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December 4, 2006

windows

New Parallels beta means resurrection of Apple acquisition rumors

Posted Dec. 4, ’06, 6:26 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Windows

Parallels I finally broke down and bought Parallels the other night. Partially, this was because it lets me try out Windows stuff easier and partially because I wanted to test the Boot Camp features in the new beta. I’ve held off on those new features due to reports of reactivation cycles, but I digress.

Both Paul Stamatiou and Ronald Heft Jr. are speculating that Apple will buy Parallels for Leopard. Paul’s a bit more reserved. Ronald is not.

This got me thinking, could Apple have purchased Parallels? If you at look at the facts, it begins to add up. The Parallels team has been releasing new features like crazy and hasn’t been charging for them. They’ve added features like Boot Camp support, making Parallels compatible with Apple’s offering. The new Coherency mode is approaching what some people have envisioned the next version of Boot Camp to be like. To top it off, 3D acceleration is expected to land in Parallels right around the time that Leopard is shipping.

I might be completely wrong, but to me it looks like something is going on behind the scenes. If Apple has purchased Parallels, I think that explains why the Parallels team has been releasing features out the wazoo without charging for them. This won’t be the first time Apple has included third party software in one of their offerings, so I think this scenario is completely possible.

So basically the argument is that they’re adding too much, so Apple must be funding that development. I’m sorry, but the logic breaks down right away.

First, Parallels has a very good reason for adding features for free. Virtualization is a growing market. They have competition in VMWare, which will be coming to the Mac in the not so distant future. On the Windows side, VMWare is already dominant. By adding a lot of features to the Mac side before VMWare manages to release their product, they stand to gain a lot of customers. The reason I broke down is that they added features I expected to see in VMWare. I have no reason to wait.

Second, if Apple has really licensed their technology for Leopard, it’s in Parallels’ and Apple’s best interests to keep new features to themselves. Virtualization would be a killer new feature to include in Leopard and if it’s going to be one of the primary motivations for users to upgrade from Tiger, it needs to stand head and shoulders above the existing Tiger compatible solution, Parallels. Again, the only explanation for adding features for free and releasing them to current customers is gaining marketshare, unnecessary if it’s going to be bundled with Leopard.

Finally, the “lack of Boot Camp development” is often used as an argument, even if Ronald doesn’t. Let’s head that off with the fact that Boot Camp is a special boot loader bundled with some Windows drivers. It doesn’t really need splashy new features. It just needs to work.

Parallels is exciting, but let’s not let excitement cloud our interpretation of events. Logic doesn’t dictate Apple licensing based upon Parallel’s recent behavior. Rather, it contradicts that idea.


2 Comments

Michael Long said:

As long as we're talking about new features, I for one, want the ability to install BC/P to an external USB/FW drive, and not have to waste space on a Window's partition on my notebook's internal drive.

December 4, 2006 10:23 AM
Larry V said:

Frankly, I see a company doing software updates right. I pay out for software; should I really be forced to keep paying to obtain updates? I'm already a customer, why screw me over by making me pay for the same product (albeit updated) over and over? I like the way Parallels is doing this; I pay once, and as a benefit for being a customer, I get free software updates.

December 4, 2006 1:47 PM

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