I totally agree, it’s not cool to have to upgrade every year, just so we can get a couple new features and a shiny new box. I’m tired of having to throw my hard earned dollars away like they’re out of style. Hopefully apple will take this to heart (doubt it) and extend updates for a long while.
#2 Michael Collins says:iLife ‘06 won’t have a very nice ring to it when Apple’s trying to sell new machines in 2007. Especially once we get into the ‘07 holiday shopping season. Jobs realizes this. Until Apple stops naming iLife by the year, expect to see yearly updates.
#3 Andreas says:Michael: Good point.
#4 Steve Jobs says:I’ll consider it.
#5 Brad says:Here is the deal… Ilife is relatively cheap for what you get. Most companies charge you much more for similar capabilities but only come out every 3 years. Apple charges you roughly 1/3 or less of what it would cost you for those applications on a PC but they charge you that every year. I think it is a great idea.. Wish I could buy photoshop for that price and pay a yearly small amount vs. one large sum and no updates for 3 years. I kinda like getting new things yearly… Makes it fun. Go Apple!
#6 nerradv says:Nobody is forcing anyone to upgrade anything. When Apple comes out with iLife ‘07, your version of ‘06 will continue to work.
Maybe you need some time off from upgrading. That is an okay choice and one that many will do.
As for Vista and its partners, I wouldn’t worry about it. It will only get closer to equaling features we OS X users have had for quite a while now but in the ease of use of the Mac.
Leopard a middle child? I wouldn’t bet on it. And you watch. I don’t think Apple is hiding in the bushes waiting to see what Vista will do. They will bring it straight on.
#7 Julian Bennett Holmes says:I totally agree with nerradv.
If you feel like you’re thowing away your money each year, don’t buy it!
#8 wackybit says:I’m currently using iLife’05, and I’m not planning on upgrading until ‘07 is released.My plan is to upgrade every other year.
#9 stingerster says:Steve don’t even consider this request. There is a lot more yo can do to iLife, so keep it up. In fact, merge iWork and iLife together and add an iLife manager, along the lines of iTunes, release an iNumbers and iData as a Pro package. No point maintaining all these different SKUs.
#10 James Katt says:You don’t have to upgrade.
If you like working with iLife 2006, keep using it. It also is already Universal so you can upgrade to an IntelMac and still use iLife 2006 at full speed.
I, myself, want Apple to continue upgrading iLife. This brings in more features and usibility and power such that iLife gets closer in usefulness to the professional applications. I find that highly desireable.
What gets to you is the “2006″ label.
Whenever someone uses a year in the label of their product, consumers feel psychological pressure to upgrade when a new year come out.
It’s all psychological.
You’ll still be able to use iLife 2006 in 2010 - if you keep your computer that long.
I still have a 2001 Titanium Powerbook G4 running Mac OS 9, running 24/7, rarely crashing. It goes on and on and on. (The only thing that crashes it is if I use Microsoft’s Internet Explorer).
Wouldn’t it be surprising to know that Windows XP is actually Windows 2003? It’s been the same now for the past 3-4 years! Talk about lack of an upgrade!
If you want to stand pat with your version of iLife, do so.
I, myself, want upgrades and more upgrades. Yeah! Looking forward to 2007! Make it snappy, Apple!
#11 Bill Gates says:GIve it up puny earthlings. You destiny is in my hands!
#12 Todd Baur says:James I’m a consultant working with Apple. I have to upgrade every year otherwise I’m not very effective. No one is forcing anyone to upgrade, I don’t argue that. What I do believe is that Apple has a very nice chance to pick up customers right now, and the release of Vista reverses that a little (sure, this has yet to be seen since XP-R3-I-mean-Vista isn’t out yet…).
Secondly, I write this not on personal feeling or just to show off my opinion. This article idea came to me in coversation with an Apple customer who felt that they would have to get the new iLife if they wanted to be a .Mac member too. I know this isn’t the case, but the perceptions are out there in many forms should a 1 year iLife cycle continue indefinitely.
#13 Avi Flax says:I agree!! I’d like to see Apple move to a every-other-year development schedule for iLife, so each iteration has more development time and especially more QA time! iMovie and iDVD are truly excellent products that are hampered by some quite pestilential bugs.
List of iMovie HD 6 bugs
FIX THE BUGS FIRST!!
#14 Ryan says:Regarding the ‘XP has been around since 2003′ post above. I just wanted to point out that XP was actually released in October of 2001. So that’s pretty much FIVE years!
