“It was no less an expert than Michael Dell who forecast the demise of Apple Computer Inc. In 2001, the chairman and founder of the computer company that bears his name said Apple had sealed its fate by failing to build computers that used Intel Corp. microprocessors and software from Microsoft Corp. In sticking with its own proprietary technologies, Apple could not survive. ‘We know how the movie ends,’ Mr. Dell, now 39, said. ‘It’s just a question of what happens in the middle,'” David Akin writes for The Globe and Mail.
MacDailyNews Take: Oh, so now slapping together cheap components into commodity boxes devoid of imagination, depending wholly upon someone else’s mediocre OS, re-branding Creative’s MP3 players (but not selling many), and negotiating good shipping rates based on volume qualifies someone as an “expert?” Please, don’t get us started on Michael Dell. Uh oh, too late…
“But three years later, it is Apple – not Dell Inc. – that some say is now the best bet for investors interested in backing a computer maker,” Akin writes. “Long an ugly duckling for investors, the Cupertino, Calif., company has been the soaring swan of the market for the past year. Its stock is up 176 per cent in the past 12 months (it closed yesterday at $70.10 U.S.), compared with 13 percent for Dell. Apple already rivals Round Rock, Tex.-based Dell in manufacturing efficiency, and is poised to beat it on profit margins, earnings and revenue growth. On new product innovation, analysts say, Apple is unrivalled.”
MacDailyNews Take: Perhaps Mr. Dull should consider shutting it down and giving the money back to the shareholders? Now where’d we get that crazy idea? God knows, it would probably boost world productivity 30% if people dumped Windows running on box assembler Dell’s hardware and switched to Apple Macs running Mac OS X. And think of the IT staff savings alone!
“The much ballyhooed iPod digital music player has been an important part of Apple’s resurrection story; iPod sales went through the roof during 2004’s final quarter. But the bigger story may be Apple’s resurgence as a computer maker. According to financial results released this week, sales of Macintosh computers jumped 26 per cent compared with the year-earlier quarter – double the growth rate for the rest of the computer business. For the first time in eons, Apple is gaining market share. ‘The company could have begun a market share breakout story that could last for the foreseeable future,’ Steven Fortuna, an analyst at Prudential Equity Group LLC wrote in research note last week.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Michael Dell needs a head reduction, literally and figuratively. He’s a commodity Wintel box assembler who figured out how to do it cheaper than everybody else. Wow. Okay, so he got rich doing it – so did Mahlon Haines who got rich selling non-descript shoes. You know, Mahlon Haines? M-A-H… Oh, forget it. How will Dell be regarded by historians? Michael Dell is to Steve Jobs as William Henry Harrison is to George Washington. Michael Dell, if he’s really lucky, is destined to become a footnote in personal computer history.
“Ask not, for whom the Dell tolls…”
There are very few real innovators in computer industry, Dell however is not one of them.
Or for a music comparison (for the ipod people), how about Dell is to Jobs as Rikki Rocket is to Eddie Van Halen.
Pathetic that people think Dell has done anything that would make him famous.
Why isn’t this story a headline on MacNN? http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/01/14/itunes_security_flap/
Does MacNN have a policy to only discuss windows security flaws? Seems like a double standard to me.
the only other innovator in the PC business is sony, though even they have followed apple. I was suprised to see what software sony puts on their computers, it’s no ilife or anything, but much better than the competition for default comes with the computer software.
Moron, err, I mean, Awesome,
It has been patched already for days. It’s a non-story that affected nobody in real life:
http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/itunes471.html
And this is MDN, not MacNN.
Rikki Rocket is a drummer, Eddie Van Halen is a guitarist. Shouldn’t have have used two guitarists to make your point?
I guess I’m in the minority, but I don’t really care how many people move from Windows to Mac. As long as sales are good enough to keep third party developers engaged, I have no desire to see Apple become the GM of computers. I moved out to the country (from a computing perspective) to get away from the viruses, malware, spyware of the inner-city ghetto that is the PC world. Now that a Joe Sixpack in every trailerpark can (likely) own a Macinstosh computer, I found out that my nice country home is getting a Super Walmart and low income housing next door. Going forward, I wonder if this means an end to the Mac community as a better educated, tightly-knit community of enthusiasts, and the beginning of Apple becoming a dime-a-dozen, “So what?” experience.
Just presenting a different perspective…
Wow. Whatever happened to Eddie Van Halen? He certainly did some amazing things.
If Michael Dell was a woman, I’d call him a Bit*h!
He’s just really sore.
One thing is for sure: it would be really sad if the only kind of computer company in the industry is the ones like Dell. Who will propell the innovation and improvement if not for trailblazer like Apple?
