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http://www.macnn.com/articles/06/08/10/apple.challenges.groupware/

iCal, iChat to challenge groupware

updated 05:25 pm EDT, Thu August 10, 2006

 

Apple challenges groupware


Apple may be challenging communications software from Microsoft and WebEx with its new versions of iCal and iChat, which is scheduled to ship with Mac OS X Leopard in the spring of 2007. The company has revealed "stealth groupware" that could represent Apple's biggest move against enterprise products such as WebEx Communications and Microsoft NetMeeting, according to eWeek.com. The new version of iCal supports collective group calendars, while Leopard Server will feature iCal Server. Apple executives highlighted the fact that iCal Server has no per-user license, enabling any number of users to access the system at no additional cost.


by MacNN Staff

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  1. jarod

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2005

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    08/10, 05:38pm | report spam | Reply |

    What challenge??

    ANY Apple solution destroys that garbage from Microshit. Its not a fair fight. Microcrap can't compete in technology. Any idiot knows that by now.

  1. dashiel

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Sep 2001

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    08/10, 05:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    what challenge is right

    as long as the solution remains mac only there is no challenge. as horrendous as webex is, and as cool as the new ichat features are i can only use them with half my client/partner base.

    and i doubt we'll see a cross platform version simply because the sharing features of ichat seem to rely heavily on OS X APIs.

  1. furrylogic

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2005

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    08/10, 05:57pm | report spam | Reply |

    fight for the enterprise

    This is wonderful news. If Apple could make this a solution that provides the robust e-mail, scheduling and centralized contact database, it could be a real challenger to MS Exchange. having worked in enterprises with Exchange, I have long hoped for an alternative. It is very costly, not so stable, and complex to implement and maintain. These are all areas where Apple can make tremendous improvements. If the server is open source, then it is open to all servers. It also looks like the client API is open source, too, so therefore there is no reason that it couldn't replace many Exchange installations. It would be very interesting to hear from someone who has managed an Exchange environment. They could tell us more about what challenges Apple would face here.

  1. Mediaman_12

    Professional Poster

    Joined: Jan 2001

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    08/10, 07:25pm | report spam | Reply |

    dashiel is correct

    Apple can only dream about being any sort of Challenge. Without a Win version of the software it's dead in the water. The new iChat features (for example) look excellent, but useless to me in the extreme as MSN is the IM that everybody I know uses.

  1. jarod

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Apr 2005

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    08/10, 09:48pm | report spam | Reply |

    It will prevail

    Being open source and based on STANDARDS, it will be compatible with any platform. Remember this is server side stuff managing the info. It doesn't matter what client you're using to connect to it for the most part. WebEX and MS Exchange are the EPITOMY of the worse s*** out there. Many companies use them because 1) they don't know any better, and 2) they are adviced by bigger morons that know even less.

  1. jreades

    Junior Member

    Joined: Feb 1999

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    08/11, 04:35am | report spam | Reply |

    Only for small businesses

    Until Apple recognises what 'Enterprise Support' means they'll be stuck chipping away at the low end. Which is not to say that this can't be profitable, but the support that we received for our X-serve RAID was *terrible* and suggested that Apple didn't understand what level of response they need to deliver to an organisation rather than to individuals.

    As for the Exchange bashing -- it's far from a perfect product but has some very powerful features. And in terms of competition I have two words: Lotus Notes. That was by far the worst piece of c**p I've ever worked with. It might *seem* like a good idea to create a kitchen-sink application based on pseudo-databases... until your users try to actually do anything with it. Exchange was such a blessed improvement over Notes!

  1. tektek

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2004

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    08/11, 08:29am | report spam | Reply |

    Daylite

    The majority of these groupware features are already available on the Mac. Daylite Productivity Suite from Marketcircle (http://www.marketcircle.com) offers shared calendars, meetings, shared contacts, shared to-do's, shared projects, visibility by teams and users and more. It also tightly integrates with Apple Mail as well.

    The beauty of what Daylite offers is that everything can be linked to give you proper context. For example link a meeting or email to a project.

    It's a Mac only product, built from the ground up for Mac OS X.

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