Maybe yearly upgrades isn’t the greatest possible option, but it certainly beats 5 year cycles! Not only that but the products are better in general so as other people are saying you can skip upgrades without any problem.
I don’t see the issue, let me update it every year, maybe some of your wanted ‘extentions’ will be part of ‘07.
#15 Richard Dalziel-Sharpe says:I would like to see a spreadsheet application (Excel compatible) for the iWork suite, then I could remove the pestilential Microsh@t effluent from my Mac
#16 Allen says:I couldn’t agree more. I have been a mac user (and advocate) for over 20 years. I’ve never seen more feature rich but BUGGY software in my life.
APPLE : FIX WHAT YOU GOT BEFORE ADDING MORE.
#17 Viswakarma says:Please have an iWork Spreadsheet compatible with Excel, but have the capabilities of Javelin, which I understand was bought by Oracle a while back.
#18 Viswakarma says:Quantrix for Mac OS X is the replacement for Javelin!
#19 mac4all says:i agree with allen about quality shipments over more stuff-
“Great artists ship” but in what state? it’s important to not loose focus of what the customer wants, they do not want frequent crashes in ilife… it get’s boring real fast.
So get ilife up to speed quality wise before adding functions. A task force similar to Aperture.. now that would be a great update indeed!
#20 DWalla says:iLife is dirt, dirt cheap….. keep the upgrades coming.
oh… and toss in some of your suggestions as well… free downloadable themes, as well as the bug fixes. Personally, I love the yearly updates at such a cheap price. QA could use some tweaking, but overall I find the iLife experience excellent overall.
#21 doug says:I have to disagree with the Author. I love the annual updates. My only concern is that Apple will eventually make iLife overly complicated for new users. Keep it simple!
#22 jbelkin says:You forget that ilife 06 added iweb - which is not for everyone but when i want to throw a website up there - hard to beat the look of iweb - most web HTML WYS apps cost anywhere from $25 to $49 (for novices) - other thn the wonky free Mozilla … so along with getting upgrades and better syncing, iweb is free …
for podcasters, garageband was a huge upgrade!
And because a weird flaw in iMovie 5, I still use imovie 04 which works just fine so thre’s no need to upgrade unless you need it.
But I still think new additions and upgraded features are nice if you want them - and franky, there is NOTHING like the combo on the PC - not for thousands of dollars … so ilife is a bargain either way …
#23 Panduranga says:The Yearly up-dates is a good thing. Not to put down the author’s opinion, but personally its great to have a update every year even if that means spending a few dollars.
…but Apple should do up a site where we can get free themes, and stuff for out iLife suit. We deserve it.
#24 tomozj says:But if apple put up a themes site, they’ll have to create lots of themes and copyright problems might come in (like people taking parts of images).
I like the iLife yearly update, because you always know theres something new coming out. Windows is hell for anything to do with the creative works. Windows’ creativity is based around Apple Quicktime and iTunes in my opinion. The iLife package is attracting PC users to switch, so why slow down it’s activity? Along with Boot Camp it makes it a really good idea to switch over to Mac.
#25 DWalla says:Sorry… I don’t get your comment about “copyright problems might come in”…. that’s a risk you have ANY time you put something out there… web, CD or DVD distribution. But I don’t see the downside to doing it at all. What would Apple lose?…. nothing… what would they gain?… well, the question has been answered on here several times.
#26 Ben says:There’d be no copyright issue to begin with. Apple publishes their stuff (loops, themes, sfx, etc.) royalty-free.
It would be great if the current bugs were fixed for the iLife ‘07 release as well as new, simple (as to avoid bugs as best as possible) updates.
I also think that there should be an upgrade price, even though $79 is on the lower end.
#27 Pierre says:I don’t need to worry about upgrading if I upgrade my Mac every year.
This AppleCrack…hmm.
#28 Ken says:For marketing purposes, you need the ‘07. People don’t want to buy last year’s software - no matter how good it is - especially if the company is focusing on bringing in new customers - and as stated, you don’t need to upgrade and it’s cheap anyay.
I think the best idea from the article hasn’t been discussed - a Portal for new Themes, SFX etc… or perhaps tools to create new themes - that would be incredible.
Imagine if iWeb plugged into a database of templates or iDVD plugged into a stock library of themes the same way iTunes plugs into the music store. How about iMove linking to a stock library of sound effects or video effects. I’d pay 99 cents for a good sound clip if I needed it.
And if Apple can handle the copyright issues with the music industry, they can handle it for anything.
