“In the months since Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the Mac was making the seismic shift from PowerPC to Intel processors, the murmurs about the possible resurrection of the clones programme have been getting louder – but will the talk come to anything? The clones programme, whereby Apple licensed the Mac operating system to PC manufacturers to load on non-Apple hardware in return for a royalty on each computer sold, was abandoned in 1997 with the ‘second coming’ of Steve Jobs,” Seb Janacek writes for Silicon.com.
“Apple has flatly denied that the imminent shift to Intel chips heralds a longer term strategy to license its operating system to PC manufacturers,” Janacek writes. “Adding further spice to the speculation, Steve Jobs claimed earlier this year that three major PC manufactures had already approached him regarding the licensing of the Apple OS. Global PC market leader Dell is almost certain to have been one of them. The company’s chairman Michael Dell admitted this summer that he would be interested in selling PCs loaded with OS X.”
Janacek writes, “Advocates of a new clone programme claim the case is compelling and believe it affords the company the opportunity to renew hostilities in the OS wars at a time when Microsoft is relatively weak. Ten years on from the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft’s operating system is hamstrung by an ever-growing body of negative publicity about its system security problems and the enormous malware threat posed by a global army of virus writers. With OS X, Apple has delivered an operating system is usable, attractive to consumers and above all stable and secure. Each new iteration of the cat-themed OS has won new fans and advocates.
While security experts claim a genuine OS X virus is a possibility, they also admit it’s a very remote one given the robustness of the operating system’s Unix core.”
Janacek writes, “When it finally arrives, Vista is likely to offer an ‘OS X experience’ for PC users. In the same way that Windows 95 was the first version of Windows which came close to emulating the spirit of the Mac OS, Vista will no doubt woo consumers with its OS X-esque translucent windows. Many interface features appear so similar to OS X as to make little difference to most PC owners anyway.”
Full article here.
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MacDailyNews Take: Imagine that Apple licensed Mac OS X to Sony or HP in some way that would work for Apple and the licensee. While large business buyers would continue with Windows (the average IT guys we’ve met at large companies discount Apple completely except for the “art department”), such buyers would also have a main leg of their anti-Mac argument kicked out from under them. Mac OS X would no longer be available from a single hardware vendor.
For the consumer market, it’s important to remember that many people turn over their PCs every few years. While there is some amount of “lock-in” due to Windows-only software applications, the vast majority of users just use what came bundled on their PC appliance. This majority uses a PC to do basic things: surf the Web, send email, do their budget, some word processing, calendars, and, for the more advanced average users: manage and edit digital photos, organize and play music and maybe edit home movies.
We are very confident in stating that for the large majority of personal computer users, the Mac OS X platform would be vastly superior for their needs. They’ve bought the wrong platform with Windows, plain and simple; they just don’t know it or know what to do about it, yet. Sometimes we stand in Best Buy and watch them carting cardboard-boxed Windows machines to the register and we want to cry out to them, “What are you doing to yourself?! Please, put that back, we’ll help you!” It’s actually anguishing. Yeah, we know, we’re cult members who’ve drunk the Kool-Aid in 55-gallon drum allotments. Still, if you see someone hurting themselves, even if they don’t know they’re doing it, isn’t it natural to want to help them? Oh, the grief we could save if we could somehow stand in the Windows box aisles of every Best Buy, CompUSA, Circuit City, etc. all day and night! But, we digress.
Our point is that the “OS war” never ended, contrary to what pro-Microsoft sources want the world to believe. Apple and the Mac are still here, still way out in front, leading the way by a large margin, and growing unit sales and market share. It wouldn’t take much to get Joe and Jane Average to buy a Mac the next time their Windows PC slows to a crawl trying to run 550 adware and spyware apps simultaneously. The question, as always: what’s the most effective way to shake them awake and get them to realize that there is a much better way?
Is it cloning? Mac advertising? iPod’s Halo Effect? Word of mouth? Some combination of these and/or other ideas? What do you think?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
How Apple can win the OS war – October 19, 2005
Michael Dell say’s he’d be happy to sell Apple’s Mac OS X if Steve Jobs decides to license – June 16, 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
Windows users who try Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger might not want to go back – June 07, 2005
Advertising in the right manner in the right venues sells.
I enjoyed attack of the clones, yoda is green
I’ve finally accepted the Intel switch. And if Apple decides to license OS X, I think it would be good for Apple. Whatever it takes to get Apple’s total marketshare up to at least 50% is fine with me.
– Mark
I believe that licensing Mac OS X to other manufacturers would be kind of a last resort… the same way as allowing WMA into the iPod is.
Only if the tide shifted and Apple began to take a dive would these measures come to pass.
iPod halo effect + word of mouth until Apple gets into 8-10% market share and then drop da clone bomb!
