Dell We'd Sell Mac OS X 805
euphonaesthesia writes "In this article from Fortune, Dell CEO Michael Dell mentions that he would offer OS X to customers if Apple were so willing. The author speculates also that Apple would probably demand certain specifications. Having OS X would probably require a higher price point--this both Apple and Dell would probably like."
OMG (Score:5, Funny)
Re:OMG (Score:5, Funny)
In a row?!
Re:OMG (Score:3, Interesting)
Umm Duh. How is this news worthy? Apple is the 8th largest in harware sales. A lot of people like OS X but doesn't want to pay for Apple products, or feel suck on OS X. The next big answer is asking the CEO of AMD if he wants to make a profit this quarter.
Re:OMG (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:OMG (Score:3, Informative)
It's interesting in that we can assume that Mr. Dell no longer thinks Steve Jobs should (paraphrased) "shut Apple down, sell all its assets, and distribute the proceeds to the shareholders", as I seem to recall him recommending as the best thing that could be done with the company back around the time Jobs took over.
(Certain types of comments stick in Apple fans' memories (even the non-"rabid fanboi" type) and produce a certain desire to gloat at times like this.)
Re:OMG (Score:3, Interesting)
Also he and Jobs were trading digs on each other's companies. Of course, Jobs' Anti-Dell insults don't tend to stick in people's memory the same way as any diss against Apple.
Surprising, this is not... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, it's not surprising Dell would offer to sell hardware. It would be surprising to see Apple take the offer.
P.S. The "text in image" thing still sucks donkey balls. (Maybe that should be my sig...)
Getting out of commodity hardware (Score:5, Insightful)
So, OS X, could be sort of the bridge to getting the PC makers away from the commodity market. If you want a cheap bare bones PC, you get your wintel XP box. If you want something that's going to be high quality and last you a few years, you get yourself a macintel box.
The question that remains is whether Apple is willing to sacrifice some hardware sales to broaden the base of their OS support. I kinda doubt they will because their bread and butter really is making nice hardware. It's beneficial to them to have an exclusive lock on the apple faithful as far as that goes.
In the end, what I really hope for is being able to buy an Apple computer with OS X and be able to run my Windows games under that environment rather seamlessly. Then I can run OS X all the time, play my windows games when I want to, and then down the road hopefully mac games will come out and I can drop Windows all together.
Re:Getting out of commodity hardware (Score:5, Interesting)
While Apple may make their money on hardware, one of the struggles that Mac has is a lack of a software base. The emulators have been nice and all, but they are slow. If Apple partners with a couple of vendars, like Dell and HP, then people may start to look at Mac OS X as a viable computing option and then more programs may start to be developed for the Macintel. What I can see happening is that the lower end Mac OS X systems would be sold by Dell, while the real neat toy computers would be sold by Apple. The other thing that would be rather wild would be for Dell to offer a dual boot system, or a bridge system that would use virtualization technology to run both OSX and WinXP at the same time.
Re:Getting out of commodity hardware (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Getting out of commodity hardware - Betamax! (Score:3, Insightful)
Oh, this should work well. Didn't Sony keep prices high on Betamax boxes after VHS appeared on the theory that the American consumer would pay more for quality just like the Japanses consumer?
Of course, Apple hasn't seemed to learn from any other history lessons (e.g. Osborne) either.
Locking people into hardware from only one manufacturer. How 1984 of them. Kind of forgot about that famous Superbowl commercial I guess.
Re:Getting out of commodity hardware - Betamax! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:4, Informative)
And this is exactly the reason I stopped buying Apple and migrated the entire company where I worked to Windows NT.
Actually, Umax, Power Computing and Motorola all took it in the shorts. I bought a pile of shiny new Power Computing McMacs when OS 8 came out, only to find that Apple declined to license future releases to the clone makers. I guess Power Computing folded, Umax went back to making pretty good scanners and I guess Motorola just walked away disgusted.
Me? I started putting dual processor Pentium boxes in place of the Mac graphics workstations and got higher productivity lower TCO.
It is funny that nobody ever thinks of Apple when they mention questionable business practices - the McMac thing was just one way they stifled the competition.
Know why Macs could read PC disks but not vice versa? Easy. Apple's HFS filesystem was copyrighted ;-)
I'd probably buy another Mac if I could build it myself. Wonder if that'll ever happen?