#29 cameron says:I agree, the $$$ adds up over the years and I’d hate to think of how much it would’ve cost me if I didn’t just download the iLifes from Limewire or Bittorrent.
#30 DWalla says:iLife is cheap….. get over it.
#31 ryan says:I disagree. I’ve been a mac user for only 2 years now and I am loving it. As a former PC fanatic and then gone unix, now mac, I love the creative aspect iLife offers to the Mac. Unfortunately, while iTunes, Garageband, and iMovie are great, iWeb isn’t. It is clearly a version type of program. As a web design I’ve been using Photoshop and CMSs to take care of my professional site. But iWeb is great for those little tiny, just need a few pages, websites. But it needs an upgrade, and not just a 1.1.2 upgrade, but a full jump to 2.0. Same with iPhoto. While I use it quite a bit and enjoy it, it is also due for a big upgrade. And as we see, iTunes is starting to take the shape of full force media engine and not just for MP3s any more. I excpect iTune 8 to be an even more fully integrated media player/catagorizer/etc.
What I would love to see though is more integration with third party designers. The apple-made designs in iMovie, iWeb, iPhoto, (not to mention Keynote & Pages), it would be great to have a good apple sponsored area for the rest of us to contribute our designs. And make all of these programs a little easier for us to create our own designs to share. The beauty with the Mac community is that many of us are artists and like to create. It would be good to have a great way to share this with apple’s iPrograms.
That said, I am very excited about iLife 07 (and iWork 07) for that matter. Not because I want more functionality, but because I want *better* functionality. iLife is a great start, but the future versions should be even better.
#32 Michael Long says:A bit cheeky to recommend skipping iLife ‘07 when no one knows what’s going to be in it…
#33 George W. Bush says:What in the world are ya’ll talkin’ about these devil-machines for? I’ve Nookyoular problems to worry about!
#34 michiel keller says:Love to buy ilife 2009 now if possible!
No:) It’s good to keep up with what the public wants every year. So a version every year is a good option. Maybe it’s good to put a discountvoucher of 10 % in it for the next year for everyyearbuyers.
Kind greetings
Michiel Keller
#35 Paul A says:My experience in software product management tells me that shorter release cycles are generally better because the longer the development team has to work, the more they can lose touch with the real needs of users. Also, quality does not seem to go up, but actually go down with long cycle, big bang releases in my experience. Finally, the team generally gets more done because the shorter cycle keeps the team focused on the release deadline. I believe users will get a better iLife product as a result of the yearly cycle. You can always skip every other upgrade as a user if you want to get a little more bang for the buck.
Once a year feels like the right cycle for this product.
#36 mush says:software is cheap download it at limewire
its bad enough to see pc users whining about something but when you see mac users doing it its 10 times as bad, a mac retard is a mac user who still thinks like a pc user, only pc users complain mac users should be above this
#37 Tris says:I look foward to the yearly updates— I don’t think it is a lot of money and I can’t wait to buy iLife 07.
#38 Wai-Tung Leung says:Errr.. no! As someone who’s getting a new MacBook Pro soon, I would prefer to have it delivered with a nice new iLife 07 in it for a number of reasons. Firstly I’m using iLife 04 at the moment so I would like my next experience of iLife to be several lightyears ahead. Secondly I would like to see some handy new features for GarageBand, especially since the only major difference between GarangeBand 05 and 06 is the inclusion of tools for podcasting, great for all the podcasters out there, but in that case they owe me new recording features this time round!
And as people have said above, there’s no obligations to buy each and every yearly update, it’s a matter of choice and sometimes if you feel like you’re wasting money you should perhaps go fallow for a year. It’s what I’ve done and I have no regrets. I stuck with the suit before the iLife brand was developed, then upgraded to iLife 04 last year. I’m still on OS 10.2. When my laptop arrives I’ll have 10.4 and the latest ilife included.
#39 PDog says:Give me a break. $80 a year for an upgrade of significant benefit? Get a grip people!
#40 Vanilla Ice says:So cold!
#41 Steve says:That article was very hard to understand. The grammar was awful, sentences didn’t make sense and it was generally a grammatical nightmare. Everyone know Apple’s software and hardware is terribly overpriced, why bother?
#42 Kevin Hendricks says:I probably won’t buy ‘07 until I find out if they fixed what was wrong with ‘06. I made the mistake of rushing out and buying ‘06 and it turned out to be twice as slow as ‘05. Go to the iLife discussions and you will find many complaints about ‘06 being slow. On my G5 Quad ‘05 took one hour to encode two hours of video. ‘06 takes about two hours to do the same job. There have been so many complaints that they have probably fixed it, but I will wait and see this time.