Bye bye microshaft
Apple is a hardware company. Apple makes and sells computers. They do more than this, but they see themselves as a hardware company first.
If they allowed this licensing, it would hurt their business of selling hardware.
They won’t do it anytime soon without a philosophy change. (Although, a philosophy change is not impossible. They might decide they are a software company or a technology company…)
What Apple needs to do is a major TV ad blitz once the Intel based Macs are available. That would do more for them than cloning would. All that would accomplish is to water down the product. I’d consider cloning to be a last resort.
answer: no
The Mac clones came out when Jobs was not part of the company. If anything, they’re about controlling the whole widget now more than ever.
Mikie Dell was the one who said that Apple should close the company and give all the money back to shareholders. Now he wants to license OSX? What gives? I think Steve should demand an apology before even considering the impossible.
“Sometimes we stand in Best Buy and watch them carting cardboard-boxed Windows machines to the register and we want to cry out to them, ‘What are you doing to yourself?! Please, put that back, we’ll help you!’ It’s actually anguishing.”
As God is my witness, I have been there and felt exactly the same way, MDN! I want to help them, but I’m afraid they’ll treat me like an airport Krishna.
Selling OS X in a box for you to install on any x86 PC is not and has never been a good idea. But MDN’s idea of a controlled licensing system, for a narrow and specific group of models from a specific vendor, might have some merit. If Sony, say, would pledge that their small number of OS X-licensed models would hew to a specific set of hardware components, it would negate the problem Windows has with having to support thousands of different configurations, and also satisfy Apple that their OS was running on hardware of sufficient quality.
Appropriate MW: function
An Apple Europe guy told me for sure: there will be no clone-box running Mac OS X ..
Apple makes the whole widget, licensing is for the folks like M$ that don’t and can’t. I do not see why the whole widget can’t compte with patchwork approach more effectively in futre, just as iPod and iTunes has now. Licensing is a route to poor quality products.
yea but just imagine right now if dell shipped ALL there boxes and laptops with Tiger. guys i hate the monogomy of dell and there unimaginative ways, but think of the freaken market share, instantaneously. BOOM!! your on the level of microsoft in a heart beat.
I think they can do both. sell the os on other vendors boxes and also sell their own hardware. theres no lock-in really, apart from the rules apple make for themselves. ie the agreement to sell it to dell for a period of say 2 years as a trial. and whats the biggest app right now on the mac? its iTunes by far. run on windows? you bet! im sure this is what apple are thinking, let them see itunes on windows, then give them the whole OS, and see how they like that. and the best part of this is that bill gates can do absolutely nothing about it. he’ll have to sit back and watch people eventually upgrade there computers, and if they can get a mac, then why not. the only danger with that is if users can have windows and OSX then they might go that route if they need certain apps. certainly they wont go that route for reliability and user experience. but i dont think thats a huge problem.
we have to be open to this. i think it might happen.
I wanna beat these guys. apple is better and we know it. M$ is the big stupid bully that got lucky because of his size. its only a matter of time, and apple is the one to make the most of this. if they dont, then ill be pissed. now is the time and steve knows it.
one thing, weve got one of the best thinkers of the last 100 hundred years at least, ruling the direction of the company and setting the battle plan. im just looking forward to seeing steve kick bills ass repeatedley over the next few years. mwahahahahahahaaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ya… we all know that they are a HARDWARE company… but if they were a smart hardware company they would produce the best operating system ever (done)then they would liscense it to the masses, and assuming it IS the best and everyone gets hooked then they just stop liscensing it! If it all works out they become the HARDWARE king and sell more computers than anyone. Just because they gave everyone a taste.
What do you think?
Not sell it until sj retire.
One of the things that has made Jobs more successful now than back in the 80’s is that he is old, wiser and more pragmatic.
Want examples? How about flash ipods, the mac mini, the nano, the iTunes phone.
All of these items were at one point said by Jobs to be the wrong direction. Later on he realized the potential, introduced products and with the exception of the iTunes phone they have done well. Now the mini and the phone still need tweaking IMO, but I’m sure Apple already have demonstrated that they work and do not cannabalize existing products.
The last time clones were available, they hit the high end market for Apple which at the time was where they made their money. Things are different now. The iMac and laptops are the money maker and the high end machines are selling poorly. People buy Apple for easy of use and style. Whilst clone makers may be able to throw out cheap boxes or uber-powerful machines, they will struggle in the mid-range, sytle conscious market.
Therefore clones may be a way for Apple to rapidly increase its OS market share, which will help underwrite further OS development, without neccessarily damaging sales of its hardware.
My feeling is that when Jobs thinks the time is ready, he will let them loose. Same thing for other MP3 players and music stores.
it would be a pyrrhic victory….