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:4, Informative)
*sigh*
One would think with all the discussions on this site that people would know the difference between the four types of "intellectual property" protected by the legal system: Copyright, Patent, Trademark, Secret. Know why Macs could read PC disks but not vice versa? Easy. Apple's HFS filesystem was patented or a trade secret.
If Microsoft wrote their own HFS driver, copyright wouldn't be an issue. If Microsoft couldn't figure out the HFS without illegal corporate espionage, then it's a trade secret. If Microsoft could figure out how it worked, and could write their own, then the only legal protection remaining is a viable patent in force.
Of course, that still leaves the possibility that maybe Microsoft was just apathetic on the issue, or consciously decided to snub the Apple crowd by not bothering with the HFS at all.
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:3, Interesting)
One would think that the facts are actually important sometimes... The HFS file format was documented in Inside Macintosh. That MS didn't put the effort into supporting it probably shows the disdain they held for Apple in those days. Oddly, Apple saw the reasons to implement the PC floppy format so the Mac could read and write PC floppies.
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:5, Informative)
Power Computing is still around [powerc.com], though they sell x86 boxes now.
Af far as the cloes go, Apple was going to go out of business if they didn't stop licensing the OS under the terms that they used. They were bleeding cash like there was no tomorrow, the clones were killing their hardware sales, while the licensing wasn't bringing in any real revenue. It wasn't a predatory business practice - it was done to save their skin.
>It is funny that nobody ever thinks of Apple when they mention questionable business practices
Apple does get mentioned a lot - their treatemt of VARs, their cannibalizing tools that 3rd parties create (Konfabulator, etc), iTunes license changes, et al. Your example of the clones is ancient history, and not an example of a questionable business practice.
>Apple's HFS filesystem was copyrighted
There are a number of 3rd party utilities that can be installed on Windows to read HFS. A quick Google of Windows HFS [google.com] will return a number of tools. Apple has not gone after any of the makers of these tools.
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:3, Informative)
This is not the same Power Computing Corp -- they were powercc.com. They had a different logo, and were based near Austin, TX. (Read the About us [powerc.com]) I think the old PowerCC is long dead.
PowerCC was in the old Wal-Mart building in Round Rock, across IH35 from the main Dell campus. That building had RPM Speedway [rpmir.com] in it for many years.
Before Steve pulled the plug, PowerCC was excitedly growing and moving to a larger campus about 15 miles north in
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:3, Informative)
Power Computing is still around, though they sell x86 boxes now.
I was going to reply that Power Computing Corp. was purchased by Apple when Steve Jobs returned. But it is not that simple. Read about it in Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]. But I don't think the wiki entry is 100% correct. It appears that Power Computing is not completely gone and still has a support line. I found it in this support article [apple.com] on Apple's web site. I called the number and the technician I spoke to said that they never sold PC clones, they no longer
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:4, Informative)
That's right for floppies. There actually were some floppies for PCs that would read Mac disks. After they went to the same basic floppy then there were utilities on the PC for reading Mac disks. And, right now, there are several utilities for mounting HFS+ formatted hard drives. (Including the iPod) So the original poster is just misinformed.
I should add that the reason neither Linux nor OSX can write to NTFS disks is due to Microsoft doing what the poster claimed Apple was doing.
(I should add the caveat that I have no idea how legally all these HFS readers work. Possibly the patent just ran out. Possibly Apple doesn't care. Possibly Apple just didn't patent anything at all.)
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:4, Informative)
I could be wrong, but I don't think this is correct. I'd imagine the difference has a lot more to do with NTFS security attributes and journaling than trade secrets, but I'll freely admit that Microsoft isn't sharing anything about how NTFS works with anybody outside the company ;-)
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:4, Funny)
If you can't built your own computer better and cheaper than Dell, it's time to turn in your geek badge.
If you want to see pricey, remove Mr. Dell's package from your throat and head over to their SAN storage, or price out a dual-proc rack-mounted server, or...nevermind. You two look like you're enjoying your private moment.
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:3, Funny)
...oh wait..
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:5, Insightful)
But I can't get the volume discount that Dell gets on its parts.
I have priced building my own versus purchasing, and even with using Froogle and always choosing the lowest price per part, it will always cost Dell less money to build.
And how do you figure warranty value? Most companies offer a 3 year replacement warranty, but buying the part from a reseller gets me a year at best.
