Good news indeed, but this also causes me to ponder the relationship between Apple championing legitimately purchased music, and an i-pod that now has the capacity to temp any user to fill it with twenty thousand �legitimately purchased� songs.
pax
While you did speak of Adobe dropping support for Premiere in OS X, etc..., I'm surprised no one has mentioned Apple's acquisition of Emagic, and the implications of this for professional audio production by third party developers such as Steinberg (Cubase) or MOTU (Digital Performer).
I have raised similar concerns about Apple's aggressive new foray into the software market on other forums, and in particular my concerns over the so-called "real world" tests at the recent developer's conference. If anyone recalls, Apple showed off it's new G5 running Logic Audio, against the "competing" PC running Cubase SX.
Now while Logic is now a mac-only app. Cubase SX is dual platform, though arguably it was not ready for a "panther" demonstration at the time. The point, however, was that many audio users noticed how poorly the "demonstration" made Cubase SX appear (audio dropouts, etc.) , apart from the PC performance. Consequently, Apple seemed to be sending a message asserting it's own audio application over that of competing third-party offerings.
This seemed to me to be a very strange thing to do at a developer's conference. I have not been able to dismiss this as being simply benign on the part of Apple either, particularly in light of the many issues that you've raised here. I'm also conflicted as I feel some competition is good, especially if Apple is raising the bar for developers to follow as some of you say.
Finally, of interest to me, is the release of Soundtrack, which though previously available as part of Final Cut Pro, is now a stand alone audio " i-type" app. This program will not replace some more sophisticated programs. like Reason or Live, but it does assert itself as a potential future contender of sorts, especially as it might snag newer users of these other audio production applications. With Emagic as a subsidiary, I wouldn't rule out future implementations that will pose more of a challenge to competition.
Just my thoughts.
Three Pieces of Good News from Cupertino
Is Apple Going to iApp Itself Into Irrelevancy?