Just what is Apple Schema-ing

So Apple confirmed Tuesday that it has bought the assets of SchemaSoft. But it isn't saying much about what it will do with the company.

Apple was already a customer of SchemaSoft, whose tools allow software makers to important and export from a variety of file formats, including Microsoft Office. That know-how could have come in handy when Apple was building PowerPoint-compatibility into Keynote or developing Pages, Apple's entry into word processing.

So what is Apple up to now? Does it see a need for even more protection against Microsoft dropping its Mac products? For its part, the folks at the Macintosh Business Unit at Microsoft are still talking boldly about the future of Mac Office, including work on the next version. But Apple has long seen a need for a Plan B of which the iWork apps seem to be a key part.

Hmm, I wonder how good the SchemaSoft folks are with spreadsheets...