“The future success of Apple, Dell and Intel lies with a licensing deal between Steve Jobs’ company and the PC maker according to analyst Gartner,” Andrew Donoghue reports for ZDNet UK.
“Increasing component costs and pressure to cut its prices mean Apple’s best bet for long-term success is to quit the hardware business and license the Mac to Dell, analyst firm Gartner claimed on Tuesday,” Donoghue reports.
Donoghue reports, “In a surprisingly ambitious report, called Apple Should License the Mac to Dell, Gartner says Apple should concentrate on what it does best — create software — and make use of Dell’s production and distribution infrastructure. ‘Apple should leverage its close relationship with Intel and team up with Intel’s closest ally, Dell,’ the report states. ‘We recognise that this move would surprise and even shock many. We are aware that Steve Jobs cancelled previous Mac licences when he took over at Apple and that he guards the Apple brand zealously.'”
“Apple increased its share of the PC market to around 4.6 percent in July this year, according to analyst figures,” Donoghue reports. “Gartner claims that with the right partners, distribution channels and a more affordable price, computers running the Mac OS could eventually account for 20 percent of the total PC market.”
“Apple will not be able to substantially increase this growth on its own because of increasing pricing pressure, Gartner warns,” Donoghue reports. “Apple’s margins for its Mac business, currently around 40 percent, are only sustainable because component makers such as Intel choose to prop up the business, Gartner claimed.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Wow. “Surprisingly ambitious report?” More like “Surprisingly asinine report.” Nice to see that Gartner is finally realizing that Windows isn’t good enough, though. About two hours ago, Apple announced they had sold the largest quarterly number of Mac units in the company’s history. Dell is floundering. They jumped off the Intel Secretariat and onto the AMD glue horse at precisely the wrong time. Dell is not executing. Dell has no strategy. Apple became number one in Western Europe education earlier this year, pushing Dell down into second place. Dell has nothing of unique value. If Dell disappeared today, nobody but Dell employees would care and even they wouldn’t care after they found new jobs.
Comparable Macs cost less than Dell PCs already and Apple isn’t going to sell cut-rate Macs like Dell does with its loss-leader junk PCs. Dell is a commodity box assembler and a non-innovator. Dell PCs are, in short, mass-produced garbage with a badly faked, upside-down, and backwards Mac wannabe OS from Mafiasoft.
We have a better idea: Apple should continue to grow their hardware business, open more and more Apple Retail Stores worldwide, show the world Mac OS X for a change, license Mac OS X to nobody and, if they did license to select partners, never, ever license to beleaguered Dell. Dell should be left Mac OS X-less to flounder and wither and eventually die. What would we do with Dell? We’d shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders.
Related articles:
Apple Q4 earnings results: $546M net profit on $4.84B revenue, sold 1.61M Macs, 8.729M iPods – October 18, 2006
Dell feels the heat from Apple – October 04, 2006
Down, dumb Dell – September 25, 2006
Beleaguered Dell’s OS-limited PC sales ‘declining rapidly below expectations’ – analyst – September 21, 2006
Fortune compares Mac vs. Dell: ‘you’ll get more for your money with Apple’ – September 11, 2006
PC box assemblers like Dell and others wish Apple would license Mac OS X – August 31, 2006
AP: Time to think different, Apple Mac beats Dell on price, software compatibility, and more – August 23, 2006
Dell profit falls almost in half; announces informal SEC probe – August 18, 2006
Bear Stearns: Apple’s new Mac Pro, Xserve pricing well below comparable Dell systems – August 09, 2006
Dell warns of earnings miss; shares plunge 15% – July 21, 2006
Survey shows big jump in consumer interest in buying Apple Mac; Dell takes steep slide – July 06, 2006
The Channel Insider: Dell is no Apple – May 31, 2006
Dell warns 1Q earnings will miss mark; shares tumble – May 08, 2006
Apple passes Dell in market value – May 02, 2006
InformationWeek: Apple Mac run Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux; Dell and HP should be concerned – May 01, 2006
Dell shares fall as Citigroup cuts rating two full notches from ‘buy’ to ‘sell’ – April 21, 2006
Dude, you got a Dell? What are you, stupid? Only Apple Macs run both Mac OS X and Windows! – April 05, 2006
Dell acquires PC maker Alienware in bid to corner market on gaudy case designs – March 23, 2006
Apple Mac is #1 in European education market, pushes Dell down into second place – February 03, 2006
Fortune columnist doubts Apple CEO Jobs will let Michael Dell sell OS X anytime soon – June 23, 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
quit hardware business and license Mac OS X to Dell?! what the HELL is he talkin’ about?!
dude, you need to start buying higher quality crack!!
Gartner also suggested that Prez Bush publicly reveal himself as the second coming of Jesus. IOW, Delusional.
Okay, one more time for the village idiots…
Apple is a HARDWARE COMPANY!
Apple makes OS X for their hardware customers.
Apple makes iTunes and iTS for its iPod (hardware) customers.
Apple is a HARDWARE COMPANY!
“… open more and more Apple Retail Stores worldwide …”
Or perhaps they could partner up with their longtime Mac-only resellers rather than trying to put us out of business. Who was there in the bad times selling and promoting Apple products? Apple dealers were.
Gartner has just become retarded. Apple will never exit the hardware biz.
While Dell continues to outsell Apple 5 to 1 (all systems combined) Apple is executing better, leads in innovation and with better Windows support it has the most exciting future in the computer biz.
Dell is stock in the IT (where they do well) but their consumer market continues to slip. Heaven forbid that Apple decides to make a real push in the enterprise….
