Details of just what Apple Computer Inc said at its open day last week have been coming out in frustrating dribs and drabs, but the key announcement appears to have been plans for an Open Collaboration Environment, a suite of programming interfaces, foundation services, servers, and user-level capabilities that will extend and complement the InterApplication Communication architecture of the System 7 version of the Macintosh operating system. According to Microbytes Daily, Open Collaboration will include messaging, mail, directory, authentication, privacy, and digital signature services designed to make it easy for third parties to incorporate existing and emerging messaging and directory technologies.Apple said that future versions of System 7 may evolve to support interfaces for the pen input technology that it has demonstrated under the code name Rosetta, and the speech recognition system it has demonstrated under the name of Casper. It has as its goal producing smaller, lighter products that are highly mobile. It also demonstrated an open scripting environment to give customers a choice of scripting tools that will work across different off-the-shelf software products. On multimedia, it said it will continue to enhance the QuickTime architecture, providing a foundation for new categories of applications such as videoconferencing, media servers, scriptable movies, and professional video editing. On software it said it wants to give customers more choices by offering a modular approach to software delivery; reach more users by making software technology readily available through broader distribution channels; and build stronger awareness through heavy marketing investment including advertising, direct mail, and co-marketing with software developers in new channels. Apple also sees Macintosh System remaining the company’s personal computer operating system, while whatever comes out of Taligent Inc will be aimed at large companies wanting to develop their own software for networked users. On its current business, Apple said its notebook computers are selling better than expected, but that it forecast the market split wrongly – it saw the PowerBook 100 to be the top seller, but it is the PowerBook 170 that is now sold out for some weeks. Analysts say it sold 120,000 of the three models in fourth quarter 1991.
