“A senior Dell Inc. executive on Tuesday said that his company is far behind rival Apple Computer Inc. in digital music, adding that the phenomenal success of Apple’s iPod music players have reinvigorated sales of Apple’s Mac computers,” Jim Finkle reports for Reuters.
“‘We’re obviously not competing very well,’ with the iPod, Dell Chief Financial Officer Jim Schneider said at a Raymond James investor conference in New York that was broadcast on the Internet,” Finkle reports. “‘Apple has come out with a nice product and I think it’s really turned their company around,’ he said, responding to analysts’ questions about Dell’s recent earnings disappointments. Dell last week said that third-quarter profit was down 28 percent, as sales to U.S. consumers dropped and business in the United Kingdom disappointed the company.”
Finkle reports, “Dell, the world’s largest PC maker, also issued a sales forecast that left some analysts wondering if the company has lost the growth momentum of recent years. By comparison, Apple posted record revenue and sales in its most recent quarter. Mac computers are showing their strongest sales in years, growth that some analysts say is driven by the iPod phenomenon. Sales of Mac desktop units climbed 56 percent from a year earlier and notebooks sales were up 48 percent in the fiscal fourth quarter. iPod sales tripled during the same period.”
Full article here.
Advertisements: Apple iPod nano. 1,000 songs. Impossibly small. From $199. Free shipping.
The New iPod with Video. The ultimate music + video experience on the go. From $299. Free shipping.
Wait a sec, we thought that the official line out of Dell via CEO Kevin Rollins’ trap is that Apple has a “one-product wonder” with the iPod and that it’s a “fad?” Did Rollins approve these new statements by Dell CFO Jim Schneider? Hope somebody packed Schneider’s golden parachute before he jumped to state the truth. And where’s that wannabe-Steve-Jobs-but-never-will Michael Dell? Still begging for Mac OS X for Intel? Altogether now: Shut down the company, Mr. Dell, and give the money back to the shareholders! (What, you thought we’d just forget?)
Why is Apple different from Dell? Apple is not a commodity box assembler wholly dependent on another company to supply an operating system that strives unsuccessfully to be like a Mac. Apple innovates and pushes the industry forward and they haven’t set the company up to become a future lunchtime snack for Lenovo.
“We’re coming after you, you’re in our sights.” – Apple CEO Steve Jobs speaking about Dell, November 10, 1997. (source)
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Struggling Dell has lost its mojo while Apple shows rapid growth – November 07, 2005
Apple growing faster with more innovative products, better support than ‘one-trick pony’ Dell – November 01, 2005
IDC: Apple shows rapid growth, holds 4.3% U.S. market share on 48% growth – October 17, 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
Why buy a Dell when Apple ‘Macintel’ computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
Apple Macs are less expensive than Dell PCs – April 25, 2005
Dell CEO: Apple can’t just have one product and then say they’re the innovative leader of the world – February 22, 2005
BusinessWeek: Rather than dismissing Apple products as fads, Dell should try starting a few – January 31, 2005
Dismissive Dell CEO not impressed with Apple Mac mini, calls iPod a ‘one-product wonder’ and a ‘fad’ – January 17, 2005
Michael Dell owes Apple an apology; Apple up 176 percent vs. Dell’s 13 percent in past 12 months – January 15, 2005
This is just a blip in the PC industry while everyone waits for the next Microsoft Windows upgrade.
I remember when Steve Jobs got up on stage and said Apple was gonna innovate out of the recession the industry was in. It’s evident that he had a long term plan, and when you think about it, it was a huge gamble for them. How does one pitch long term innovation to the board of directors, who generally see things for the next quarter or two? However they did it, and they did it well and so deserve the credit they are currently getting for the iPod and Mac range (even taking into account the sometimes lousy CPU offerings dished up by Motorola and IBM.)
Comparing this to most other computer companies – HP/Compaq, Dell – most of them have seen poor growth because innovation and product development mainly consists of slapping the next fastest CPU from Intel with the next fastest video card from nvidia etc and larger hard drives and so forth. Since Intel hit a brick wall in CPU speed increases as well, the main driving force has been taken away. In fact, graphics cards have probably seen the most innovation in recent years and desktop PCs used in offices don’t really need ultra fast 3D.
Plus, most businesses are probably already reasonably happy with their computers and they run all that they could possibly need (vertical markets excepted of course). Standard office related software hasn’t really changed all that much for about 10 years, other than the file formats forming a quasi-need for upgrades. Not a bad scam Microsoft. [I am presuming a company’s computers are behind firewalls etc and are properly protected, so that security isn’t a huge concern on a day to day basis. Yes, there are companies in this position.]
That said, they’ll no doubt see a spike in sales in 2007 when many sheep…. err, users will update their computers to run Windows Pasta. It will need to be a very compelling update for businesses, since many probably don’t see a need to upgrade and have been burned by MS BS before. Not to mention the effort involved in moving several hundred PCs to a new OS. Security will be a big reason many will upgrade (coz even if their current setup is reasonably secure, they’ll believe they can always use more). This reason more so than the other (non-)features Pasta will bring. Larger corporate customers with close ties to Microsoft will probably be upgrading sooner than everyone else to get the “everyone else” crowd all feeling it’s safe to do so. Not forgetting that the new Office files won’t open on the older versions.
Apple probably has a clear run until the end of 2006 when Pasta comes out. I expect to see manufactures such as Dell selling “Vista ready” PCs sometime in the coming year to boost sales (and if they don’t they probably deserve to keep moving backwards… it’s a tremendous marketing opportunity.)
