T Incorporated

Antitrust laws exist mainly to “prohibit agreements or practices that restrict free trade and competition between business entities.”

So, among other things, they protect you from Company X trying to force you to buy a second product after you’ve already bought a first one. This is the main crux of what got Microsoft in trouble with Internet Explorer.

These laws, specifically the Sherman Act, are likely what’s keeping you and me from having to buy our milk from Standard Oil, which is great, but with software it can be tricky. Microsoft stepped over the line a bit for sure, but it’s not always so blatant. What constitutes a “product”? Where does one piece of software end and the other begin? What should be part of the operating system and what shouldn’t? For the most part I think software companies are doing it right. Applications are focused around particular tasks: listening to music, getting your email, browsing the web, editing photos, etc., and the operating system or “the web” is there to facilitate that. It’s the links that make these individual applications really shine and that’s where this gets sticky.

.Mac, OpenID, RSS

All of these are tying software or sites together, but they’re not abusive monopolies. They link applications in a way that benefits me more than the actual applications or websites themselves do individually. iCal is all right but having my calendar synced over .Mac makes it great. I’d argue a digital calendar isn’t much better then a pen and paper one, but with .Mac syncing and my iPhone I get the benefits of digital without sacrificing the ease of use of pen and paper.

OpenID isn’t an application or site but a concept that keeps me from having to remember all my passwords for all the different web applications out there. What site I’m using for it doesn’t really matter to me, but not having to remember passwords does. And then of course, RSS, which, allows me to pull in all the content from across the web. If your website doesn’t have it it’s isolating itself from the millions of people who have decided to consume your content using it.

It’s the ties that makes these technologies great.

Apple

In the past few years I’ve been amazed at how well Apple has done this. Old stalwarts who had been using Eudora for years switched to Mail when the iPhone came out. Not because it was better but because Apple made the syncing and integration so easy. They’ve done the same thing with iTunes and the iPod, and now I find myself tied to Safari because I love how all of my bookmarks are so easily synced between my iPhone, laptop, desktop and work computer. I just had a conversation with a friend who didn’t want to switch to Lightroom, not because he didn’t really like the application, but because the integration with other Apple products wasn’t as good as iPhoto.

It’s not just the big boys

Now before you start thinking only hardware and operating system manufacturers can play: Google has been doing this as well, just look at its web-based office suite. It’s not just the big boys, either. NetNewsWire has me “locked in” because of its syncing capabilities even though I really like the simplicity of the now free NewsFire. And Transmit is my favorite FTP client for a lot of reasons, but having my list of favorite sites automatically sync through .Mac is why I’d never give consider something else.

Make it simple, make it work

It’s not just syncing, it’s not just linking applications: it’s making the process easier. I have a love/hate relationship with .Mac. It’s jaw-dropping when my contacts magically sync just by checking a box. At the same time, it’s frustrating when my calendar suddenly decides to create duplicates from the past two years. Making the lives of users easier by linking things they already use is critical to success of new applications. People are too tied into their routines to change easily.

I don’t want another Microsoft monopoly, even if Apple were the one to try it. I’m a fan of indie developers and individual applications tailored to a specific purpose. It keeps the user interface simple and gives me more choice in getting a tool specific to my needs. Just make sure it’s connected, synced or linked up too. Give me the best of both worlds. I want the individual flavor of mom and pop shops with the convenience of big store shopping—just no Standard Oil please.