Apple on Intel

I just realized that on June 9th I predicted that Apple could make money on Intel. That same day, they announced that they were switching from IBM. I'm sure it was coincidental, and I'm pretty sure that I hadn't heard the news. Anyway, it's exciting to me because I've been trying to get Darwin to run on my ThinkPad forever. It don't work. I'll try again when I get VMWare installed.

Now check this out:

..Dell (the company) has for several years fearlessly—and lucratively—sold servers loaded with Linux, the operating system Microsoft reviles and dreads. And as the industry's top dog it wields more bargaining power with Microsoft than other PC-makers. So I emailed Michael Dell, now the company's chairman, and asked if he'd be interested in the Mac OS, assuming that Apple CEO Steve Jobs ever decides to license it to PC companies. (For now, Jobs says he won't.)

"If Apple decides to open the Mac OS to others, we would be happy to offer it to our customers," Dell wrote in an email. It's the first time any PC industry executive has openly shown enthusiasm for selling machines with Apple's software. Though that's all Dell would say for the record, I suspect his interest is not unknown to Jobs. So, as I said in this column last week (and in an article in the new issue of FORTUNE), the ball is in Jobs' court.

So the question is whether or not Apple can be as successful in the consumer electronics business as Sony has been in the computer business. The iPod says a resounding yes, and that's essentially going to be an annuity for Apple forever. Sorry Diamond Rio. But Jobs is going to have a tough job following up on the iPod, unless...

You see the next killer app is obvious. It's the phone. An Apple Phone that did the equivalent of the Treo 650 would be the hardware that changes everything. An iPhone that integrates all of the iLife applications and iPod storage could compete on a huge level, if the price was right. It would be a huge leap for Jobs, but so was his move into the music business. It wouldn't be a huge leap for Apple customers who have demonstrated their love for insanely great hardware.

So the move for Apple into Intel suggests to me that Jobs is ready to start specifying hardware requirements again. Doing it for a short stint into the computer world could get him to the place Sony is, with enough savvy to start branding all sorts of consumer electronics.

Think about it for a minute. We have a bunch of no-count consumer electronics companies who build products with no soul whatsoever. Circuit City & Good Guys house brands, Magnavox, Allegro, LG, JVC and a dozen others. Just anybody who makes a DVD player is a competitor for Apple if they step up. The Apple brand could be devastating.

Comments

[Cheap Computers]

Now Apple will make money with Intel..sounds great.......
http://www.electrocomputerwarehouse.com