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Surprising, this is not... (Score:5, Insightful)
But cheaper? Not a chance. Even if by some great act of sale-exploiting you can build the computer for the same price, you'll be using worse quality parts than Dell does, and won't have the software you get with the Dell
Re:OMG (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:OMG (Score:5, Insightful)
Remember when we had something like that when Dell said that it will have AMD based systems?
So why not... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:So why not... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:So why not... (Score:3, Insightful)
B) OSX would be easier to support (sorry, 'sa truth)
C) OSX has a truly superior interface (Linux has, well, an interface...)
D) OSX is cool (Linux is geeky).
Re:So why not... (Score:4, Insightful)
They already sell Linux on their servers, because enough customers want it that it makes sense. People want OS X, very few want Linux. If that ever changes, then Dell would offer desktop Linux.
Re:So why not... (Score:3, Insightful)
Sure linux has many things that OS X doest have and runs faster. But when you are selling a computer you want to person to feel that they have a State of the art computer not speeded up reject from 1990.
Yes I do like Linux and it has a lot of promice but compared to OS X Linux feels like Last Decade technology.
Other articles (Score:5, Funny)
Apex: "We'd love to sell Marantz"
FP for that ass!
Re:Other articles (Score:5, Funny)
Mercedes: "We agree."
Mercedes, a division of Daimlier-Chrysler [daimlerchrysler.com]
Sales are up.
Re:Other articles (Score:5, Interesting)
Mercedes: "We agree."
Mercedes, a division of Daimlier-Chrysler
Sales are up.
And quality is way, way down.
Mercedes used to mean "this car will still be running perfectly long after you're dead of old age."
Now you much are better off buying a Toyota or Nissan. The Japanese cars are nicer to drive, too.
If Dell selling Macs is at all analogous to Chrysler selling Mercedes, then I hope it never happens.
Re:Other articles (Score:4, Insightful)
Yup..if you wanted something akin to the Mercedes of audio...go for McIntosh [mcintoshlabs.com] The stuff looks old style still...but, man, what great sounding stuff.
Too bad most young people today don't know what truly good sounding stereo can be...
The damage is already done (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:4, Insightful)
General business type people won't be willing to use X11.
Arrgh! No X11 required!!! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:3, Interesting)
Couldn't Apple do this building from the 2.0 code base? They've done it with a lot of other software (KHTML, Darwin, gcc, OS X Server etc) and it would suddenly be a huge pull for their platform. It would be a nice boost for OpenOffice as they're lacking the polish and attention to detail that Apple seems to bring to this kind of thing.
If they could say to large government customers -
"We support the OASIS standard and your legac
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:5, Interesting)
Disclaimer: I am a developer of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X and a founder of the NeoOffice [neooffice.org] project.
Quote: Couldn't Apple do this building from the 2.0 code base?
The short answer is no. It is a common misconception that the OOo 2.0 codebase eases any transition to a native interface. This is far from the truth. Take the GTK "look" in 2.0. The fact that it looks like GTK does not mean that the interface has been redone in GTK. Rather, the OpenOffice VCL widget set has been enhanced to work similar to the Java heavyweight peer implementation. OOo instructs the platform to draw a button according to its native platform appearance. All of the event handling still uses the abstract OOo toolkit.
Since everything still uses the native toolkit, you still need to port the underlying OOo widget set and toolkit to run on the platform. OOo 2.0 only provides this for X11 and for Win32. NeoOffice/J [neooffice.org] provides an implementation in a mixture of Java and Carbon (soon to be Java and Cocoa). Getting it right is a nightmare. It's taken three years and thousands of hours of developer time.
And we still don't have the native widget drawing stuff...but it's on the way [neooffice.org].
There are other reasons why Apple wouldn't start from OOo 2.0. First off, Microsoft Office is one of the key selling points of the Mac platform that gets reiterated throughout the Mac sales materials and end user testimonials and, I daresay, things like Jobs' keynotes which always have Office demos. It's politics, of course, but Apple will most likely not start any "Office killer" application that may cause Microsoft to stop working on Office.
Secondly, Apple's already got their iWork suite. It's been designed as a consumer level and home office suite. Quite a bit of work has gone into rethinking the traditional office interfaces for Pages and Keynote. Most likely there's a spreadsheet application on the way as well. This engineering effort is not going to be simply discarded in favor of OpenOffice.org. iWork is also better suited towards their consumer-oriented strategy.
