“There’s been an awful lot of column inches devoted to Steve Jobs’ announcement that he is going to port the Apple MacOS to Intel. Here are some more,” Jason Stamper writes for Computer Business Review.
“The big debate is around whether Jobs will license MacOS to other manufacturers, so they can build Intel machines around MacOS. Some pundits have been saying that if he did, Apple could quickly grow to rival Microsoft’s Windows dominance. A little hasty, perhaps,” Stamper writes.
“Jobs has so far said that he will not allow others to license MacOS on Intel, or any other hardware for that matter. That’s because Apple’s current business model is reliant on its hardware sales more that its software sales. It could of course change its business model, and if sales of MacOS on other people’s hardware became great enough it could more than make up for the loss of Apple hardware sales. But so far that looks like a bridge too far for Jobs, who is no doubt mindful of what a change like that might do to the company’s share price in the short and medium term,” Stamper writes. “Culturally, too, the company sees itself very much as a solutions company. It likes the idea of someone buying its hardware and software together, wrapped up in a fantastically slinky, well-engineered skin. That philosophy is in its blood now more than ever. In which case, what difference does MacOS on Intel really mean?”
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Fortune columnist doubts Apple CEO Jobs will let Michael Dell sell OS X anytime soon – June 23, 2005
Mac OS X Leopard to contain ‘Red Box’ for natively running Windows applications? – June 23, 2005
Is Apple morphing Mac into the ultimate PC capable of running Mac OS X, Windows, Linux? – June 20, 2005
The Washington Post: ‘In a year or two, the best Windows PC may come from Apple’ – June 19, 2005
Intel’s built-in virtualization tech could be one way to run Windows on Intel-based Apple Macs – June 16, 2005
If Intel-based Macs can run Mac OS X and Windows, buying a Mac will be a no-brainer – June 15, 2005
Apple could use Trusted Platform Module chip to keep Mac OS X off non-Macs – June 14, 2005
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
Why buy a Dell when Apple ‘Macintel’ computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
Microsoft and Dell must have a lot of bricks lying around today – June 07, 2005
Apple to use Intel microprocessors beginning in 2006, all Macs to be Intel-based by end of 2007 – June 06, 2005
It’s actually quite obvious what Apple will do if any kind of OSX licensing takes place:
Think iPod + Hewlett Packard, people.
Apple will more than likely license the HARDWARE and OSX to 3rd parties, like they’re curently doing with HP regarding the iPod. Bigger distribution channel, but still have control of the hardware design, plus it will leave 3rd party vendors the ability to put Windows XP (or Longhorn, whenever it ships) onto the same box, therefore not violating their licensing agreement with MS.
If Sony, HP and other PC vendors (Toshiba, Acer for example) were to license Intel Macs with OSX + Windows, that’s an IMMEDIATE market share boost for Apple.
F*cking brilliant.
Go ahead and license it. Because it doesn’t matter any more. The inherent design flaws of the x86 arcitechure will be the downfall of Jobs. What made Apple great was being better than the competition. x86 is flawed, and BSD already runs on Intel. Apple has doomed themselves to the same fate as the Commodore64 and the Osborne 1. One step forward and two steps back.