What’s Next In The iLife Suite?

Once upon a time there was a little bundle of software called the iLife suite. It contained iTunes, iMovie and iPhoto. Each application was unrefined, buggy and fairly basic, but they all showed quite a bit of promise. Further down the road iDVD was added making the suite even better and yet Apple still wasn’t done. Foregoing the “i” moniker they created GarageBand grafting it onto the iLife package and, amazingly enough, making an awesome product even better. That is where we are today but what does the future hold?

If Apple were to improve this product line (and there is no reason to think they won’t) what will they add next? After some consideration I have come up with several likely applications that could one day make into mix. Here is my list:

Animator ~ A very simple program that allows the user to create basic animation in the style of say Pixar. Now everyone will be able to create their own talking fish or courageous toys. This would be a very cool piece of software to add to their stable. Additionally it could be billed as a low cost way to make your own animated films (in conjunction with iMovie and iDVD).

iBrush ~ Think of this application as a cross between Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. This application would allow one to retouch photos with more features than iPhoto currently offers while lacking the complexity of Adobe’s offerings. Additionally one could use it to create simple web graphics or enhance a digital image. This would be a good application to include if Apple decided to go after Photoshop and the rest of the high end digital image crowd.

Site Builder ~ This is the one I think is most likely to make it to market. An easy to use website creator that would fill the void between free stripped down site creators and programs like Dreamweaver. I am sure that lots of people would like to make their own sites but have no idea how. If they use a free site builder from one hosting site they might be unaware of how to move those pages to a new site. Likewise Dreamweaver and Indesign might be out of their budget. So, Apple enters with an easy to use website design program that seamlessly integrates photos from iPhoto, movies from iMovie and sounds from GarageBand, sounds like we might have a winner.

As the switch to Intel draws closer I am sure that Mr. Jobs is going to want to have something new to show to the crowd before the main event so why not make it a new iLife app? I for one would welcome any addition for the simple reason that it would make the package more attractive thus making an Apple computer more attractive. And isn’t selling more computers what this is all about?