Additionally, KHTML is a great example of why Apple would not jump on the OpenOffice.org bandwagon. If you recall, the reason KHTML was chosen over Mozilla was because the engineers thought that the Mozilla codebase was unwieldly. I've programmed both Mozilla and OpenOffice.org for years and the Mozilla code looks easy when compared to OOo. And Mozilla is even commented in English, too. If they didn't want to work with the Mozilla code, you can bet they won't want to touch OOo with a 10 foot pole.
I've toiled on OpenOffice.org and NeoOffice/J on Mac OS X for nearly four years now. If Apple hasn't helped by now, I doubt they will so in the future.
ed
Re:I've toiled on OpenOffice.org (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, the code is ugly. After all, it is over 10 years old now as it was originally written by Star Division. You can still see legacy stuff from StarOffice 4 in the CVS repository including OS/2 code :) It's been a double-edged sword. Because the program is "mature", it's got enough of a feature set that folks can start to consider it on the level of Microsoft Office (well, it's probably more like the old Lotu
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:3, Informative)
I will be buying iWork before my trial expires, because I really enjoy the program. I think it's too bad more people aren't buying; if you
Huh? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:No it won't be, take a basic economics class(mo (Score:5, Insightful)
If OS X becomes popular in the general PC marketplace, Microsoft stands to lose Windows sales from those who buy OS X instead.
If they kill Office for OS X, a lot of businesses would write off OS X as an option and stay with Windows.
They would lose money from killing it, but in the long run if OS X becomes popular enough they could make more from the people that would be forced to stay on Windows without Mac Office.
Re:No it won't be, take a basic economics class(mo (Score:3, Interesting)
Second, you need to know the value of the "a lot of" people that would switch if Office were not available in order to conclude one way or another.
Based on Office's higher profitability, if only 1/4 of the market decides to stay with the Mac even if MS stops selling Office for it, then MS would be losing money.
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I can't see this happening anytime soon (Score:3, Insightful)
Just a guess here, but for some reason I get the impression that you are just a geek/enthusiast who does not represent what 99% of the business market wants or needs in an Office suite.
I also transitioned to the Fedora Core3 and hardly use Windows anymore.
Yep, thought so.
That'll teach em (Score:2, Insightful)
ok, seriously (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously, don't they realize that selling cheaper sometimes means bigger profits?
Re:ok, seriously (Score:4, Insightful)
The whole advantage to the Mac is that it's of a better quality, more stable, and has an Apple logo.
Sending Mac OS X to every computer manufacturer in the world would inhibit those three attributes.
The Apple brand is beyond hot - it's becoming part of culture. Market share is growing by leaps and bounds, and it's arguably just the beginning.
If you could sell the software and the hardware, why wouldn't you?
It's not holier tha thou. It's their product. That's like saying, "God, McDonalds is so snobby because they won't let Burger King offer their McNuggets. Come on already!"
Yes, the formula works for Microsoft, but I don't think it would work for Apple. It makes Apple just another PC company. The fact that they are truly innovating is the reason for their success.
Actually (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:ok, seriously (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, don't they realize that selling cheaper sometimes means bigger profits?
Maybe (gasp) they care about something more than just 'bigger profits'? Like, oh say long term survival of the company? As I said above, Apple has a fanatical following for a reason, and a large part of that reason is their underlying philosophy toward producing complete systems that 'just work'. It's worked for them so far (how many times have we heard that Apple is 'almost dead'?), so why change their strategy now?
Re:ok, seriously (Score:3, Interesting)
If they sold OSX separately, while still keeping their current business model of bundling HW+SW, they wouldn't survive? That doesn't say much for OSX.
What would probably happen (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:What would probably happen (Score:5, Insightful)
It would probably end up bearing both the Apple and Dell logos, and it would be very clear that you were getting a "Mac by Dell" rather than the real thing. Apple would also, of course, make them do all their own support. Granted, Apple would probably never even agree to anything like this, because of the risk of tarnishing their brand. There is a reason people buy PowerBooks instead of Inspirons or Latitudes, and it isn't just OSX. Everytime somebody has a problem with their "Mac by Dell," it would reflect just as badly on Mac as Dell, which would be unacceptable.
Unlike the switch to Intel, which is simply moving their brand in a different direction, letting Dell sell computers featuring OSX would actual water down their brand, which I don't think they are willing to do.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Missing the point...? (Score:5, Insightful)
1) OS X becomes unstable because of third-party drivers, etc, and Apple support becomes swamped, product image of 'stability' is tarnished.