That is unless something weird happens like they start to ship OS X boxes.
“The only way Apple will become a commodity box assembler just like Dell is if they stop developing OS X and instal Linux or BSD Unix or Windows on their hardware. Peter, are you suggesting that is going to happen?”
Certainly not. But there will be no difference between Macintoshes and other Intel-based PCs anymore. You won’t be able to say, “My Mac is twice as fast as your PC.” It will all be in the operating system. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you–Apple will be in control of it’s destiny, for good or bad. No more, “Well, yeah, Macs are slow but the next generation will be awesome.”
The question is, will Apple be able to differentiate Mac OS X over Windows Vista enough for it to make sense to buy a Mac over Windows? Because they’ll no longer be able to say, “Buy a Mac, it’s faster!”
If not, it may be Windows 95 all over again…
Can you say Viruses?
Isn’t true that there are ALREADY viruses for Windows Vista even though it’s still in beta? It won’t matter how much of an OSX clone Vista will be, if it’s susceptable to viruses, people will want to go to mac, as they are now.
Peter, Apple will differentiate by design and by the number of easy-to-use user capabilities that are available right out of the box – enabled by Apple software running on a Intel-based commodity box but with additional hardware features. The built-in iSight camera and Photobooth is just a first sign of more things to come. (Although a camera is not new – some Sony Vaios had integrated cameras and software; Sony just never seemed to tie it together with aspirational marketing.)
Sure, the other box makers can copy Apple by adding the extra hardware. But they won’t have Apple’s software, of which there is more to come.
Roman, stop being a numbnut.
Viruses etc. have nothing to do with the CPU and everything to do with the operating system. OS X is basically Unix underneath and there are lots of Unix flavours already running on Intel etc with no problems. Microsoft is the problem. Not Intel or AMD.
“Apple will differentiate by design and by the number of easy-to-use user capabilities that are available right out of the box – enabled by Apple software running on a Intel-based commodity box but with additional hardware features. […] the other box makers can copy Apple by adding the extra hardware. But they won’t have Apple’s software […]”
“Additional hardware features”? Such as…? iSight cameras?
Never underestimate consumer ignorance. If Dell bundles a webcam and some software with it, people will look at that and say “See? It’s the same!” Yes, we know it isn’t. But most people will not. Need an example? Three little words–“Microsoft Movie Maker.”
Remember when “Windows 95 = Mac ’89”? It was, at the time, widely considered that Microsoft had caught-up to–or even surpassed–Apple with it’s release of Windows 95. Those of us who used Macs knew better–the Mac still had real plug-and-play and a much better user interface. But to most of the world, they were “equal.”
“See? I have long file names. I have icons, menus, windows, and push-buttons. It’s just like your Mac.” Yeah, until you need to add a printer, but by then it’s too late.
But one thing that made the Mac better was PowerPC. For graphics horsepower, there was absolutely no comparison. Intel tried with MMX, which wasn’t bad, but it was full of little gotchas–some might remember Intel’s Photoshop benchmarks with MMX showing it trouncing a PowerMac for things like 2-pixel blurs, but it was only fast for powers of two. 3-pixel blurs made it crawl. That was one thing that helped Apple during those dark days–if you needed horsepower for graphics, you used a Mac.
I know of a few diehard Mac graphics designers who are already nervous. Their IT department is already making noises about using them as guinea-pigs in a switch to Vista. After all, Macs won’t be any faster than Windows machines, so they can’t use that excuse to keep them. And that “touchy-feely” Macs are easier to use crap won’t win over the accounting department. And if they’re going to have to invest in new Mac OS X software anyway, why not just buy the Windows versions and be done with it?
I’ll admit, this is an example of an IT Department that doesn’t like Macs in a corporation. They’ve been looking for reasons to have a full Microsoft environment for awhile. But they’re gathering their ammo for the switch and the graphic artists are nervous…
“Viruses etc. have nothing to do with the CPU and everything to do with the operating system.”
Well… sort of…
Getting nasty code to run usually involves “tricking” the processor with things like buffer overruns on the stack. Arguably, PowerPC is less dependent on the stack because it has a reasonable number of registers compared with the register-starved Intel designs. I know that there are some cases where the GCC compiler will use registers to hold return addresses to make things faster. You can’t hose a return address if it’s in a register. But it’s really compiler/optimizer specific…
It will be interesting to see if Apple takes advantage of the NX bits of Intel CPUs (which they got from AMD).
Generally speaking, though, you’re right. Even if you can get nasty code to run, the operating system still should make sure you can’t hurt yourself.
…Windows Pasta… ROTFLMAO!!!
Well, Richard Brand^son has a plan that he believes is foolproof because, so his thinking goes, with the VIRGIN brand, everyone will want in on it.
MW: slowly, now … sloowly. Be gentle with me babe.
He says Dell are far behind.
When in reality they are not even in the race in the first place!
I don’t like p;osting this late in the game, but this quote is spot on.
there will be no difference between Macintoshes and other Intel-based PCs anymore. You won’t be able to say, “My Mac is twice as fast as your PC.” It will all be in the operating system.
When Dell’s and mac’s are running on the same hardware, the discussion will move to the ONLY thing different between them, and that will be the OS.
OSX 10.5.0 is being introduced at the same time Vista is supposed to be introduced. Frankly, I see 10.5 being introduced long before Vista hits the street. Whatever. You have to believe that Apple has capabilities built into 10.5 that will make Vista look like WinME in comparison.
Apple has a five+ year head start over MSFT in developing an OS for the future. With the way MSFT manages its coding operations, they will never be able to bridge the gap.