Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 25th Oct 2009 12:51 UTC
A couple of years ago, a professor at my university had a very interesting thought exchange with the class I was in. We were a small group, and I knew most of them, they were my friends. Anyway, we had a talk about language purism - not an unimportant subject if you study English in The Netherlands.
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RE[2]: I don�t get
by wirespot on Sun 25th Oct 2009 21:42
in reply to "RE: I don�t get it and never have"
Member since:2006-06-21
Agreed. I don't hold out any hope that Apple will ever license OS X in the same "free-for-all" fashion as Windows - but I think that (very) selective OEM licensing would be consistent with their business model.
How? What would be their incentive? Apple is already making more money than any other OEM. It has market capitalization bigger than Dell and HP put together:
http://brainstormtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/07/29/apple-dell-h...
Apple sells to a percentage of personal computer owners, but it skims the cream off the top. Those small percentages in buyers translate to a lot more money than all the rest are spending together. The same applies to other types of hardware, such as smartphones vs the iPhone.
So what would drive Apple to license OS X to other OEMs? It's not gonna be money. I don't see what else. OS X is an advantage they have built for themselves (anybody could have taken a *BSD or Linux flavor and done the same). Why would they give it up for scraps?
RE[3]: I don't get
by Moochman on Mon 26th Oct 2009 00:57
in reply to "RE[2]: I don�t get"
Member since:2005-07-06
I wouldn't call MS-sized profits from OEM sales of the OS "scraps".
I think Apple may be paranoid because last time they allowed clones, it was a disaster--they lost tons of money in hardware sales and weren't remotely able to make up for it in OS sales. The big difference is that today their OS runs on the same machines that run Windows, which means that theoretically they could have transformed the market overnight.
Ultimately though Apple decided to go the safe route and protect its hardware sales, with the knowledge that it was a surefire, instant way to profit--as opposed to the somewhat risky prospect of battling things out on Microsoft's own turf.
RE[3]: I donÃ�âïÿÃÂ
by StephenBeDoper on Mon 26th Oct 2009 13:33
in reply to "RE[2]: I don�t get"
Member since:2005-07-06
How?
The "how" was described in that part of my post that you didn't quote.
What would be their incentive?
If it's profitable, that's usually incentive enough for publicly-traded companies like Apple. There's also the incentive of increasing the OS X userbase/marketshare while letting someone else do the grunt work of selling the individual machines.
Apple is already making more money than any other OEM.
What relevance does that have? Their goal as a business is to make as much money as possible - not to simply make more money than their competitors.
So what would drive Apple to license OS X to other OEMs? It's not gonna be money. I don't see what else.
If they were to do it, I'm sure it be done in a strategically-careful way, Apple being Apple. Partnering with the right OEM could help get Apple into markets where OS X has almost no presence, E.g. commercial hosting.
OS X is an advantage they have built for themselves (anybody could have taken a *BSD or Linux flavor and done the same).
Anybody? I take you meant "anybody with a few hundred million dollars lying around to buy the underlying technology and the company that developed it"?
Why would they give it up for scraps?
Is that some sort of dry, subtle satire on the elitist Mac user stereotype? Or are you seriously trying to imply that all users of non-Apple computers are "scraps"?
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Agreed. I don't hold out any hope that Apple will ever license OS X in the same "free-for-all" fashion as Windows - but I think that (very) selective OEM licensing would be consistent with their business model. In other words, allow third-party OEMs to offer OS X as a BTO option - but only on specific, Apple-approved models (that must meet specific minimum standards/requirements).