2) The "mac experience" which includes both software and hardware is gone. To me, using my iMac and PowerBook are great experiences not just because of the OS, but because of the beautiful design, fit, and finish of the actual machines.
Re:Missing the point...? (Score:3, Interesting)
The G4 motherboards worked great in PC cases, but it's amazing some of [macmod.com] the mac [macopz.com] casemods [wired.com] out there.
Who wouldnt? (Score:5, Interesting)
Makes no real difference (Score:2)
Linux (Score:2)
doubtful (Score:5, Insightful)
Dell's just posturing to get better discounts from Microsoft.
Translation: (Score:5, Interesting)
They've done this before with switching to AMD--they've announced many time that they were "considering" it, but as soon as Intel lowered their prices, Dell backed off.
trolling whiner (Score:5, Informative)
Funny how people get misquoted... (Score:2, Funny)
"I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders."
Re:Funny how people get misquoted... (Score:4, Interesting)
Hmmm...Dell Apple PCs? (Score:2)
The reason why Mac OS works so well currently is because App
Finally real competition (Score:2)
One can argue that this might lessen the rate of adoption of linux, but I think the opposite will be true because when developers support two platforms, they'll have to use cross-platform toolkits or code so going to three platforms is not that big a step.
Apple *may* do this (Score:2)
However, I could see Apple possibly doing strategic partnerships with the likes of Dell and HP, allowing them to license (at a financially rewarding rate) some motherboard designs and allow t
How would Microsoft respond? (Score:3, Interesting)
I think it would be great if Dell provided MS, Apple, and Linux OSes as choises, but I just can't see MS allowing this to go on without some sort of "intervention". It wold be even better if they also sold AMD based systems.
Using intel != magical PC compatibillity (Score:5, Insightful)
Back in the 1980s, there was a period of time where Macintoshs, Amigas, Ataris, and other computers all used the Motorola 68000 processor. Just because they had the same processor did not immediately mean that they could all run each others hardware. Sure, there were some emulators available, but they usually required that the user have, say, a copy of the Macintosh ROMs to put into a physical card, or something similar.
The BIOS needs to know how to address the disk. The bootstrap code can be the same from machine to machine, but without someone finding and feeding it to the CPU, you got nothing.
Did Jobs say the Mac was switching to intel Processors? Yes. Did he say Macintoshes would now boot on ye olde' compaq in the basement? Nope.
Re:Using intel != magical PC compatibillity (Score:3, Interesting)
That's basically what the development kits are. Generic intel motherboard and chipset in an almost-empty G5 case that looks like a bad joke casemod.
burning ye olde strawmen (Score:3, Interesting)
Did Jobs say the Mac was switching to intel Processors? Yes. Did he say Macintoshes would now boot on ye olde' compaq in the basement? Nope.
Is the article talking about ye old compaq in the basement? No. It is talkng about ye new Intel powered Mac.
Where is that "field of strawmen" mod tag when you need it?
A common thread I see running through all these conversations about the upcoming switch to Intel processors is an assumption that having an Intel automatically equates to PC Compatibility.
What's
Signs of the impending apocalypse. (Score:3, Funny)
-Macs moving to Intel microprocessors.
-Roger Waters reuniting with Pink Floyd.
-Michael Dell's desire to sell OS X.
Icicles are forming in hell, pigs are flying, etc. Pick your favorite trite cliche. Personally, I'm scared. I think it's time to stock the basement with canned foods.
Apple doesn't want both a HW and SW price war (Score:4, Insightful)
The result would be lower winXP pricing, to price OSX out of the market and lower bundling prices of office, and of course no more Office for Mac. This would help kill OSX on Dells for PC buyers.
But Mac buyers would still shop Dells against Macs, killing Mac HW sales or profit margins.
Yep, I am sure Steve J. is just waiting to get into a price war on two fronts...
Re:Apple doesn't want both a HW and SW price war (Score:3, Insightful)
urm.... i doubt it, i suspect Microsoft would be quite happy for that to happen. After all they are planning on offering a competing product any day soon.
Tomorrow's headline: (Score:3, Funny)
Dell licensing Mac OS X? This is how it would work (Score:5, Insightful)
Dell *might* still make the case. Apple would require them to use reference designs for the internals, and Apple would require them to sell at a certain price.
Dell *might* be permitted to bundle extras with the computer, similar to the way you can get a ram upgrade or free printer from Mac Mall.
At Apple's prices, there's still quite a bit of room for profit for a manufacturer. Basically, Dell would manufacture Apples, and be permitted to sell it through their existing channels.
