Intuit Opens Up at Demo2001

Software company's bold small-business initiative and Kodak's hot new camera are crowd pleasers.

Ramon G. McLeod, PCWorld.com

PHOENIX-- Bread-and-butter products such as accounting software tend to get overlooked at glitzy events like the Demo2001 show, but Intuit's Scott Cook made sure he had everyone's attention Monday.

Hobbled by a broken leg, Cook told a stunned but approving crowd that Intuit had opened access to the application programming interfaces (APIs) for its extraordinarily popular QuickBooks accounting products.

Demo2001, put on by IDG Executive Forums (IDG is PC World's parent company), is an invitation-only affair for industry leaders, the media, and venture capitalists that showcases an eclectic mix of cutting-edge technology products and services that run the gamut from pure consumer to high-end enterprise.

This is the first time Intuit has opened its code to outside developers, and company officials joked that their competitors were probably downloading APIs moments after Cook let the word out.

"I'm sure the folks at Microsoft Money are taking a close look," says Esther E. Krujiver, director of the new developer program.

Not that the company has that much to worry about, even from Microsoft.

QuickBooks already has a massive 80 percent share in the small-business accounting software market. In making this move it hopes to increase that share and to open up new markets by making it easier for small businesses to get highly customized applications, such as Web-based appointment reservations systems, that can tie in seamlessly to the QuickBooks product line.

"We have 3 million small-business customers, and they know their problems far better than we do. By opening up to developers who can come up with very custom solutions to their problems, we think that this service will only increase loyalty to the product line and will help us sell more products," Krujiver says.

Small businesses will be able to find customized applications through the company's online small-business channel. Developers, who will have to pay a fee of about $1000 a year to participate in the Intuit Developer Network, can set their own prices with prospective clients.

Aimed at Generation Y

While Intuit claimed a large share of the show's buzz on Monday, Kodak was not about to be outdone. That company unveiled a pocket-size video/still camera-MP3 player, with a price that had attendees buzzing.

Due to ship in mid-March, the Kodak MC3 camera/MP3 player will retail between $229 and $299, depending on accessories, and is unabashedly aimed at "Generation Y" (people under 30 years old).

The camera is about the size of a mobile phone and takes surprisingly good-looking 20-frames-per-second QuickTime videos. As a still camera it produces photos at 640-by-480 resolution, which is a low resolution for a modern digital camera but more than adequate for the target market, Kodak thinks. The MP3 player is something of a throw-in, company officials admitted in off-the-record remarks, but it adds a sheen to the product that should be appealing to a young crowd--or so the company hopes.

Many at the show said that it would be very popular for college-age and high school-age young people (and gift-buying parents) because of its multifunction capabilities, shirt-pocket size, and moderate price, which compares very favorably with single-function MP3 players and low-end digital cameras.

That same crowd may well be attracted to Majestic, an online suspense game from Electronic Arts that can literally mix fact with fiction. How literally? If you give it permission, the game will send you phone calls, faxes, e-mails, and instant messages at any time and at any place. Talk about involving.

Set to launch in the spring, Majestic will be part of EA's online subscription service ($9.99 per month). The game will initially play out over nine episodes, each one lasting about a month, depending on the player's skills and, apparently, the player's free time.

Demo2001 concludes on Tuesday.