The big news was that Autodesk was making big news at Macworld Expo. 

However, their announcements, which we have covered in detail here on Architosh, were noteworthy for themselves as much as what they portend. 

The Augur Says…

If the Mac world had its own official augur he or she might suggest that Autodesk’s statements to Architosh during this private press meeting bode to a changing world within the computer industry.

In fact, as far as “signs” are concerned Autodesk’s presentment at Macworld Expo is as bold and forthwith as Apple’s unashamed statements that they were no longer really interested in attending Macworld Expo in the future. 

But much like IBM’s tantrum over Mark Papermaster’s hitch-up with Apple, Autodesk’s flat out statements about serving Mac customers came as a bit of a shock. And like the IBM versus Apple battle over Papermaster, both indicate a changing world within the computer industry. 

Apple and the Mac Matter

The tone of the meeting with Autodesk was very clear. In fact there were two tones bound together into a single timbre. It said: Apple is important to our customers…ever growingly so. And the second part said: Autodesk intends to fully meet this demand. 

Rob Hoffmann, Sr. Product Marketing Manager 3D for Autodesk’s Media & Entertainment division, said quite plainly that “the Mac market is extremely important to Autodesk.” “If you asked me four years ago about the Mac I would have said they were a rare sight within the production studio, but now they are a common sight,” says Rob. “The Mac is just like any other platform within entertainment sharing the same roles as Windows and Linux.” 

Outside M&E

Beyond the Media & Entertainment division Rob could not elaborate to the same extent as a man whose been serving the entertainment-driven 3D software market for over 14 years. But he did say “we are experiencing across the entire Autodesk software portfolio…strong demand for Mac support.”

But while the Mac is growing at an accelerating rate within the markets Autodesk serves, customers shouldn’t get too hopeful for particular Autodesk apps they would like to see on their beloved platform. Rob told us that how Autodesk will respond to Mac demand within its portfolio depends on a matrix of factors, least of which is development ease and cost…and opportunity for growth.

Up there in the complexity curve would be applications like Autodesk AutoCAD and maybe some of its very Windows-API oriented design applications. Easier apps to deliver to the Mac would be those they just started developing or those that were developed by others first (pre-acquisition) that developed around more portable software development models. 

Roughly Drafted dissects the three types of “disruption in technology” in this finely thought out piece here. Daniel Eran Dilger has written a very interesting article illustrates the differences between what he calls Conventional Disruption, Dropped Ball Disruption, and Fantasy Disruption. 

What distinguishes his article for me is the notion of the three types. This is compared of course to Clayton Christensen’s landmark book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail.”  BusinessWEEK actually has the first chapter to Christensen’s book here. If you have read this book then you will find the Roughly Drafted article interesting to you. It adds another layer of thought to what Christensen so deftly defines. This is all very useful reading for people in technology and in technology investing. I highly recommend it. 

No. 2 – Apeer Comes to the Mac

For those in the business and enterprise space this might excite you. A hot new software product in the collaboration space is by a company called Apeer, Inc. This week they announced that they will unveil a Mac version at conference in Los Angeles. 

Apeer touts it has the world’s first “all-in-one group communication and collaboration” platform with Apeer Professional. A new and unique product Apeer enables synchronous and instant multi-user exchanges using multimedia and documents. All parties can simultaneously view photos, hear music, see videos in real time over the Internet, all in one window. To discuss things with each other Apeer supports built in voice and chat. You can read more about it here.

No. 3 – Apple’s Mac mini and AppleTV may just become one

Yes, this my hunch at least. ArsTechnica has a story telling Apple Mac mini fans to “just be patient.” But patient for what? It appears that an Apple executive tipped off that Apple has something afoot for the mini. Everyone knows of course that Apple’s hobby, AppleTV is still just a hobby but Jobs is being coy about that and has been since the start. Apple clearly has aspirations about the TV, movies and the iTunes Store. In fact, couldn’t it also be possible that PA Semi folks at Apple are working on a specialized chip for the future AppleTV? 

No. 4 – Whose the Real Father of the iPod?

Cringley has really outdone himself this time. In this illuminating read Robert X. Cringley of PBS has concocted a grand chess game strategy behind the departure of Tony Fadell and the hiring of IBM’s Mark Papermaster. 

Moreover, Cringley goes on to say that Jobs really wants Papermaster to head up the PA Semi folks for a secret line of scalable processors (main board cpu’s) that are “optimized for Snow Leopard and beyond.” But in order to throw off the judge he needed to put Papermaster in Tony’s position because heading up the iPod and iPhone division means putting Mark Papermaster into a consumer product line and that means nothing about what he is doing centers on the IT enterprise or the business of computers. Pretty neat, huh? 

And remember what I wrote last week about this. What does the Noncompete Agreement really say? There are three levels to the noncompete clauses. One centers on being a “significant competitor” to IBM. They aren’t even in the same business arenas. Two, a “major competitor” of the company. Same as one. No. And three, “engages in competition with business units or divisions of IBM.” 

This last one is the the catch. Apple’s PA Semi division does, will and can engage in direct competition with Big Blue’s semiconductor business. 

No. 5 – Of Luke Skywalker’s Speeder and the Future of Microchips

Okay, so we all know that in Star Wars there is a whole range of technology wonders that may or may not ever come to pass in our life here on Earth. Or anybody’s life here on Earth. The possibility of a real lightsaber is one of them — unfortunately. Boo…I always wanted one. 

