OSNews

Competition is always good for the market because that is what a market is, by definition. However, we'll look at this from the point-of-view of Apple. Competition is apparently less desirable for a company when it has cash cow status or when it has a monopoly because they want to protect what they have. This is why Microsoft is looking around nervously at what the next big thing is in their market, because they just don't know and won't be able to react to it when it comes along if it is something fundamental. In the long-run you want some competition whether you like it or not because you can go very quickly.

However, the problem with Apple's cash cow/monopoly that they have with hardware for OS X is actually bad for them because the market they have now is far smaller than the possible market with some competition. They could make huge amounts of profit from selling OS X licenses, let OS X run on a wide range of hardware platforms and still be the benchmark for quality and style with regards to hardware that they want to be. This is what Microsoft wanted to be when they started up some style guidelines for Vista PCs some time back.

However, that face-value analysis doesn't take into account the wider benefits to Apple of a far larger development community and pool of applications which drives demand for OS X and their own hardware further, and makes their market far larger. Apple would find that Apple hardware could be installed in companies by virtue of the fact that companies would be more likely to have servers with OS X Server running, without Apple having to do anything other than shift licenses of OS X for pure profit!

If I was Microsoft, that kind of proposition would scare the crap out of me if Apple 'got it'. Windows OEMs would actually have a choice and Microsoft's oft used retort of "You are free to use another OS if you want to" would carry a serious bit of weight because a lot of OEMs would make the OS X choice. OEMs would say "Convince us to use Windows".

If there is a ruling in favour of Psystar, everyone wins - even Apple. Psystar creates a new business and get competitive advantage for the time being, Apple starts to get a far bigger market to sell OS X and their hardware into, Microsoft would be forced to make Windows 7 as good as they can possibly make it, Apple would then have to respond and blunders like Vista would be punished. Cross-platform development tools would balloon and open source platforms would see some side-benefits.

The more I think about it the more important I think this is, but a lot depends on Apple 'getting it'. Sadly, I don't think they will.

Thanks for clarifying what a market is...
Dude, I was being sarcastic. It would be nice if people could pick up on that even when you don't throw in a stupid smiley.

Segedunum.....you should work at Apple Marketing. Logic like yours could usher Apple into a new level of profitability. You're right. They will not get it. They are stubborn, pig-headed, and tyrannical in their attitudes. Maybe when Steve Jobs finally leaves or dies, maybe then, someone with some vision will come to the helm and take charge. Yeah they have done well: They could could 10 times as well with some vision. Plus the world's productivity will go up substantially with more people using a better OS.