Michael Dell, founder and CEO of Dell Computers said he’d like to put Apple’s OS on his brand of computers, giving his customer additional choices. This would be great for Dell and PC makers everywhere and could certainly crimp the style of the Seattle slew but would Apple every go for it?
Apple has built its reputation on building premium products for premium users. Much of the professional level software over the years has been produced almost exclusively for Macs. Having grown up around a newspaper, I can remember when they converted from the old CompuGraphic typesetting machines to the Apple Macs. The typesetters were the size of a desk by themselves. You could put three Macs on one table. It was a nice switch.
Well, Apple has been in the news quite a lot lately. The success of the iPod has been stupendous. It’s given them a new source of revenue and it’s done extraordinarily well. Then they announced updates for the OS X. Recently they said they were switching to Intel processors over long-term partner IBM. Many feel the next logical step would be for Apple to license the OS X but the question is whether it would do Apple any good.
Dell would certainly be able to tap into a new market and Apple would too. There would seem to be two major problems though. Most PC users will still inevitably go with Windows. The average PC user doesn’t care so much about OSs. They like to point and click and Windows is what they are most familiar with. While a lot of high-end, professional level software works best on the Apple computers, most of it is available for Windows.
Also, most serious Apple users ain’t budgin’. They will stick to their G4s or G5 or whatever’s coming. Apple users are generally loyal if nothing else. Also, there’s a fair amount of software that won’t run on Apples. One of the big markets for most PCs is home use, namely entertainment. A lot of games simply haven’t been developed for Apple. They may have been developed on an Apple, but they aren’t always designed to play on one.
The other thing would be price points. Apple maintains a premium product with premium pricing. They always have. That’s part of their appeal. You get a sleek computer with superior graphics and video quality, high sound, a superb processor system, plenty of room to run lots of big software. But you pay for it. Dell didn’t get to be the top PC seller for keeping high prices on all their products. They built products affordable for the average household. In order to keep OS X products competitive, wouldn’t Dell be forced to raise their prices somewhat? What would be the point of buying an Apple if I can buy a Dell with the same OS and substantially less?
It will be interesting to see where this goes next, especially since Apple has maintained for quite sometime that they would not allow their OS to be sold to other manufacturers.
John Stith is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