Now researches at UC Berkley are blazing ahead with a new technique in focusing light rays in a process called “plasmonic lithography” and it promises to get those little patterns etched onto silicon-based chips reduced to even tinier scales, thus shrinking chips while etching more circuitry onto them. 

Plasmonic lithography converts light into waves called plasmons, a type of radiation that unfortunately doesn’t radiate very far. So, in order to get such tiny waves of light etched into silicon one must use a non-physical, non-mechanical cushion, thus the “air bearings” technique. Air bearings enable the suspension of the key lens to get within 20 nanometers above the surface of the chip during the etching process. So…remember thinking, “how does Luke’s speeder actually float about the surface of Tatooine?” 

Ah…perhaps it was air bearings?

Ballmer and troops seem to have finally learned an important lesson from Apple: when it comes to your next OS, keep your mouth shut! BusinessWEEK’s Stephen Wildstrom filed a report on his preview experience from Microsoft’s Professional Developer’s Conference and states that “Windows 7 is conceptually a bit like Windows 98″ as is Windows Vista is to Windows 95. Got that? Yes, Windows 7 like Windows 98 doesn’t dramatically change Windows like Vista did but rather improves on all that is wrong with Vista. That should be welcoming to fans of Redmond’s operating systems but based on reader feedback on BusinessWEEK that doesn’t sound all that exciting. 

No. 2 – Commentary: Apple Indicators Spook Microsoft, not Apple’s Market Share

John Martellar, a former Apple sciences marketing manager and now columnist at The Mac Observer, opined this interesting read regarding where Microsoft’s key failure points are. Martellaro utilizes his knowledge of military warfare to draw up an analogy using the 1973 Arab-Israeli War as his reference. So what are real emerging problems that Microsoft sees? Martellaro says they are, 1) Apple’s financial strength, 2) Apple’s retail presence (a growing one…) and 3) Apple’s ability to define the terms of the war with Microsoft through the use of its highly effective “Get a Mac” TV ads. 

If those items aren’t spooking Microsoft perhaps this story by Silicon Alley Insider will. The online publication is demarking the “beginning of the end” for the Windows hegemony based on what is happening with netbooks. Essentially they are growing rapidly and many do not feature Windows at all but rather Linux. In the future many will run a version of Google Gears. 

No. 3 – Full 64-bit Kernel in Apple’s Snow Leopard

AppleInsider has an excellent report on the differences between different levels of 64-bit support in operating systems — specifically detailing 64-bitness in Snow Leopard. If you missed this story during the week go back and read it. It clarifies the technical OS stack in clear diagrams and shows how Snow Leopard differs between Leopard today. Snow Leopard, unlike Mac OS X 10.5, will require 64-bit drivers and KEXT files, but unlike Leopard it has a true 64-bit system and 64-bit kernel. It will still support 32-bit applications with transparent backwards compatibility. 

No. 4 – Apple Gets Serious with MobileMe

Apple has belatedly provided details of its MobileMe web services, finally fixing the issues that plagued the new suite of cross-platform tools that launched in July. MacUser UK is has the details in this report. 

No. 5 – Commentary: Papermaster not to set foot in Cupertino

Our own report summarizes in more detail what was easily the hit tech story of the week. IBM’s Mark Papermaster was an elite VP-level, 26-year IBM veteran with intimate details of IBM chip architecture history and strategy, as well as overall company details, marketing plans and future strategy. Papermaster has apparently joined Apple and IBM has filed suit against Papermaster for violating a 2006 Noncompete Agreement that states that Papermaster was to wait one year from termination date before it engaged with IBM competitors. 

Noncompete Agreements are legally invalid in the state of California, which is Apple’s base of operations. However, Papermaster signed the agreement while working for IBM, based in New York state.

Mark Papermaster, a senior vice president at IBM, has apparently taken a job with Apple computer and is expected to start working for Apple next month, according to reports. However, IBM has filed suit this week against Papermaster in a US District Court in Manhattan to stop Papermaster from joining Apple. The basis of the case is a breach in Papermaster’s Noncompetition Agreement he signed with IBM in 2006. That agreement states that Papermaster cannot join a firm that competes with IBM within one year of his termination of employment.  Mark Papermaster has been with IBM for 26 years and is a member of IBM’s elite I&VT (Integration & Values Team), which includes IBM’s top 300 senior managers and thus has wide access to company intellectual property and trade secrets, including top secret IBM strategy. 

IBM’s Case: Noncompete Agreement Details

The details of the IBM Noncompetition Agreement are significant. The agreement states that Papermaster agrees that he will not (within 1 year of termination) “engage in or associate with (a) any ‘Business Enterprise’ or (b) any significant competitor or major competitor of the Company…”.  By “Business Enterprise” the agreement means any entity or entity that owns or controls a significant interest in any entity that engages in competition with the “business units or divisions of the Company” (IBM) in which you have worked at any time during the two year period prior to the termination. The agreement further defines “engage in” completely to include both consultant and contractor status, so even if Papermaster didn’t join Apple as an employee he would still be barred from engaging with Apple. 

IBM’s case based on this Noncompetition Agreement seems to hinge on Apple being deemed:

• a “significant competitor” to IBM
• a “major competitor of the company” {that being IBM}
• or an entity that engages in competition with business units or divisions of IBM

Mark Papermaster’s Role at Apple

It is not clear what Papermaster’s role would be at Apple. But IBM is hell bent on him not joining Apple. The company offered him a substantial pay increase to keep him. Additionally, it is reported IBM offered to pay him one year’s salary if he would just refrain from joining a competitor. A MacNN post notes that he was expecting to work closely with Steve Jobs.