New mergers and alliances in the PC world?

New mergers and alliances in the PC world?

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): John Naisbitt's latest book, Global Paradox, has
certainly drawn a lot of attention all over the world. He sees
entities merging to create new, larger and stronger ones. At the
same time, he also watches other entities breaking apart and new,
smaller ones being created.

In the world of personal computers, the same trends are
emerging. Just look at how Motorola, Apple and IBM have joined
forces in their attempt to remain world leaders.

Only two years ago, when people were still debating whether
they should be buying a PC or a Mac, the idea of seeing IBM in a
joint venture with Apple would have sounded as esoteric as living
without floods in Jakarta. But it has happened, and the fruit has
been borne, namely, the PowerPC!

As in any other industry, strategic alliances and mergers are
no longer uncommon in the PC industry. In some cases, such as the
merger between Novell and WordPerfect, such an alliance is badly
needed. WPCorp seems to have been in deep financial trouble, and
Novell came to the rescue.

Perhaps to counter the merger of these two giants -- one in
networking products and the other in word processor products,
Lotus Development and AT&T have also struck a deal. Lotus Notes
will be used in AT&T on-line communications network. This will
allow Notes users to publish and exchange information.

Of course, I won't get worried as long as these mergers still
leave a couple of big players in the field. As long as
competition still runs, the end users will always be benefited.
However, when the two largest competing players decide to join
hands, we could find ourselves in trouble.

Remember the time Borland International bought dBase IV from
the troubled Ashton-Tate Corp.? Borland had promised dBase users
to keep up development of dBase IV along with its own Paradox --
which was then dBase IV's fiercest competitor.

Years have passed, and after two major releases of Paradox for
Windows we have yet to see dBase for Windows hit the market.
Indeed, it's really hard to think of one good reason for a
software company to develop two competing products at the same
time.

FoxPro

It was a blessing in disguise for us, the end users, that
Microsoft bought FoxPro from Fox Software and continued its
development. Release 2.5 of FoxPro for Windows must have caused
the folks at Borland a run for their money, and as the results we
saw a much revamped Paradox for Windows 4.5.

Unfortunately, the merging of competitors has happened again.
Aldus Corp. and Adobe System Inc. have just announced their
union, too.

On the one hand, both have mutually complementary products.
Aldus has a world-class page layout program, namely, PageMaker.
Adobe has the most popular printing language in the professional
printing world, Postscript. Both Aldus PageMaker and Adobe
Postscript form a combination that's more like the combination of
a fat bank account and perfect health.

On the other hand, however, both have competing products that
are considered leaders in their own field. Aldus has FreeHand,
Adobe has Illustrator, and both are very good graphics
illustration packages.

Furthermore, Aldus has PhotoStyler, Adobe has PhotoShop.
Again, both belong to the top ranks of image manipulation
programs. Now that they have become the products of the same
company, will we see the same innovative energy used to be
reflected in their new releases?

As if not enough disheartening mergers have taken place,
Symantec Corp. and Central Point Software Inc. have also
announced their decision to merge. Symantec, with its Peter
Norton Group, is the owner of first class Norton Desktop for
Windows. Central Point is the proud owner of PCTools for Windows.

Choosing between the two Windows Program Manager replacements
is never an easy task. Such was the nature of the competition
between them that their latest upgrades appeared within months of
each other.

So I'm asking myself, where will be the inspiring competition
come from now that they have become the products of one and the
same company?

Let's hope that I'm wrong. Let's hope that these mergers will
not diminish competition -- a situation that always spurs the
urge to innovate and to become more creative. Let's hope that
neither PhotoStyler nor PhotoShop, FreeHand nor Illustrator, NDW
nor PCTools for Windows will follow the fate of dBase IV.