Apple - What A Difference Eight Years Can Make

conq writes "It's been eight years since Michael Dell was asked after a speech at a Gartner conference in Orlando what he would do if he were in charge of Apple Computer. His answer: Shut the company down and give the money back to shareholders. BusinessWeek in its new Byte of The Apple Blog looks at how the tables have turned since then. For example, over the last four quarters Dell has been coming in with a net profit margin of about 6.5%. Meanwhile Apple just finished its fiscal 2005 with a profit margin just shy of 9.6%."

Apples to Apples

[erick99]

Micheal Dell would have been smarter had he reserved judgement. Arrogance can sure come back 'round and bite you in the ass. In terms of profit margin one has to consider that Dell is bringing in revenue of around 14 billion a quarter versus Apple's 4 billion so I am not sure how to judge the differences in profit margin given the difference in revenue. Dell probably has a great deal more infrastructure. Oh, well. Just saying we should make sure we are comparing Apples to Apples (funny, huh?).

Apple is dying!

[Generic Guy]

With Dell's recent quarters slipping and Apple's recent quarters showing growth there can only be one conclusion:

Apple is dying!

Re:Profit Margins

[2nd Post!]

You can't conceive that perhaps Apple isn't over-charging, but that Apple offers more value (that is consequently worth more money) than Dell?

Case in point: A soda costs $0.05 at Taco Bell. It costs you $0.99.

Yet how much value is there for you in:
1) Lugging around syrup
2) CO2 canisters
3) Mixing equipment

Myself, I drink water, but the point stands: If Apple offers more value, Apple can effectively price higher and not be over-charging.

Another example would be the $0.99 burger at Wendy's. In raw part it would cost you only $0.25
Do you want to lug around a fridge, fresh lettuce, a package of buns, a grill, ground beef, and cheese whenever you feel like eating a burger for lunch?

More importantly...

[Winterblink]

... we can also focused on what hasn't changed: Michael Dell is still an asshole.

Innovation vs. raw profit (Re:Apples to Apples)

[Anonymous Coward]

"Had Apple continued [commoditization], they would have ended up like Dell... Instead, they are a vibrant company that has great promise to grow its market share."

Well, here's the problem. The benefits of small market share, and in fact the entire Apple experience, are intuitive for a certain kind of person. Artists, fashion mavens, leftists, and other creative personalities [imageshack.us] can sit down with an R&D-heavy business plan and comprehend its sensitive, tasteful aesthetic [imageshack.us]. It's a rare instinct, this appreciation for beauty and truth [imageshack.us]; accountants and other such pencil-pushers haven't a prayer.

In summary, unattractive squares should stick to Linux [imageshack.us] and Windows [imageshack.us]. Vertical integration is for different thinkers. [imageshack.us]

Re:Apples to Apples

[MECC]

"cutting costs comes at the expense of things like customer service, R&D"

Dell does R&D? To them it must mean 'ruin and destroy'. We haven't had a dell server that hasen't had some kind of hardware problem - out of dozens. Our Apple servers haven't had any problem at all.

I guess by 'shut it down', he meant what would happen if he ran a company that had to make good hardware to stay afloat....

Re:Ha, Ha!

[VaderPi]

You should be more sensitive. Even bytes get lonely for a little bit.

To hell with Dell

[Quattro Vezina]

Anyone still remember all the "to hell with Dell" banners and stuff eight years ago, when Michael Dell first made those comments?

Dell? Dell?

[Darius Jedburgh]

Remind me. Try as I might I can't think of an interesting product from a company called "Dell". Can someone jog my memory.

Re:Apple is dying!

[macrom]

Apple is dying!

Don't you mean beleaguered ?

Apple Is A Monopoly.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple is a MONOPOLY. They've completely taken over their own platform with all their own apps including iChat A/V, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, Safari, Photobooth, Garageband, iSync, DVD Player, Final Cut Pro, Aperture, iCal, and .Mac and in doing shut most of the market out. It's like they like to make things simple and elegant, but rarely work with others to add the level of compatibility the PC side maintains. Mac are no different then PC's in terms of capabilities, but since nobody wishes to support the Mac platform Apple gets stuck doing it, then it goes down to "Nobody wants to play with us we won't play with them!" Then when they get a good popular thing like the POD, they take SNOB to a whole new level. They won't work with anyone on it. FairPlay had to be reverse engineered, thank God for RealNetworks. I wish somebody would tell Jobs that you catch more fly's with honey then you do with vineger. Qucktime and iTunes for Windows, are just because Apple wants to sell iPod and have the number one most widely used set of codecs and containers.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:It's not going to last...

[Slackrat]

Yet you don't hear people bitching about the price of BMWs.

That's because it's hard to hear much of anything over death rattle of my Volvo station-wagon.

Re:More importantly...

[spxero]

One other thing that hasn't changed: Steve Jobs is still an asshole.

Re:Dell? Dell?

[nuckin futs]

i guess you haven't heard of their iPod line killer [dell.com] :p

Re:Dell? Dell?

[Darius Jedburgh]

What's that pink thing on the right? Looks like some kind of strap on dildo that plays music. OK, I take it back. That's pretty interesting.