And to whoever posted #41: What are you smoking? Where else can you find a suite of software that does what iLife does, as well as it does for $79. And if you configure a Dell to match the same specs as a Mac the Dell usually ends up costing more. In some cases thousands more. Welcome to reality.
#43 Steve Jobs says:Guess what?!?! I skipped it!
#44 Dan says:I tend to agree–iWeb is wonderful, but is seriously lacking in themes.
For goodness’ sake, give us the ability to drag and drop more themes, and easily create our own!!! COME ON!
Also, what good is running a blog when you can’t import javascripts from Technorati, AdSense, etc.!?! COME ON!
Sure, there is an excellent shareware work-around program called iWeb Enhancer (it’s worth getting), but that’s a very poor state of Apple software…when you rely on 3rd party work arounds for some basic functionality oversights…
So yes, give us that o-so-needed update for iWeb and keep the iLife ‘07.
#45 Steve Jobs says:I’ll consider considering it…
#46 God says:i love the mac mini. those cute lil morsels. what will you crazy bastards think of next? hey jobs as long as you keep up the good work i’ll keep you alive, but uh we could use a couple of bug fixes to our software…can you send up some of the “geek squad guys”…thanks.
-G
#47 Geoff says:Umm, kid, never say “Snoop D-O-Dubble-Guhzizzle”. That’s just messed up.
But great point. iLife ‘06 was probably the worst update. They should go back to free .Mac membership. Like the integration with .Mac sounds nice, but that leaves iWeb cripled. They should greatly improve on iWeb (for example, those links on the top need more customization). And for those who upload iWeb contents to the web, there is huge problems with spaces in the files/folders names. Maybe someone should come up with a app that does just that. Or maybe Apple could integrate it itself, but I doubt that because that would lower the appreciation of .Mac memberships.
#48 head ache says:I’m with Steve. This post is unreadable.
#49 Will West says:I purchased my first Mac. The iMac 17″ Superdrive. They have improved on the original fairly quickly.And the the price has dropped drastically. I’m not about to run out and get the new intel. I’m gonna skip a model. Just like I skipped iLife ‘06. I am anxiously waiting for ‘07. Hoping they worked out some of the bugs in iWeb and strengthened iPhoto… Apple isn’t forcing you to upgrade. People just need to know when to wait and when to buy. Unlike Microsoft and Vista I don’t mind the option of upgrading often. And I don’t mind the idea of skipping a year and making my own decision. It’s just the way technology works. You can never keep up with it. I always want the next best thing. Doesn’t mean I have to buy it the first day of it’s release. Well… except my first mac. Give me the option every year but, make it worth it. Nobody’s forcing you to buy anything. Bring it on! iLife ‘07 that is.
#50 bum nut says:Never mind iLife 07. I’m gonna get a life in ‘07…
#51 David Hindle says:Hi Steve - please add split screen possiblities to imovie in iLife ‘07 … that’ll make my day!
#52 Andreas M. says:Upgrading to iLife ‘07 is essential. Think about all the people who decided to save some money, and skip buying iLife ‘06, and maybe even ‘05 too. They can’t wait for the release of iLife ‘07, not releasing would be a heartbreaker. What do you think guys?
#53 David Hindle says:I defininetly think iLife ‘07 should come out with cool new features in iMovie. Also - why is it that one can’t record a stereo voice over direct inside iMovie. Currently one has to go through Soundtrack and that should be unneccessary. Any support one this one??? … and as I mentioned earlier whay can’t iMovie also get composite and split screen????????
#54 David Hindle says:… and as for us “puny earthlings” comment by a certain bill gates (whoever that could be!!!) - what we need is a total overhaul of the universal data management heirarchy.
#55 Jordan Eisner says:Should get iLife ‘6 or wait until iLife ‘07 comes out????
#56 jamski says:I must upgrade to ilife 07…I just purchased the sony HDR-SR1 handycam and my mac won’t import any of the footage I have taken. I love the camera and I love my mac but I need to have this footage edited before the rumored release date of ilife ‘07. I wonder if there is somewhere that you can by ilife ‘07 NOW…
#57 Jarvis, Cody says:I think there is nothing wrong with making a new iLife every year. I like to see what Apple has been doing the last year, and making the iLife softwares better. Apple is moving up better, and is way better than Windows will ever be in the near future. Windows Vista is already trying to steal the look, and feel of Mac OS X just so they can catch up with Apple’s genous ideas. So keep up the good work Steve Jobs!
