Can Apple Take Microsoft on the Desktop?

An anonymous reader writes "RDM asks Can Apple Take Microsoft on the Desktop?, a comparison of recent sales and profits and the future outlook for Macs and PCs. It's the opinion of the article's author that Apple doesn't have to take a majority share of the desktop market to win. The key is to take the most valuable segments of the market. They show via a few quick financial numbers that even though Apple is selling fewer machines, they're making more money per machine than your Dells or your Gateways. Not being beholden to Microsoft gives them a big advantage when competing with traditional PC sellers. Once Apple is positioned, Microsoft will be forced to choose whether it wants to battle Mac OS X for control of the slick consumer desktop, or repurpose Windows as a cheaper, mass market alternative to Linux in corporate sales. If it doesn't make a choice, the company will face difficult battles on two fronts.""

Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

If Microsoft bends over the desk. (Come on, this was the expected joke - the title was phrased this way on purpose)

Re:Yes

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know... even with a condom, I don't think the Mac would want to take PC.

Too high a chance of getting a virus.

Re:Yes

[Stormwatch]

I don't know... even with a condom, I don't think the Mac would want to take PC. Too high a chance of getting a virus.

No, Macs are immune to PC viruses! (as long as you don't use MS Office)

Re:Yes

[ettlz]

The Mac/PC ad concept just got very interesting...

No

[an.echte.trilingue]

Of course not, since 2007 if finally going to be the year of the Linux Desktop.

Re:May be, but on a limited scale

[ditoa]

iPatient

Re:I certainly hope not

[GaryPatterson]

Great assertion. Nothing to back it up, no shred of logic behind the claim, but hey! It's great to fling stuff like this about!

Apple also grind up live puppies to make iPods. Microsoft shred kittens to make those new Vista boxes, and many Linux kernels are built using slave labour from China.

Re:Yes

[edwardpickman]

It'd be nice to see Microsoft bent over the desk for once. They've had customers bent over the desk for years.

Re:Article makes no sense

[Aladrin]

I don't use OSX at work myself (I use Kubuntu) but most other employees do, including the owners. The biggest problem we have is that OSX will randomly corrupt the preferences file. Deleting it fixes the problem, but loses information like stored logins. This is a problem, as the CSRs don't actually have the passwords to the stuff.

All-in-all, I'd say we have about as many problems with OSX as we did with Windows. The only reason we switched is that one of the managers used it and talked the owners into trying it. They liked it enough better that they decided to purchase all OSX except for a couple of us techs, and accounting which uses proprietary software. The other tech is gone and now it's just me and the servers that are Linux.

Luckily, I've managed to stay mostly ignorant of OSX so I don't have to do any tech support on them, and can actually do the job they hired me for, instead. (Well, most of the time.)

Re:No

[bursch-X]

Yes! And Duke Nukem Forever will be preinstalled on it!

Re:Yes

[Lars T.]

decent ad?

The Apple ads are the most snide, smug, self congratulatory, condescending turds I've seen in a long time.

Well, they are aimed at snide, smug, self congratulatory, condescending turds like you, so what do you expect?

Why, yes I am aware that you are not a Mac user.