EXCLUSIVES

The challenge of innovating in the Apple market produces fascinating results. Business leaders not only must stay abreast of new opportunities, but they have to create them to stay alive in the face of the relatively new OS X and ongoing upgrades to a host of attendant hardware and software, as well as potential or realized crossover with the Windows market. This special section is intended to introduce some of the executives we have interviewed for our ongoing Executive Forum.

Brent Simmons > President & Founder Ranchero Software

NetNewsWire (NNW) is a news aggregator for OS X that retrieves headlines and other updated content from specified websites and places them in an inbox with a link.

NNW is the first RSS technology with a GUI separate from a browser; this one designed for Apple's Aqua. The idea behind it, says its founder, Brent Simmons, is that all it takes to manage information overload is the right interface.

With programmers for parents, Simmons started programming almost 25 years ago on an Apple II Plus as a hobbyist ("concepts like modularity and memory use were dinner-table talk"). In 1995, he started a web development company that he left for UserLand software until 2002, when he "rebooted" Ranchero Software with his wife.

MD: Have you heard of any particularly innovate uses of your products?
BS: Someone created an AppleScript® called, "Read It To Me:" www.tow.com/software/read_it_to_me/ which is an application that takes news from NNW and converts it to an audio file so you can actually listen to it on your iPodĒ.

What led you to develop NNW?
When I was at UserLand Software, I helped with a product named Radio UserLand-one of the first RSS aggregators. When I started Ranchero, I had a choice-I could go on using Radio or create a new RSS reader. Since I was interested in learning Cocoa, I made an RSS reader with a GUI and luckily others liked it.

Do you see information aggregators growing in importance?
I hope NNW makes it easy to manage information; but I also hope it delights its users. The biggest bummer would be to drown joylessly in a flood of data. The job of aggregator developers is to make it easy and fun to deal with more. www.ranchero.com

Jonas Salling > Founder, Salling Software

Salling Clicker allows you to remotely control a Bluetooth enabled Mac® with a Bluetooth enabled Sony Ericsson phone or Palm. (To change PowerPoint® slides on a laptop from across the room, for example.)

It comes out of Jonas Salling's research on Sony Ericsson mobiles for MobileSync, which revealed some of the phone's Bluetooth capabilities.

MD: Why Sony Ericsson and Macs?
JS: The engineers at Sony Ericsson included some useful features in their phones-making Clicker possible without actually adding anything to the phone. Also, Apple was quick to add good Bluetooth support in their system software, making it possible to write Bluetooth applications that were user-friendly. Finally, Macintosh applications can often be controlled by means of AppleScript.

What are the more innovative uses you have learned of concerning the use of Clicker?
I really liked hearing from one musician who uses Clicker to control his audio production software while seated in his drum set; getting in and out is a major hassle from what I understand.

How do you see phone manufacturers and service providers staking out territory in the ongoing evolution of media convergence?
Design, brand, and services/software are becoming the primary differentiators (aside from price) in trying to capture the hearts of consumers. Phone manufacturers will most likely work on design and brand to prevent this evolution from making them too vulnerable.

Have you received any feedback from Apple regarding your products?
Yes, absolutely. Salling Software received two Apple Design Awards for Salling Clicker in 2003. Apple has some great technology in Bluetooth and AppleScript, and I think they're happy someone is making it shine.

What is your market, and where is it primarily?
I think this product has started to move beyond the early adopter crowd. The typical Salling Clicker customer is either a professional who gives a lot of presentations or someone who uses his or her computer as a home audio system. In all, people in about 100 countries use our software. www.salling.com

Bob Garthwaite > VP Sales & Marketing
Altec Lansing Technologies, Inc.

Altec Lansing is a leading manufacturer and marketer of computer and home entertainment sound systems, as well as the developer of a portable sound system for the iPod called inMotion. Featured on Apple.com, inMotion is an upright docking bay with two speakers on either side, so that the iPod can be plugged in and turned into boom box about the size of a videocassette.

Bob Garthwaite joined Altec, following a 12-year stint at Franklin, a maker of handhelds, where as VP of Worldwide Sales and Marketing, he increased market share and revenues and reduced operating expenses while cultivating close ties with major retailers.

MD: Altec seems to have a very favorable relationship with Apple. How exactly did that develop?

BG: We met with Apple to share our idea with them early in the development process. They were very helpful in keeping us mindful of the Apple customer and their needs as we worked on inMotion. Beyond that, my sense is that Apple is happy to help companies that are developing cool, quality products for Apple customers. They have a great team there.

What kind of product evolution at Apple would be most favorable to Altec? I wouldn't try to predict how Apple's products will evolve, but I believe they will continue to innovate and push hard on design and functionality. That is also what we strive to do at Altec. I feel there is real synergy between the Apple demographic and Altec's-both are quality and design conscious. For sure, Apple will continue to introduce great new products.