Jarvis, Cody
#58 Palli says:I couldn’t agree more.
#59 olli says:The rumor site also expects that Apple will launch the new versions of iLife ‘07 and iWork ‘07 alongside Leopard. They claim that both iLife and iWork were delayed due to the addition of some Leopard-specific features to the productivity suites.
Apple last stated that Leopard would still ship in spring and implied that the iLife suite would be updated soon.
#60 Hakan Tuna says:i use 05,
skipped 06,
may get 07.
whats the problem?
make your choices…
#61 MiMac says:“Expectations equate to consumer demand, as long as that demand exists, Apple will supply.”
The expectation here, is that Apple will refresh it’s product line annually. Obviously this pacing doesn’t suit all Mac Users.
Fortunately, Apple “may” include iLife 07 as part of the OSX 10.5 retail bundle, meaning Apple will continue to do “more out of the box” without isolating its previous OSX users wishing to upgrade.
+ upcoming New iMacs designed to showcase the new Mac OSX leopard
“Here’s one leopard that really can change it’s spots” LOL.
#62 Steve Jobs says:Your opinions are not in my or Apple’s interest. Marketing is my interest. The sooner you learn that the better. Also, if you want a serious program, don’t use iLife at all, its used to sucker newbies into using Macs. The iLife programs are always half-assed and less than full featured. You’re clearly asking for something I will not give you. I am Steve Jobs and this is my word.
#63 Brad says:Im just hopeing for better FTP support in IWeb out of ILife 07, Anyone know if thats going to be the case?
#64 Graham Williams says:Having had an interest in Titanium for many years, I find your post an interesting read, Whilst I am not totally in agreement with some of your points, I must say it is well written.
#65 Chrius Stone says:I was in John Lewis in the UK (an Apple Premium Reseller) and all their mac were advertised with iLife ‘07…? Don’t know why…Its not on the Apple strore and it not on the John Lewis website? And WWDC 2007 starts tomorrow?
#66 mtb13 says:i think they should skip this year and come out with an ilife 08. i like when apple comes out with new software but they should have a break to invent something even better. they dont have to worry about microsoft, they will never catch up to apple. ilife 06 is already in the future and i think is amazing to most people. i dont think anbody will really care if your using a mac in 07 and using ilife 06trust me give them time and they will invent a new ilife thats gonna shock us all!!!. afterall its APPLE!!!!
microsoft sux!!!!!!!!!!!!
-mtb
#67 Spiderman says:iFun, iFun, iFun A Package made with some fun games to play, maybe throw in some popular games such as X-Moto, Card Games, Age of Empires? And a special dashboard type program to base all the games off of. I can see it now MacPaint way better then MSPaint
Vote for iFun!If you don’t vote for iFun you DIE!
#68 LamaSou, Prime Minister of Kamino says:Here on Kamino we don’t tell lies, we live a perfect live cloning, and cloning all die long, you’ll never know the fun and sensation of creating life, day after day, anyway, we have used Mac’s since the days of OS 7.
Anyway you losers pretending to be people your not “Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Spiderman? Seriously who uses Spiderman?”
Anyway STOP THE LIES
Vote for TawnWe for Govener of the South Quadrent of Kamino, I’ve got a date with her tonight!
I LOVE PC’S VISTA ROCKS YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE POWER OF MICROSOFT iMOVIE MAKER, OOPS SORRY I ACCIDENTALLY MIXED UP iMOVIE with WMM BECAUSE VISTA IS A UGLY BLACK VERSION OF OS X FOR PC WHO RUNS LIKE YOU MOM!
#69 LamaSou, Prime Minister of Kamino says:Sorry, Am I the only one who installed Windows 95 on my mac through Bootcamp, i love Quicktime for Windows
#70 Dave Birchall says:I completely agree, even though all these updates from apple are really good, there definitely should be more themes available from the latter’s website like in the case of widgets. I just can’t wait for X.5 - could you imagine if we had to wait centuries for the next OS, like MS users? - I’d still choose apple lol
#71 Eduo says:I was browsing around to see if anyone had released in the end themes for iMovie HD and I bump into this and I actually remember reading this back then.
Wow, didn’t we miss the boat here. Had we known what Steve was cooking we would’ve insisted on having whatever iMovie ‘07 update he wanted to give us before changing the whole thing on us.
Now it’s beautiful but, strangely, useless for anything but a Youtuber.