For example, many businesses have Dell accounts. They may not have Apple accounts. Of course Dell would love to sell Apples. Even if they pay a large premium to Apple, there is still a lot greater margin than with Windows PC products.
Wait... Michael Dell? (Score:5, Informative)
This [themacobserver.com] Michael Dell? ("...the best thing that could be done with Apple would be to shut it down, liquidate its assets, and return the money to its shareholders")
It should be observed that Michael Dell has taken pot-shots at, belittle, and marginalize Apple at every turn, in every market, using every bit of FUD he and the top brass at Dell could muster. The rivalry is legendary. At first I thought he was just trying (bitterly) to tout his machines at the expense of another company.
Then Apple makes a significant hit with OS X, talks about running on Intel hardware, and now he's more than willing to swallow a little of his pride and share in Apple's good fortune. This reversal of his stance has opened my eyes. He's not actually bitterly opposed to Apple, he's just bitterly opposed to poverty and obscurity. He's a techno-whore.
So the monopoly OS is cheaper? (Score:4, Insightful)
So the monopoly OS, Windows, which is supposed to cause price gouging, is actually cheaper than MacOS with identical hardware.
Re:So the monopoly OS is cheaper? (Score:3, Interesting)
Reminds Me (Score:4, Interesting)
In this day and age where brand is king and marketing is above all else - that Apple, the BMW of computers, would be sold at Dell? Sorry Dell dude, you're not getting a Mac.
A simple calculation (Score:3, Interesting)
Since Apple has switched to generic PC hardware like AGP graphics cards and ATA drives, the processor change will leave only two significant differences betweena PC and a Mac:
(A) Industrial hardware design
(B) OS X
So if (C) is Components like ATA hard drives and AGP graphics that go in every PC or Mac, as well as overhead for sales, support, etc, the total cost of the Apple box is:
Mac Cost = A + B + C
Now currently, an OS X upgrade is $129 for an existing Mac user, so we can assume that B is somewhere north of $130. But if Apple priced OS X on a Dell as a $130 option, then the price of the Dell would be C + B (Components + OS X) which means the Apple would be overpriced by $A for its Industrial Design.
So Apple needs to price OS X for Dell at $E = A + B
I figure if a high end Dell cna be configured for about $400 less than a similar Mac, then $399 is a great price for an OS X + iLife + Xcode option for the Dell.
At $400 a pop, Apple will make a tidy profit on the notoriously love overhead software and really won't be canibalizing the Mac sales because they have effectively balanced the price so you have:
Cost of Mac = A + B + C Cost of Dell OS X = C + E where E = A + B = $399
But their MS leash is too short, alas... (Score:3, Insightful)
Explains Dell's "Lexus" plans (Score:3, Interesting)
Apple would still have control over the hardware. I'm sure Dell could produce MacTel boxes that would satisfy Cupertino's equipment requirements.
Expanding OS X's install base would be a GOOD thing for existing Mac users: more drivers, more software, more everything (including, perhaps, viruses).
Expanding OS X's install base would improve Apple's research and development ROI. Good for stockholders, and eventually for consumers.
Expanding OS X's install base would be a very good thing for Windows users, who would have more opportunities to purchase increasingly price-competitive MacTels.
Michael Dell's out-loud thinking is entirely consistent with his signal last week that Dell is ready to launch a premium [arstechnica.com] line of computer hardware.
I think Apple ought to do it. They've traditionally been a computer hardware vendor, with software used to sell the pretty boxes. But these times, they are a-changin'.
FYI - Dell is CURRENTLY selling Macs (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nice title (Score:3, Funny)
The Slashdot grammar manual. Page 74, paragraph 13.
Re:Nice title (Score:2)
Re:Nice title (Score:3, Informative)
I imagine it was to read:
Dell: We'd Sell Mac OS X
(and that's in would, as in will if Apple allows)
was that SO hard to figure out?
damn..i think i just bit a troll...strangely bitter it is...
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:3 steps (Score:3, Interesting)
-nB
Re:Jobs willing to let a grudge go? (Score:3, Insightful)
Does anyone own an HP iPod anyway? I've never actually seen one with the HP logo on it. Apple all the way.
Re:Yeah, and....... (Score:5, Funny)
Sez you. I don't mind that everyone's been in there. Everyone's been to Disneyland and it's still fun. I'm sure there's still plenty of fun to be found in Paris.