Why There is No iLife (Life XP) for Windows

Connected Home posses an interesting question: why isn’t there an iLife for Windows?  Paul Thurrott rightfully points out how excellent of a suite iLife ’06 is with all it’s wonderful and robust features.  But what Thurrott doesn’t understand is why doesn’t Microsoft have anything that comes close to iLife.  The reason is simple, Microsoft doesn’t need to.

Apple is struggling to keep big names from jumping off the OS X platform. Look at Macworld. Microsoft’s Office head received a huge chunk of air time while Intel’s top boss came out in a bunny suit and showed his head for 30 seconds. If you ask me, going to the Intel CPU is a bit more of news then keeping Microsoft around for another version of Office. But in the end, Steve Jobs knew he had to give Microsoft their dog-and-pony show time to keep them happy. Also note what was said during that time. ’We’ll be here for five more years.’ Ya, good indication that Microsoft and Apple signed a five year deal behind closed doors and thus the reason for the large amount of stage time for Redmond-based company.

Now, look to Microsoft.  Does it have to beg any manufacturer to stay and code for Windows?  Nope.  Does it need to make a lite version of Office to get more purchases of its OS?  Nope.  Do people who buy Windows demand the applications of iLife for free?  Nope.  There’s no need for an iLife for Windows, that’s why Microsoft doesn’t have it.  Why waste the $50 billion in the bank on something you don’t need?

Once OS X starts really taking off, you’ll see changes in iLife. It’ll mature and so will the price. It already has. In fact, it wouldn’t be surprising to find Apple to pull an Adobe and start selling each application individually and pricing each offering at the current suite price. Each product is worth it at this point, but once the masses buy into the new Mac way of life, then Apple can get away with higher pricing for it. Remember, all the previous iApps (except GarageBand and the newly added iWeb) use to be free. But until then, it’ll stay low and affordable.

Will iLife ever disappear and take the Windows road with it’s new life? Maybe. It’s hard to say since I don’t run the company but when you’re a publicly held company, you tend to do things like the other large public companies do. There is a pattern.

Updated: Proper credit to original author.

[tags]windows,free,ilife,version[/tags]