Steve Jobs + Mac Clones? wouldn’t thaty go against everything he stopped when he came back to the company? No clones. Not now, not ever
The problem with letting Dell or Sony license OS X is both financial (getting the same gross margins as at least the Mac mini) and support related.
If you call Apple for customer support you get someone who works for Apple and wants to take care of you – or moves you up the tech support level if they can’t. Both Sony and Dell have poor support when compared to Apple and this can do nothing but diminish the Mac’s reputation.
I think Apple has too much growth in their future to worry about licensing OS X to anyone. When the Mactels arrive it’s going to be more than competitive with PCs and I believe they will blow out the door. It’s a good time for Apple – let ’em ride the wave.
Wow….I seem to remeber this topic from the giddy 90’s…anyway, I would rather not see osx on a Dull for one reson….hardware, Apple Intel machines will be built well with good pieces parts. Dells’s are built like crap with substandard components now. We all know that X is the best and most stable OS out there, because Apple builds the machines. Yeah sure crappy parts can run with it, BUT do you want to see an ACER usb bridge on X?? I sure as hell don’t.
If Steve has taught us nothing else in the past few years, he’s taught us to never say never. However, I don’t think they’ll license the OS again. As others have mentioned, they are more about controlling the whole widget than ever. I could maybe see allowing Sony or HP to do a few models, but I also have to wonder if maybe they’d do something like the iPod + HP where they produce and then rebrand them. I don’t know why they would want to do that, but who knows?
I think their best bet is to start advertising the OS. Stay away from ads for specific models and show people what can be done with a Mac.
One last thing. I want Apple’s market share to grow, but only to a certain level. I don’t want them to be as big as Microsoft because many companies tend to lose their soul when they get too big. There are a lot of problems that come with being the big dog. Apple, and us users, might be better off with them being a “niche player”. Microsoft is stuck in a rut largely due to their size and the number of legacy users they have. It’s hard to turn on a dime with the weight of the world on your back. Microsoft could never make switch from OS 9 to OS X, or PowerPC to Intel like svelte Apple. Vista has become little more than a service pack for precisely that reason.
Apple won’t license OSX…but there WILL be Macs that will natively run Windows…at least some flavor of Windows…doubtful much before XP (why?)… Apple needs to advertise in a way that truly educates rather than simply entices. What IS that way? Why not use the best spokesperson they have, Steve himself in a series of simple infomercials. They are a proven method of capturing and educating people about products. They work…and they are inexpensive to place on cable networks. Bring in John Mayer, Sheryl Crow and a couple of other stars to give it some panache, and demonstrate the clear superiority, lower total cost of ownership, ease of use, speed and general elegance. Show how the migration from Windows works…Show the products and how they work together. If produced well enough this alone could boost the market share considerably. TV spots are not enough. It’s too big a story to tell in 30 seconds.
I’d do THREE variations..one concentrating on home use…email, web surfing, photos, music..the second on business use with accounting, publishing, art uses, and the third that touches on those two but also includes the scientific uses…mostly to show credibility. I’d touch on security but really only in passing…No need to invite hackers…and do a direct buy offer that would be valid either online or instore, giving them an ipod of their choice AT COST with the purchase of ANY Macintosh system.
This, I assure you, would work.
“yea but just imagine right now if dell shipped ALL there boxes and laptops with Tiger. guys i hate the monogomy of dell and there unimaginative ways, but think of the freaken market share, instantaneously. BOOM!! your on the level of microsoft in a heart beat.”
Sigh. Not this again.
Let’s start at the beginning. Dell wants to sell inexpensive PCs. Windows is currently the most expensive component of any PC. Dell would love to get better pricing on this component. Unfortunately, there’s no competition–Microsoft sets the price and Dell has to pay it.
The only way that Apple could snatch Dell from the clutches of Microsoft is to price their product cheaper than Microsoft for OEMs. That means Apple makes less money per box sold.
Apple would also need to advertise Mac OS X. You think Dell is going to do this? Nope. Why not? Because, unless Dell makes more money selling Macs over Windows machines, why would they want to push them? Sure, they might add a “Get Mac OS X” to their ads, but that’s about it. So Apple will need to spend money on advertising to convince buyers to go to Dell and buy these machines. Remember that Apple will need to make up for the shortfall in revenue by selling in bulk. To move that bulk, Apple will have to spend more money.
Oh, and this assumes that Microsoft won’t race Apple to the bottom. Suppose Apple sells OEM Mac OS X for $75. Let’s say Microsoft drops it to $50. Dell would love this, of course, but Apple and Microsoft wouldn’t. Eventually, it would become a war of attrition and Microsoft has a war-chest that will allow it to survive a heck of a lot longer than Apple.
Personally, I think it’s a bad idea.
Jobs/Apple will never sell Mac OS on anything other than Apple hardware.
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