"The introduction of Microsoft Windows Vista and its' many confusing and progressively expensive flavors has opened up a er, period of opportunity for Apple (formerly Apple Computer). Will Steve Jobs take a really bold chance to increase his market share or just play it safe with his little fiefdom of iPods, iTunes and forthcoming iTV?"
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Member since:2006-08-03
You are 100% correct. Same reason why SGI machines with IRIX were so hot in their day. Apple purchasing NeXT and using NEXTSTEP as the next generation MacOS was brilliant. NeXT had one the same thing--integrated hardware and operating system in one unified package--and it rocked. They just brought it up to current technologies. I don't see why industry analysts don't get this!
The one I'm somewhat surprised about, if I can go slightly off-topic, is Sun and Solaris. I think if they opened Solaris/offered it for no-charge earlier they would have more of a foothold on non-Sun x86 hardware then then do now. It's a great OS on x86, even better on SPARC.
Apple, keep on doing what you're doing. Keep shocking the industry with your product announcements. You'll be around forever!
-m
Member since:2006-03-20
Your argument would be a good one ten years ago. In this day and age, there are few hardware vendors left, and hardware protocols are well established. There is not excuse for Apple not to bring their O/S out for select generic PC hardware; they can certainly control a few 100s of drivers for their O/S (which they probably do now anyway).
Member since:
2006-08-26
Apple, IBM and HP (on their server lines) is a combo hardware and software seller. Why? Why go through all that trouble? Why doesn't IBM license AIX? Why doesn't HP license HPUX? Don't they want market share? Of course they do, but they don't want to destroy their product in the process.
They don't sell an OS as a commodity because the hardware-software combo allows you to control the user's experience. You limit the variables in hardware and (at least in theory) improve reliability, compatability, etc. Why doesn't my windows laptop work with Atheros wireless cards? Who knows? Is it HP's fault? Is it Netgear's fault? Is it MS's fault? With my PowerBook, if something stops working, I know it's Apple's problem and they know how to fix it.
Dell doesn't care about the user experience, they care about the buying experience. They make it easy to buy and set up your computer, but that's it. They sell a beige box. Apple sells a platform that tells a complete story. Besides, Dell would never do something that would seriously endanger their relationship with MS. It's the same clap-trap that analysts parade out every so often, as if it were some special insight into the market.
Edited 2007-01-29 21:06