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It's not .Net, but Apple is making its own progress in delivering Web-based applications through its Macintosh OS, using concepts similar to those of Microsoft's broad Internet initiative.

Apple late on Friday will officially release an update to Mac OS X known as Jaguar, which adds technology so the system can run applications on the desktop that access services on the Internet.

Apple claims to have stuffed some 150 upgrades and new features into Mac OS X version 10.2. Among them is a retooled version of its Sherlock search tool that acts as a user interface for accessing Web-based services.

"In many ways Sherlock changes the way that people will use and enjoy the Internet," said Ken Bereskin, director of Mac OS X product marketing. "The browser remains the ultimate Internet tool, but it's designed for browsing. We've gotten the sense that there are some key services on the Internet that people use all the time that can benefit from having really great desktop applications designed for them."

Partner Plug-Ins

Apple has recruited such Internet companies as eBay and Moviefone to offer services through the Mac OS X desktop with plug-in applications built for Sherlock. With eBay's plug-in, for example, users can search eBay's marketplace for items. Sherlock then automatically queries eBay's Web site for relevant listings and returns any matches to the users' desktop.

Other plug-ins include one from YellowPages.com, which lets users enter a business type, such as "hardware store," and get a list of nearby hardware stores, a map of locations, and detailed driving directions. Moviefone's service allows a user to search nearby theaters for movie show times and order tickets.

In addition to Sherlock, Apple has integrated Internet features into several of its desktop applications, building on an industry trend to create closer ties between the Internet and the desktop. For example, Apple's iPhoto application allows users to post photos online, as well as order prints, directly from within the iPhoto application.

The company also recently repositioned its iTools service to be called .Mac, offering users an e-mail account, online storage, an online address book and other subscription services. From the desktop of the Jaguar version of the OS, users can drag and drop files into their online storage account, called iDisk. Those files can then be accessed from remote locations using an Internet browser on any Macintosh or Windows PC.

"When you can assume the Internet is there, it becomes part of everything you do in all your applications," Bereskin said. "You see that in Mac OS X."

Similar to .Net

Microsoft has promised to deliver its own set of consumer-facing Web services that would let users do such things as order tickets and book reservations through its Windows operating system without using a Web browser. Code-named Hailstorm, and later renamed .Net My Services, the service's rollout to consumers has been put on hold.

While several industry analysts say Apple's technology is far less developed than the infrastructure Microsoft aims to deliver through its .Net initiative, conceptually Sherlock's functions provide an early glimpse at the future of Web-based applications and services.

"I would agree that they are using a Web services metaphor, but I think it's drastically different than the Microsoft .Net strategy," said Tim Bajarin, president of the research firm Creative Strategies. "It is similar in that they both aim to create applications that are Web-based, but in Microsoft's case they're going even deeper in suggesting that they can create the underlying architecture for delivering Web-based applications."

Like Microsoft's .Net initiative, Apple uses the industry standard data format XML in the process, so users can access Internet data from an interface other than a browser. However, Microsoft is developing a more expansive infrastructure for .Net with servers and tools that businesses would use to build, host, and deliver Web services. Much of Microsoft's efforts are aimed at linking together the computer systems of business partners.

"From Apple's standpoint, it's not clear from what they've shown here how rich its applications will be," Bajarin said, comparing the technology to .Net.

Not One-Stop Shopping

For its consumer-facing .Net Web services, Microsoft says it plans to integrate all of the transactions for users. For example, if a user were to order a plane ticket through .Net My Services, .Net could draw funds from a user's bank account and schedule the flight into the user's address book, without the user seeing the transactions.

Sherlock lacks such advanced features, as users still have to access a Web browser to complete transactions initiated in Sherlock, such as making an actual bid on eBay.

Still, "by going around the browser [to initially access data], that really is more like a Web service," noted Al Gillen, research director of systems software at IDC.

Apple said it plans to release in the next few weeks a software development kit that can be used to build Web-based applications that plug in to Sherlock. Eventually, users will be able to choose from a list of available services, called channels, and add them directly to their desktops.

"We're working with a large number of partners on this," Bereskin said.

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