Stustanton

Could a Dell/Apple Partnership Work?

I agree, I don't quite see an Apple/Dell partnership, but I'm intrigued and I'm asked in the article to consider it, and all I could come up was this. Apple probably has to do something to keep a PC version of its system from diluting the premium value of its Mac line, so I expect a proprietary chip-set component (not the CPU) in any PC. You must not be able to buy a cheap PC that is a Mac. I think a Dell product would have to penetrate the PC market while preserving Apple's absolute control of its platform/OS combo, be clone-free, command the same price premium as the Apple line. If every vendor in the PC market could sell a PC version of Apple’s OSX platform, the price premium and the freedom to take the hardware and OS combo where no others can follow would be lost. But apple could do it, keep control, and penetrate a huge, HUGE portion of the market. Don’t believe that Apple has no interest in that enterprise market, they just can’t damage their advantage in reaching for it. Apple won’t go head to head against Microsoft, and they don’t need to. They can offer a Dual-boot system, OSX side by side with MS, and let Microsoft die of its own stupid mistakes. But Apple can’t lower the OSX platform to be a commodity-like PC.

I'm intrigued. Might be a good idea.

Could a Dell/Apple Partnership Work?

When Steve Jobs moved to the Intel chip he knew that his OS would become transportable to the PC platform. I imagine that he has a plan to address the growing presence of that possibility, and maybe (that's a big maybe) Apple could use an exclusive supplier like Dell with a wide reach to address that side of the market.

Apple has a what Jobs calls it's "Unfair advantage" in owning both the platform and OS, and thus can do what Microsoft can only dream about in many agendas. Such differentiation allows Apple it's premium pricing and is fundamental to Apple's agenda. Apple could consider a PC design that retains that unfari advantage containing a circuit board or electronic chip that isn't otherwise available, which allows ownership of an Apple branded PC with Apple OS, as a "dual boot" device along side a Microsoft OS. The benefit is in penetration of traditional PC strongholds, like business, where the PC is embedded in the infrastructure.

If Microsoft is indeed committed to corporate suicide with Vista, its draconian DRM-works and it’s anti antivirus approach, Dell might offer Apple an instant invasion of traditional Microsoft strongholds. Selling dual-platform Apple PCs, at a premium, to government and business, may or may not appeal to the market. But it’s all I could come up with.