While most heads of PC makers cowered from speaking on the record, due to their fear of Microsoft, a certain Texas-based executive spoke out.
“If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers,” said Michael Dell to Fortune Magazine columnist David Kirkpatrick in an e-mail.
Mr. Dell is not the only one who feels that way, contends Mr. Kirkpatrick, but the others don’t wield the same kind of leverage with software titan Bill Gates. Dell Inc. is the world’s leading PC maker, and has already tweaked the Redmond-based software and game console maker by offering the Linux operating system as an option on its machines.
Another excellent point uncovered by Mr. Kirkpatrick is some reasoning behind Apple choosing Intel instead of AMD. Henri Richard, chief of sales and marketing for AMD, summed up the issue neatly.
Moving from the IBM platform to another one will be very expensive. Intel can offer more money to Apple during the porting process. Still, Mr. Richard was optimistic; “Steve is a smart guy. He’ll get as much money as he can from Intel, and then go to the best architecture.” One may assume by architecture he means AMD.
And while Apple has stated that its OS X won’t be available to other hardward besides its own, Mr. Kirkpatrick wonders why not. “Wouldn’t he want to sell those $130 operating system upgrades to anyone willing to pay? Upgrades for Macs are already a major source of Apple’s profits.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
