My Geek Notes

As a kid I used to drive my parents crazy with the “What If” game;

What if there was no gravity?
What if peanut butter were purple?
What if Darth Vader became President?

In this months MacWorld Magazine they reveal through a leaked memo that Microsoft threatened to dump the Mac version of Office back in 1997. While a wise VP in development convinced Bill Gates to not abandon the Mac version of Office, the article made me contemplate the often complicated relationship between the two giants of the industry and ask myself “What if Microsoft had abandoned the Mac version of Office?”

1997 was prior to Apple’s renaissance that has brought them back to the forefront of the computer industry. Apple’s primary channels at the time were the Education and Design Industries. While Word is not a flagship application to those of us in the Graphics Industry, In 1997 Apple’s competitive application Works, was far inferior to Office and Office’s compatibility was virtually everything to their share of the education industry. The loss of Office could have proven a death blow to Apple. So What if Microsoft had killed Office in 1997? I had to ask myself would we still have seen the introduction of such revolutionary products such as the iMac, the iPod or the highly anticipated iPhone. So fellow Mac geeks, next time you have a chance to open up a Word document, remember how lucky we are to have Word on our Macs - and be grateful your toting an iPod - and not a Zune.