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Columnist follows up on Michael Dell quote

updated 04:00 pm EDT, Thu June 23, 2005

Michael Dell followup


Fortune columnist David Kirkpatrick has followed up on his widely covered article that quoted Michael Dell as saying his company would be interested in . "While Dell's interest is newsworthy, I doubt Jobs will let him sell OS X anytime soon. The Apple CEO has said he won't, though in the past he has been known to say that he won't do things right up until he does them. And such a move would be challenging for Apple financially. That's because, for all of the company's software smarts, its revenues are still heavily reliant upon computer hardware." Although Mac OS X may not make it to other vendor's hardware in the near future, "readers are convinced that Jobs' strategic switch to Intel will mean great things for Apple, regardless whether it includes licensing to Dell or others," writes Kirkpatrick. "People are especially excited about being able to run Microsoft's dominant Windows operating system on the same Intel-based Apple machines that run OS X."


by MacNN Staff

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  1. Peter Bonte

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    06/23, 04:21pm | report spam | Reply |

    DELL

    I hope they sell osX only for Apple kit but it will run unsupported on DELL and others.

    Macintel sales will skyrocket to extraordinary levels the following years and Apple will either have to support clones or use other methods like overpricing, under-powering etc.. :P

  1. osxpinot

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    Joined: Sep 2004

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    06/23, 04:28pm | report spam | Reply |

    yah

    Finally, somebody who knows what they are talking about.

  1. jhorvatic

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    06/23, 04:41pm | report spam | Reply |

    Dell with OSX try never

    "I doubt Jobs will let him sell OS X anytime soon." Try not anytime period! Apple Computer is called that because they build and sell computer hardware and that's there core business. They make software mostly for there own computers to make them better than anyone else. If Apple were to be in the software business only they would change there name to Apple Software Inc. It's not going to happen.

  1. wymer100

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    06/23, 05:06pm | report spam | Reply |

    Apple's name

    Actually, Apple is no longer "Apple Computer" but just "Apple". This transition happened a couple of years ago. It was around the time they switched away from the rainbow logo. The homepage still lists "Apple Computer" at the bottom, but their boilerplate at the bottom of all of their press releases just says "Apple".

  1. sadmachine

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    06/23, 05:24pm | report spam | Reply |

    Ridiculous

    I can understand the need to have OSX run on a PC, but I do not understand running Windoze on a Mac. Why would you want to expose your computer to viruses and spyware?

    I think this is the exact reason Jobs will do everything he can to prevent Windows from running on Macs. Even though they would not "support" it, the amount of calls, complaints, and bad mojo that Apple will get from it would put them out of business.

  1. paulc

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    06/23, 05:27pm | report spam | Reply |

    Best Move!

    Yeah, that was the best move Jobs ever made... ditching the less expensive, more powerful "clones" that were eating their sales.

    Now he makes another brilliant move... to Intel. Developers can support the "Mac" market with their Windows versions... game makers don't have to port anything and can STILL sell games to people buying Apple computers. Yeah, that's the ticket.

  1. lkrupp

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    06/23, 05:55pm | report spam | Reply |

    Never say never

    The same folk that said Apple would never switch to Intel are now saying Apple will never sell OS X "over-the-counter" to run on any old c*** PC.

    I learned my lesson. I HOPE they don't ever do it but then I've probably purchased my last Apple product anyway so it really doesn't matter.

  1. Bryson

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    06/23, 06:12pm | report spam | Reply |

    Heres the real strategy

    Running Windows on OSX is exactly what Apple hopes to do. Why? Not beacuse Windows is so great. Moreso because it gives people a reason to switch, finally shattering one of the obstacles most people face in wanting to switch: software compatibility. Think about it. Apple included Classic mode to allow Mac users to slowly transition their software over to the Mac versions. It worked great. They see this and now they are going to do the same thing using MS's own OS against them. As time goes on, a buyer will use less and less of Windows, and more of the Mac OS and software designed to run on it.

    It's sheer genius.

  1. jarcoal

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    06/23, 06:26pm | report spam | Reply |

    never say never

    i agree with ikrupp, it's absolutely insane to claim that something "never" will happen. all you can do is lose credibility, that's it. i personally think that the move to intel is perhaps the greatest move apple could make in the coming years. i can't imagine someone arguing that it could be bad for the company.

    good things (not guaranteed, but probable): 1. macs become faster (it's no secret macs have been getting slammed in just about every benchmarking test that is relevant) 2. price goes down (please someone try and argue why this is bad) 3. windows on mac (how can you beat a computer that has the best of both worlds?)

    bad things: 1. die hard apple fans that don't know what they're talking about will claim to never own a mac again for no particular good reason (macnn has plenty)

    i'm sure there's stuff i left out on both sides, but either way i think this is a winner for apple. i personally can't wait to get a new pentium powered powerbook.

  1. JeffHarris

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    Joined: Oct 1999

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    06/23, 06:57pm | report spam | Reply |

    Total Control

    The reason why we have the Macintosh Experience as it is... seamless, smooth, elegant, pain-free... is that because Apple controls everything, the whole widget, from the motherboard to the OS to packaging and marketing (if you want to call Mac marketing marketing).

    Once you license Mac OS X to clone makers, you'll lose control and it would soon slide down into the maelstrom of Windows-like misery, with zillions of potential hardware and software configurations and conflicts. At that point the Mac OS pretty much stops being Mac OS as we know it.

    Jobs knows this. He and Apple will NOT let it happen. Maybe people will be able to hack Mac OS X to run on some generic DellBox, but those types of installations will get zero support from Apple.

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