Christopher, If Apple quadruples their 3% market share they still will only be at 12%. Plenty small enough to still have that community feel but also with everyone having to make sure they pay attention to that segment of the market as well as windows.
Now if they increase by 10 times….
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Dell have a reputation of putting together cheap crap computers using cheap and crap components.
A mate of mine bought one and 6 months later it fell to bits!
I managed to convince him to buy a mac – and guess what, 3 years later it’s still working and he is still using it and has never regretted dropping windblows!!
In fact he’s getting a new Imac G5 soon and can’t wait for Tiger!
DELL – your company and products are trash i- even all windows users think it – so stop kidding yourself!!
Anyone can put together aload of budget parts and turn them into a cheap pc!
Mssrs. Dell & Gates need Apple to provide the innovation that they oh so need to copy off of.
Michael Dell a footnote? This man would package and sell the cheese between his toes as Parmigiano. Sadly, millions of people would buy it.
We need to increase from 3% to some number that is more respected. I’m a real estate agent and our MLS, tax records and forms are all online but the mac compatibility is terrible. Even on windows you need IE.
In the MLS on Mac I can only do somethings from IE while others I can only do from Safari. I can’t get some of the reports to work at all – even with the PDF plug-in. The forms I can pull up in Safari as long as I’ve got it set to tell the world it is IE but I can’t save the forms like I could in Windows – which I despise. I have Virtual PC but I’d have to have it running 24/7 and it is painfully slow. My old windows computer finally gave out and I don’t want to replace it.
This is not Apple’s fault. It is the fault of the low marketshare and the unwillingness of the people who write and manage our real estate systems in St. Louis and nationwide. An increase of marketshare to above 10% will command attention from these programmers and others. With an inexensive Mac mini attached to a KVM switch they can easily toggle back and forth from two OS’s and check for compatibilty.
Sorry for the rant. Wow, that feels better. Magic word is held – I have “held” that in for too long.
iSteve,
Have you downloaded the latest Adobe Reader 7.0? It seems to be doing wonders for the PDF files I’ve had to download and view recently in Safari. It’s more robust in the way it treats online PDF files. Not sure what else I can do to help your situation, but maybe that will help a little…
Cheers…
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Actually Dell’s contribution to personal computing is invaluable, not from a technological standpoint, but business-wise. He is the one who drove down hardware prices to the point that PC’s are commodities, like toasters and blenders. Remember that Linux and BSD, not just Microsoft, benefit from this, and don’t think that Microsoft doesn’t know this. Redmond arrogantly referred to hardware manufacturers as “our distributors” several years ago, pissing them off. MSFT fears that if Linux gains ground, the PC mills will jettison them in a heartbeat.
Sure Dell’s a jerk, but give credit where it’s due. He ought to just keep his mouth shut, especially about innovation, and rake in the billions while he can. The commodity market is a losing game; it’s only a matter of time before China eats his lunch.
Tippacanoe and Tyler too!
Sure Dell’s a jerk, but give credit where it’s due. He ought to just keep his mouth shut, especially about innovation, and rake in the billions while he can. The commodity market is a losing game; it’s only a matter of time before China eats his lunch.
—-
He’s a jerk? Who cares.. the question is, was he right about AAPL..
Apple is run by this guy Steve Jobs, who’s the biggest A-hole on Earth.. surely Michael Dell walking around the factory chatting with assemblers and arguing with his engineers over which shade of black/charcoal accentuates the Dell logo the most cannot be as bad as SJ’s ‘moods.’
I second that!!! As a matter of fact, I third and forth that. Dell owes Jobs many apologies, BIG Time!!! Dell keeps making sarcastic remarks on Apple but at the same time copies Apple’s design, products, and even business strategy. Did you know Dell is trying to have ”retail strategy ” at shopping mall now? That’s SO many years behind Apple. Just remember, Dell is a mail order PC box pusher. He does not have any insight, foresight, vision, leadership and charisma in the very technology field he is in. All he does is to push boxes and counts beans. He has money BUT NO Class!!!!
I too like iSteve’s point. As much as it pains us to be less exclusive, less of an “in crowd” (I read comments to this effect here and elsewhere since the Mac mini debued), the advantages of market share greatly out way them.
If being the Mac faithful is about getting people to switch, and the mini is the cure to the misery around us, then its time to take the high road and do what doctors do, work to put ourselves out of business.
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iSteve, I don’t know if this will be useful to you but here is a link to a safari plug-in that enables you to view pdf files WITHIN safari and so you only save them if you want with the save as command.
http://www.schubert-it.com/pluginpdf/
I am not fond of Dell, but I do respect anyone that can make millions selling shit.
The guy who founded Ronco (remember those Christmas gift gadgets?) also got rich, but no one is calling him an expert. No one remembers him either.
We do know how that movie ends!