And oh!….Dell systems are cheap POS.
No, no, no, a thousand times NO. Dell is two years away from filing bankruptcy. Think I’m crazy? Dell shareholder equity has fallen from $6 billion in 2000 to $3.1 Billion today. Dell’s margins are falling, and its under investigation by the SEC for accounting irregularities (hiding employee compensation expense in the balance sheet). When those expenses are restated, and they will be, Dell will show loses for most of the last 5 years.
Dell is an accounting/manufacturing/marketing pariah. Think dead meat. If you must invest in DELL, short it.
Based on today’s numbers…
Last year, Apple sold 10 Macs every minute (24/7) and 5 of those customers have never owned a Mac before. In the past, roughly half of all new Mac owners were switchers, so for every hour of every day 150 Dells and HPs hit the dumpster after being replaced on the desk by a Mac…
1,325,000 people switched last year
1,325,000 people no longer worry about viruses or anti-virus updates
1,325,000 people are NOT having to reboot, reinstall or cry in their tea
1,325,000 people are smacking themselves in the head for not doing it sooner
To each of those 1,325,000 people, “Welcome!”
As a former Gartner employee I can tell you that most of these guys just make up stuff to get attention. Sort of like your kids.
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Yeah because what they are doing is CEARLY not working
In 1962, wasn’t it Gartner that said, “The Beatles should quit the music business and license all future songs to Jim Backus?”
Yeah, Apple will throw away their complete hardware/software solution and let Dell No do their 3rd party conglomerate building and distribution. What a bumbling idiot? This is a perfect example to just how dumb many of the sheep
are.
TO A Mac-only dealer
“Who was there in the bad times selling and promoting Apple products? Apple dealers were.”
I’d like to say that if it wasn’t for the loyalty of the customers, you guys would be out business long ago. Some of you dealers just blow (not saying you personally do but the odds are heavily against you). A really large number of the many dealers I’ve visited in Melbourne (Australia), really really really really suck.
In fact, some of you even operated in an illegal manner. Like, the time (this is going waaaaay back to 1990 and my first Mac purchase) when I wanted an internal HDD for my SE… it took one of your breathren 6 weeks to not deliver anything despite weekly phone calls and unkept promises of “next week” (this is even with a $100 deposit). I ended up going somewhere else and obtained a drive for a lot less, even taking into account the loss of $100 deposit which the original shop wouldn’t give back.
Also in Oz, … let’s take a look into Buzzle shall we?
Nuff said.
Unfortunately for this plan, Apple hardware is actually part of the brand. If you remove that, you also diminish the brand.
OS X in a dell? That’s like pulling the motor out of a Porsche 930 Turbo and putting it into a Yugo.
j
Gartner should get out of the analyst business. They should switch to selling balloon payment mortgages to Alzheimers sufferers.
This guys is just trolling for hits.
1. Apple is a hardware company.
2. Better yet, Apple is a systems compnay (hw + sw)
3. No way could Apple integrate its wonderful sw into that shitty beige box Dell assembles.
4. As a computer only company Apple was a 6, 7 billion business. Now as a computer (Mac hardware) and device (iPod hardware) company, it has become a 20 billion business.
5. Why the hell would it get out of the hardware production?!?
That guy is an utter moron…
I remember the late 80’s and early 90’s when Mac clones roamed the digital landscape. They went extinct, owing in large part to Steve Jobs wanting to maintain pristine Macness on machines running the Apple OS. I doubt Jobs will allow resurrection of these dinosaurs. I haven’t heard or read much about anyone developing OS X emulation software for PCs.
BWHHHAAAAAA HAAA! HAAA! HAAA! HAAA!!!!!!
Wait, wait – this is the same Dell that’s losing market share, has significant qualilty problems, is losing money, and can’t market its way out of a (beige) box?
BWHHHAAAAAA HAAA! HAAA! HAAA! HAAA!!!!!!
Are they talking about the same Apple that just blew away Wall Street expectations, sold 25% more Macs than 3Q last year, whose systems cost less, last longer, and are MUCH more attractive than Dell PCs, and which OWNS the music player market with iPod HARDWARE?
BWHHHAAAAAA HAAA! HAAA! HAAA! HAAA!!!!!!
Put Gartner on the Blue Collar Comedy Tour. That was good.
Just today walked a friend through pricing a Mac Pro tower against a closely configured Dell. He couldn’t believe that the Mac actually came in less. He bought it online, comes in next week.
Dell is toast this holiday season.
Don’t worry, will never happen anyway. This guy is just an idiot.
Gartner: long on DELL and praying for a miracle (that’ll never come).
FRED MERTZ:
Dude, that was priceless.
Thanks for the laugh – I needed it.
SB
A Mac-only dealer,
You may be a good, honest Mac dealer, but the fact is, you (Mac dealers) never sold enough Macs. Many dealers that were (are?) Mac authorized only got the authorzation so they could claim to support all brands for their corporate clients who might have 5 or 10 Macs in the Graphics department. I worked for one in the mid 90’s. For every Mac dealerthat sold large quantities of Macs, there were dozens that pushed clients towards PCs so they could profit from the huge billable hours that PCs generate in service calls and on-site consulting. Apple cannot and should not be expected to take that kind of ‘support’ lying down.
if apple licensed mac os to dell i will cut off my 3 inch hairy penis and ram it up my stretched anus. The next time i take a shit i will place my feces covered shaft in my mouth while receiving a facial cumshot from ballmer sweaty meat stick.
i will also urinate on a burning bible